Re. the alleviating of the suffering of the victims of the earthquake in Iran, the National Spiritual Baha'i Assembly of the United States has shared the following information.
Dear Friends,
The National Spiritual Assembly has received requests for guidance from many Friends who wish to make donations to organizations that are helping with relief efforts in Bam, Iran, following the recent earthquake. Individuals and local Spiritual Assemblies may wish to consider making donations to one of the following organizations:
American Red Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW, http://www.redcross.org
Mercy Corps: 1-888-256-1900, http://www.mercycorps.org
The National Spiritual Assembly wishes to remind the Friends that it is illegal to give money directly to Iranian organizations or to send money directly to Iran. The Friends should also be careful not to contribute to the Iranian government or to Iranian opposition political organizations.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Office of External Affairs
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States
Earthquake in Iran
regarding donations to red cross and the like foundations
There has been a follow up documentary or a report done on the money donated to tsunami disaster that occured in SriLanka and near by countries and the money donated earthquake disaster in Bam, Iran, and this was broadcasted on TV I forget which television station it was but it was a news broadcasting type TV station.
And from there report and follow up on the money donated I remember hearing that less than 10% of the money that was donated actually made it to the people in need of it and to the people who it was meant to go to. This means that a very very small fraction of the billions upon billions of dollars that were donated actually went to the people in need of it. There is alot of corruption in this. The government of the donating country and well as the government of the recieving country take the majority of the money into there own hands. In other words they steal the money and lie about saying that they will use the money to help the people
Although the intensions of the Red Cross and other charity like foundation are good and are what is needed, however the money that is donated does not go where its suppose to and so donations made do not go where they are suppose to.
So I dont believe its worth it for the Spiritual Assemblies to donate money to the Red Cross for instances like the Bam disaster.
The best thing I believe for the Spiritual assemblies to do if they want to help out in these circumstances is to donate money to the Spiritual Assemblies of the countries in which the disaster occured and have them distribute that money to the people in need. This is a very reliable and probably the only guaranteed way of donating money in these circumstances
As an example of this idea, during the Bam earthquake in Iran the Bahai community there set up huge tents in the cold weather there and cooked food and served it hot to the people there that had lost there homes and were in need, as a result of this the Bahai community was thanked on the radio in Iran for there help.
Regarding the illegallness of donating money to the country in which the disaster has occured, well I dont think it will be illegal to transfer money to the bank account of the Bahais community of the country
So donating the money to the local Bahai communities of the place where the disaster occurs and having them help the people rather than giving the money to large organizations in which corruption almost always occurs is a much much better use of the money
And from there report and follow up on the money donated I remember hearing that less than 10% of the money that was donated actually made it to the people in need of it and to the people who it was meant to go to. This means that a very very small fraction of the billions upon billions of dollars that were donated actually went to the people in need of it. There is alot of corruption in this. The government of the donating country and well as the government of the recieving country take the majority of the money into there own hands. In other words they steal the money and lie about saying that they will use the money to help the people
Although the intensions of the Red Cross and other charity like foundation are good and are what is needed, however the money that is donated does not go where its suppose to and so donations made do not go where they are suppose to.
So I dont believe its worth it for the Spiritual Assemblies to donate money to the Red Cross for instances like the Bam disaster.
The best thing I believe for the Spiritual assemblies to do if they want to help out in these circumstances is to donate money to the Spiritual Assemblies of the countries in which the disaster occured and have them distribute that money to the people in need. This is a very reliable and probably the only guaranteed way of donating money in these circumstances
As an example of this idea, during the Bam earthquake in Iran the Bahai community there set up huge tents in the cold weather there and cooked food and served it hot to the people there that had lost there homes and were in need, as a result of this the Bahai community was thanked on the radio in Iran for there help.
Regarding the illegallness of donating money to the country in which the disaster has occured, well I dont think it will be illegal to transfer money to the bank account of the Bahais community of the country
So donating the money to the local Bahai communities of the place where the disaster occurs and having them help the people rather than giving the money to large organizations in which corruption almost always occurs is a much much better use of the money