Malapascua - way to donate a $ or two

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Wantonmien

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Philippines (Ex Taiwan & Oz)
# of dives
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Guys and Gals,

We have all seen the devastation parts of the Philippines have encountered and they need help.

Many of us divers have been to Malapascua, and many of us can donate a $ or two to help get the lives back in order over there - please check the link below, and please donate a $ or two - as it will go a long way !

Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Fundraiser | Other - YouCaring.com
 
I would be VERY CAREFUL and research who you donate to. Scammers are coming out of the woodwork. There are places who will report how much of every dollar goes to the actual relief effort. I would stick to the bigger international orgs.
 
The international organizations are good too. Unless you want to know where your money goes.
The people at Thresher Shark Divers are good friends to a lot of divers. What they collect goes directly to the people of Malapascua. Otherwise they will be forgotten because their island was not the worst hit area. But they still need help. The people on that island that lost their houses are the behind the scenes of the dive shops and resorts too. They work directly or indirectly to ensure that dive vacations are great, beer is cold and fish is fresh.

While i have only spoke to andrea at TSD via email I will get a face to face in 40 days when I arrive there to help out. I will get to see what they have accomplished. Hopefully they can use an engineer and a gardener.
 
I would be VERY CAREFUL and research who you donate to. Scammers are coming out of the woodwork. There are places who will report how much of every dollar goes to the actual relief effort. I would stick to the bigger international orgs.

I'd rather donate to the expats I know on the island, safe in the knowledge that 100% of the funds will be spent on emergency care. I also gave generously to the aid agencies, but I expect that a large share of that will be "diluted" before it reaches the people in need.
 
The Youcaring site was set up by Andrea and Trevor at Thresher Shark Divers. There is another site set up by Exotic Divers. I dove with Thresher Shark Divers a few years ago and I trust that the money donated through the dive shops will go directly to assisting the residents of Malapascua. Each individual must gauge if & how they would like to assist those impacted by the Typhoon. I donated through TSD because I have been to the island and want my donation to help the residents there.
 
I would be VERY CAREFUL and research who you donate to. Scammers are coming out of the woodwork. There are places who will report how much of every dollar goes to the actual relief effort. I would stick to the bigger international orgs.

Allison, I have dived with the Thresher Shark Dive centre on that island who set up that fund, and they are reliable - personally I would rather donate through such organisation than the international orgs, but each to their own. cheers.
 
Yes, the dive shops on the island seem to be a bit competitive in business and in raising relief funds. That's o.k. there is a lot of work to do on the island in recovery. The only reporting I've seen of North Cebu is on the BBC web site and they don't even mention Malapascua. So these Scuba Shops are the best resource the island has and they are really pulling out the stops to get food supplies and other resources up there. I have visited Malapascua 14 times since 2004 first diving with Andrea and Trevor when they were running Bubble07 before deciding to set up their own shop. I'll give my own donation to Andrea in person when I'm in Cebu next week because Malapascua needs it and Leyte is getting huge international attention and assistance. I know everyone on the board has their favorite dive shop but they are all well run shops and I look forward to diving on Malapascua within the next year to see how far they've come from the present.
 
I'd rather donate to the expats I know on the island, safe in the knowledge that 100% of the funds will be spent on emergency care. I also gave generously to the aid agencies, but I expect that a large share of that will be "diluted" before it reaches the people in need.


That is certainly your choice. Ex-pats have no one to really answer to, however. Maybe I am cynical, but I would worry about uncontrolled donations going for more private interests than public. Even good friends can make bad decisions when money is involved.
 
I think it's fair to say that international aid agencies with CEOs and HR Directors on 6 figure salaries, enormous advertising campaigns and huge fleets of Toyota Landcruisers scattered around the globe can also make bad decisions with other people's money.

If you're in doubt, read a bit about the use of aid as a political weapon in Darfur or South Sudan for example, or the competition between aid agencies for resources in Ethiopia, or the incredibly cynical response to the Hutu refugee camps being destroyed by the Niyaragongo eruption in Eastern DR Congo after the Rwandan genocide.

I'm not saying everyone in the aid industry is cynical, selfish, or corrupt, but like any multinational corporation operating in the developing world, many are.

Just because you give your money to a big name charity doesn't mean it's safe, nor does it mean all, or nearly all of it, or frankly any of it will go where you intend. It certainly doesn't mean it'll go to the hardest hit areas or those that need it most and I think that's the advantage of giving to expats in some of the remote areas - there's more chance of your money going to people who really need it and who won't be getting a handout from one of the big names.
 
Which is why I SAID to research how much of any dollar given really reaches the people who need it. I am still mad at the Red Cross. I gave money for a certain disaster help, only to learn later that they used a lot of that money to pay for a fancy new phone system. NOT what I gave it for. BUT, small unlicensed charities have no control on what they do with funds.
 
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