Our principles

World Emergency Relief receives hundreds of urgent aid requests every year from deserving people in the U.S. and overseas. Each project WER embraces must be fully accountable for its' own program integrity. Our staff and field workers follow over 30 procedures to deliver a single shipment of emergency supplies from the U.S. to a foreign port - not including the additional effort (and costs) to get our goods from port to project, often over jungle roads or through an active war zone. Our domestic programs, both disaster relief and for Native Americans, are held to similar levels of accountability.

• We developed our “Seven Basic A’s” for program selection in 1985, which we expanded to "Eight Basic A's" in 2001. Each of our projects must meet:

  Asking

  We must be asked to help. Otherwise, we can’t possibly know what aid to deliver, where, when or to whom. WER never ships for the sake of shipping.

  Accessability

  Can our supplies be safely delivered and stored under adverse circumstances? Will local laws or practices (i.e., Customs delays or organized crime) hinder our work?

  Acceptability 

  Will our efforts be accepted locally? American aid is not welcomed resource in some cultures.

  Availability

  Can WER get appropriate resources to do our job? Can we meet the requests of our project colleagues for specific needs? We will never knowingly ship junk.

  Affordability

  Resources must be used wisely and committed carefully. In any WER outreach, we strive to avoid commitments we can't meet; Solid hope isn't built on shaky promises.

  Appropriateness 

  Is the proposed outreach a proper effort for a charity representing the United States of America? Would our donors be pleased or offended by a particular effort?

  Accountability

  Will our resources reach the people we are determined to help and be properly used? Will we get field reports? Are site visits possible, even in war zones? Can we meet regulatory and audit standards, both in the U.S. and overseas?

  Anti-terrorism

  Can our prospective partners supply adequate information proving that our resources are not directly OR indirectly helping terrorists, drug causes, or money laundering?
   

  Furthermore, our partner charities must fully subscribe, to the AERDO standards for Gifts-in-Kind (see www.aerdo.net) and sign a program agreement assuring that the donated items will be distributed without charge to the poor and needy.

  Not every group works this way, and we respect other methods. However, this approach works for us and assures our donors of their maximum positive impact on troubled lives.