CEO's Tsunami Update

Thursday January 6, 2005

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FILE: CEO ASIA REPORT 6 JAN 2005
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WORLD EMERGENCY RELIEF
CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S FIELD REPORT
HONG KONG 6 JANUARY 2005

We continue to fulfill our niche strategy, and I am extremely proud of Gary, Andrea and Wendell, now in Sri Lanka, where they are working with local medical staff, buying clothes for kids, and arrange significant water purification strategy. More details will follow as I have them, but I know we are working on emergency goods in several areas. Gary does report a positive strategy meeting with the Prime Minister and the local purchase of $3,000 (USD) of basic clothing (children’s T-shirts and adult underwear).

• WER’s US and UK offices are today prioritizing targeted shipments to schedule smooth and proper delivery to Sri Lanka, plus Thailand and probably Indonesia, in the next two weeks. I’m expecting about 800,000 pounds to be shipped, value “to be determined”. As always, we are shipping ONLY quality goods requested by appropriate officials or local agencies, to preauthorized consignees we trust. Food will have great shelf life (“Best by” dating), clothing will be new, anything medical will also have one-year shelf life.

I had an interesting morning, live on CNN International. The host was great, warned we would talk about relief and international debt reduction. I suggested that would be hard to cover in four minutes, and he agreed. So we talked a lot about the current strategy of UN and governments appointing some kind of “Relief Czar”, a single person to organize the entire global effort.

We talked a bit about why logistics for delivery are so difficult. I mentioned, among other things, airport capacity to receive cargo, Customs delays, corruption, inappropriate goods sent. Etc. I’ve heard of one country which is insisting that most incoming cargo be consigned to the government, which will only hurt aid to their citizens because many NGOs (including WER) can’t do that because of legal/ethical “audit trail” requirements for reporting to donors and regulators.

• And this doesn’t start to consider ever-changing supply situations in every disaster zone.

CNN was also a bit shocked when I suggested that idea is virtually impossible. Politics are involved, as well as control over massive resources (goods and soon to come government millions form around the world). Where is the anti-corruption guarantee? Private agencies each have their own skill sets to offer, much less what their donors ask them to do with donations. Could an outside “Czar” tell us how to use our resources, in conflict with donors’ preferences?

• What about policy? As a faith-based organization, we would be concerned that an outsider could “recommend” that we do something contrary to our personal and charitable ethical standards.

Meanwhile, off air afterwards, we talked a bit about what WER is doing, and I mentioned the “embraceable community” concept, as well as our work to support aid workers with clean clothes, safe boots, etc. Both anchors lit up when I mentioned these concepts, I hope we can get a chance to further tell our story of how we are helping in ways others either ignore or are not otherwise able to address.

Thanks for your continued prayer and encouragement, especially to our on-ground team and for those we able to reach.

Joel

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