Ed and I donate money to an organization called the International Medical Corps. I found out about the IMC from a college friend whose father worked for them -- Jason's father was one of the first western doctors to arrive in Kabul after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. There are a lot of international relief organizations, but things I particularly like about the IMC:
* They provide immediate relief, but with a strong orientation towards building self-sufficiency. In other words, part of what they do is to train local people to provide services, and help to rebuild the infrastructure.
* They focus on mental health care, not just physical health care. Both in terms of providing treatment for PTSD in areas that have seen disasters, wars, and other traumas, but in terms of teaching local providers about medications to treat depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.
* They recognize that maternal and infant health are pretty much inseparable. In emergency situations, there are a lot of organizations that respond to malnourished mothers with malnourished infants by having them wean, if they're breastfeeding, and give the babies infant formula; IMC provides breastfeeding support, feeding the mothers and NOT having them wean (or supplement) as in developing nations this can be utterly disastrous for the baby.
* They are extraordinarily efficient; they do almost no fundraising (they do grantwriting, instead, and are supported heavily by the Gates Foundation). As a corollary to this, they don't bug us by calling us up, they don't ask us for more money constantly throughout the year, and they don't sell our name.
I don't have any medical training, so I really can't join the IMC to go out and provide health care. Even if I did, international relief is not a practical career choice for someone with little kids. But, we donate to them, and I tell people about them because I think they're an awesome group. Decreasing world suck is a good description of their central mission.
More locally, I volunteer every week in Molly's classroom.
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* They provide immediate relief, but with a strong orientation towards building self-sufficiency. In other words, part of what they do is to train local people to provide services, and help to rebuild the infrastructure.
* They focus on mental health care, not just physical health care. Both in terms of providing treatment for PTSD in areas that have seen disasters, wars, and other traumas, but in terms of teaching local providers about medications to treat depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.
* They recognize that maternal and infant health are pretty much inseparable. In emergency situations, there are a lot of organizations that respond to malnourished mothers with malnourished infants by having them wean, if they're breastfeeding, and give the babies infant formula; IMC provides breastfeeding support, feeding the mothers and NOT having them wean (or supplement) as in developing nations this can be utterly disastrous for the baby.
* They are extraordinarily efficient; they do almost no fundraising (they do grantwriting, instead, and are supported heavily by the Gates Foundation). As a corollary to this, they don't bug us by calling us up, they don't ask us for more money constantly throughout the year, and they don't sell our name.
I don't have any medical training, so I really can't join the IMC to go out and provide health care. Even if I did, international relief is not a practical career choice for someone with little kids. But, we donate to them, and I tell people about them because I think they're an awesome group. Decreasing world suck is a good description of their central mission.
More locally, I volunteer every week in Molly's classroom.