help tsunami victims in se asia

My place was hit but I was lucky coz I lived on the inner part of the state. We lost less than 100 people. But we had fundraisers in my university and we raise RM6000 (approx US Dollar 1600) in cash (it may sound little but it is a huge sum here), 8 car loads of clothes and 8 car loads of food and medicine within 4 hours. Talk about coming together.
It is easy to do. As long as you have the dedication and compassion.

I volunteered with World Concern, an organization that sends money and clothing to third world countries. In times of disaster, such as the recent tsunami, they also send medical supplies and emergency kits. I helped sort clothing for four hours and was surprised to discover that they will only send articles in perfect shape. That means if it has even so much as a bit of dried spaghetti sauce on it and you can’t get it clean with your finger, it goes into a scrap pile to be donated to a recycling plant who will use it for scraps. The recycling plant gives the organization money in exchange, which is good, but I was still extremely uncomfortable having to throw quality clothing into a scrap pile. Volunteering was fun because some of the clothing was pretty comical: leather pants and thriller jackets, and the people were all really nice. It was also humbling to realize that this organization does this year round no matter what natural events occur. They need help all the time and it’s sad they have a hard time finding it most times in the year. It takes a tsunami to get people to help them, when in reality, poverty and hunger are disconnected from any particular event or disaster and exist no matter what.

Since I’m a poor student right now far away in Seattle, there is very little I can do to help the people who are suffering through the recent disaster in Indonesia. I found a local organization that needs volunteers to donate time to help pack and load pallets full of medical supplies and clothing to be shipped to Sri Lanka. They need volunteers for either morning or afternoon shifts (8-12 or 1-4) M-F, but Seattle area folks who want to help first need to call to schedule a time to come in. It was good to hear that they were full until Tuesday. I scheduled time for Tuesday afternoon.