Japan March 11, 2011 Jill Sending prayers and positive thoughts their way. Anyone know of good local relief organizations worth donating to?
the Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations on their site. I haven’t come across any US organizations yet.
My go-to orgs are: 1. Doctors Without Borders. Japan is a wealthy country, but DWB has experience providing care in terrible conditions. 2. ShelterBox. First priority for those who’ve lost their homes is getting them a place to stay. Everything else comes later. Both are, to the best of my knowledge, 100% secular organizations.
Please don’t donate to the Red Cross. They have a history of denying aid to trans folks. Good organizations to donate to: http://peacewindsamerica.org/support/ http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
Alyssa, do you have more information on the Red Cross and trans people? I’d love to know more, but a quick google search didn’t yield much.
I think it’s irresponsible to post negative innuendo about the Red Cross right now. Either substantiate your allegations or shut up and let people send their money that way, where it can do good quickly.
I don’t know about the Red Cross and trans people, but I helped with tsunami relief in South India after the 2005 disaster and the International Red Cross seemed one of the most ineffectual and disorganized groups. The only large multinational relief organizations I can recommend donating to after that experience are Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF (who showed up almost instantly after the disaster with endless supplies of drinking water for the entire town, while the Red Cross showed up a week later with a completely unnecessary water truck which just drove around with a big Coca-Cola logo painted on the side). I prefer donating to local groups whenever possible.
I am just relaying the words of trans women. If oppressed people tell me someone discriminates against them and refuses to give them aid in a crisis that’s good enough for me. Re: trans women being denied aid during crisis: http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?cat=40 I suggested other orgs that do provide aid without discrimination. I will leave it at that. @Rhoanna I couldn’t find a comprehensive link on it, but the MSM has a history of ignoring discrimination for certain groups. The link above has info about trans women being denied aid in Chile. If you want to know more try following @metalmujer @lilithvf1998 @HeroicMuse and @KarariKue on twitter
That link doesn’t say anything about the Red Cross or name any organization or even say that the women were discriminated against for being trans. Again, it’s wrong to spread rumors based on no evidence, especially when those rumors discourage people from donating to the kind of large international relief orgs that are most able to provide aid quickly in a crisis.
Direct Relief International has a good reputation: http://www.directrelief.org/EmergencyResponse/2011/JapanEarthquakeTsunami.aspx
I didn’t even see Red Cross mentioned on that link and am really not seeing anything damning even if it was mentioned. I’m sure a lot of people fall through the cracks in the first stages of disaster response, no matter how admirable the responding agencies. I don’t see any evidence there that transwomen were being told they could not receive help because they were trans, for instance. And again, Red Cross wasn’t even mentioned. What I DID notice was that the people who wrote that news release wanted money deposited into THEIR bank account. Hmm. This is really NOT a time to be edgier than thou. Donate to different groups if you want, and throw their names out as suggestions for others who want to spread their money around. But badmouthing THE major disaster response organization at this time, with nothing but innuendo at that, is just selfish and irresponsible.
These two blogs are very good about evidence-based aid and relief and I think the posts they’ve already put up about the quake are very worth reading: http://blog.givewell.org/2011/03/11/japan-earthquaketsunami-disaster-relief-donations/ http://goodintents.org/disaster/the-dos-and-donts-of-disaster-donations
Oh great. So on a thread about disaster relief in Japan, we get cis people demanding that we trans people keep our mouths shut.
From one of the posts linked by PharoahKatt (boldface mine): In addition, the ARC relies heavily on religious organizations, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention, to provide actual disaster relief services not related to medical needs. Hence why we saw widespread discrimination during the Katrina Relief effort towards LGBT persons, especially transgender evacuees in Houston, who were subject to arrest just for showing up and asking for help. Even LGBT volunteers (myself included) had to be “redeployed” home, because of said discriminatory behaviors. Is that enough proof for you, Astrid? Or are you in this game just for the chance to tell trans* folk to shut our traps?
Just a note: there is no global “The Red Cross”. The American Red Cross has only a loose affiliation with any other national Red Cross or Red Crescent society. I don’t know how the other Red Crosses measure up on this. Today was the first I heard about the American Red Cross having a problem with systematic discrimination (and it did specify the ARC). By all means, if the others have problems, please point it out — I couldn’t find anything else.
Habitat for Humanity is always on the scene right after a disaster, and long after – temporary subsistence and permanent housing.
Right, me caring about disaster victims getting help, and about backing up accusations with some kind of fact instead of just shit-slinging is all just a front for how much I want to “tell trans people to shut their trap.” Here’s a clue: it’s not about you. And thinking it IS all about you is a sign of a fucking personality disorder.
Astrid Chelonian: And thinking it IS all about you is a sign of a fucking personality disorder. Wow. Ableist much?
Astrid Chelonian: Right, me caring about disaster victims getting help, and about backing up accusations with some kind of fact instead of just shit-slinging is all just a front for how much I want to “tell trans people to shut their trap.” Here’s a clue: it’s not about you. And thinking it IS all about you is a sign of a fucking personality disorder. Or. . . You could admit that you were wrong and apologize. You accused someone who was trying to protect trans victims of this natural disaster of lying. You didn’t look into it yourself, you just assumed that ze was lying and spreading false rumors. But you were wrong. Usually the appropriate response is an apology.
Here is an article that lists the various relief organizations that are sending help, expertise, and/or supplies. Some are orgs you might not want to support–such as the Salvation Army. But Médecins Sans Frontières and Mercy Corps (in Japan, Peace Winds Japan) is among them. I am going to ask the folks who are so concerned about the disaster victims to do something constructive (find other orgs that are also helping) and stop lecturing trans people. I have friends in Yokohama, I cannot reach them, and if you think that acting like a lecturing douchebag on the internet is helping, I can guarantee you, it is not.
Folks in Yokohama are likely ok. The quake was a 5 here, with only minor damage. Here are some local and international groups if you want to donate:The following international sites are recommended: Canpan Fields (Japanese NPO) Save the Children Non-Believers Giving Aid (scroll down the page for Japan earthquake relief) NGO Jen (in English and Japanese) International Medical Corps
I just looked on the Doctors Without Borders site, and they say that the medical sitch is more or less under control. The biggest need is for stuff like food and temporary shelter. I say again, ShelterBox.
In case anyone is interested, Repair the World is a Jewish-based org. dedicated to volunteering and service. This page lists Jewish and non-Jewish groups accepting contributions and distributing aid. http://werepair.org/blog/help-japan-now/5670
Re. the ARC, it looks (from the links) like the primary problems were due to a lot of the work being channeled through local religious (read: Christian) organizations. It seems like this would be much less of a problem in Japan than in, for example, the American South or Haiti. Obviously that wouldn’t solve any moral objections to the ARC as a whole, but practically speaking that might make the ARC’s contribution to this particular situation less problematic.
Kristen J.: Or. . . You could admit that you were wrong and apologize. You accused someone who was trying to protect trans victims of this natural disaster of lying. You didn’t lookinto it yourself, you just assumed that zewas lying and spreading false rumors. But you were wrong. Usually the appropriate response is an apology. Astrid didn’t accuse anyone of lying. Astrid simply asked for evidence. Astrid never said he/she didn’t look into it. Rhoanna looked into it and didn’t find anything. I looked into it and the only two links I found were, ironically, of people who are baffled that there’s this claim out there about the Red Cross and trans people and but they can’t find any evidence themselves, either. Actually, I did find a claim on tumblr that ACR turned away a gay person, but nothing on trans people. I understand why Astrid was banned given the policy and the history of this site, but it’s not unreasonable to ask for evidence. So far all we have is an anonymous claim on the Internet about the ACR, which as has been pointed out does not represent all the Red Cross. So we still have no evidence that the Red Cross in Japan discriminates against trans people.
Apparently in Guatemala, transgender people work for the Red Cross and are victimized by hate crimes in that capacity: “Acts of violence and attacks are repeated week after week, day after day. A group of men similar in appearance and build to those who threatened Johana attacked a group of transgender women a week later. They were standing in a group on a main road when the group of men approached them and started shooting. They all managed to escape, but one was wounded in the arm. Something similar happened to Red Cross transgender people, who were threatened recurrently by men driving a red car, their faces covered by balaclavas. ” http://healthdev.net/site/post.php?s=6637
Tony…accusing someone of spreading negative innuendo is equivalent to saying they are lying in my book. Asking for evidence would sound more like. “That’s terrible. Where did you hear that!”
Kristen, Astrid expressed herself in a colorful way which is understandable from a certain point of view, but in her next sentence she did ask for further substantiation, which leads me to believe that she was genuinely interested in an answer and had not simply, at that point, reached the conclusion that Alyssa was “lying”. I agree that her comment at #21 was inappropriate.
The Red Cross also runs shelters for asylum seekers in Germany, under terrible conditions which serve profit maximization rather than humanitarian relief. They resell donated clothes in India, at prices that wreck the local garment industries. They have a horrible track record with all kinds of marginalized groups. Also, I honestly don’t think money donations from individuals are what Japan needs. They need all kinds of technical support on a larger scale that you and I can really influence. Money, they have more than they know what to do with.