Of course any time there is a natural disaster of this scale people want to know what they can do to help. Many volunteers have already been hard at work filling sandbags to protect houses. Here in Morrilton a group managed to stop a leak in the levee by building a wall on the outside to equalize the pressure and stop water from flowing through. Their efforts protected the town of Oppelo and hundreds of acres of farmland. But not everyone is able to fill sandbags and go neck deep into the flood waters to fix levees. Because we all want to help bring relief to the people who have lost their homes and livelihoods, people begin asking where they can send donations. But despite relief organizations asking people not to send clothes, I keep seeing people on Facebook asking where they can send used clothes to help the flood victims.
Although people wanting to send clothes mean well, the problem is that clothing donations are not practical. Clothes take up valuable space that could be used for more necessary items. They take up valuable time, as volunteers spend hours sorting through donations, and throwing out clothes that are too ragged or stained to give away (yes, many people will clear out their closets and donate torn, dirty clothes they don’t want anymore). They take up valuable transportation as trucks that could be used for other supplies are filled with bags and bales of clothing. When I see people wanting to donate clothes I remember the story of the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. In Honduras so many bales of clothing were left sitting on the runway at an airport that planes carrying emergency supplies could not land. Many of the clothes weren’t even useable, either because they were so ragged or because people had sent things like winter coats to a country that’s in the tropic zone. And that’s not an isolated story. In 2004 after a tsunami in Indonesia, clothing donations were left to rot on the beach because they didn’t have the time or volunteers to sort it. Eventually all of those donations were set on fire and pushed into the ocean. Many donations of clothing during natural disasters go to waste because it’s too much for volunteers to handle.
Every time there is a major natural disaster, our first instinct is to send clothes and other things we deem necessary. We do this with the best of intentions, but we only end up hurting the people we are trying to help by wasting space and volunteers’ time. What communities need after natural disasters is not stuff. They need money. But people don’t like to give money. Some people prefer to give clothes because it makes them feel better to send their unwanted clothing to people in need rather than throwing out their old clothes. Some people give clothes because they don’t trust relief workers to spend their money wisely. Yet money is what is needed. Money will help to repair houses once the flood goes down. Money will buy cleanup and building supplies. Even for necessary things like food and hygiene items, relief organizations can stretch your dollar a lot further than you can, because they have access to wholesale goods.
It’s wonderful that people want to help out the flood victims, but we need to be smarter about how we help. If you are looking for a reliable place to donate money where you know your money will be well used, I can personally recommend Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and Ferncliff’s Disaster Assistance Center (DAC) in Little Rock. Ferncliff DAC, which works closely with the PDA, is already preparing disaster kits and hygiene kits to send to affected communities. The PDA is getting ready to send volunteers to do cleanup and repair houses as soon as the flood waters start to recede. The most effective way to support these two organizations is with monetary donations. I can assure you that any money sent to them will be well used for the relief work. Writing a check might not seem as fun as cleaning out your own closet. It might feel more impersonal, but the PDA, Ferncliff, and the many other organizations that are working on disaster relief will have much greater use for your donations than a bag full of clothing.
Take a minute to donate to PDA for flood relief here or check out Ferncliff's page on how to help with flooding relief here.