HandsOn Disaster Response family:
Hi Guys. Sorry we have been sparse in communication, here’s an attempt to update you on a broad range of happenings.
- This was intended as a “catch-up” communication, but in the last 24 hours we have decided to deploy to the Philippines to aid the victims of Typhoon Durian. Scuba Marc will arrive in Manila Thursday, Dec 7th, and will reconnoiter (always wanted to use that word…) to choose the place where we can have real impact. We’ll plan a four month project, and will be encouraging volunteers as soon as we have a safe place for housing; plus a good working situation. I assume we’ll have substantial information within the next several days. Our current plan would to be in place until about April 30th, to offer $1,000 toward travel costs for alumni of any prior Hands On project, and to be doing “Hands On” work asap.
- There is a Hands On Manila affiliate, and we’ll looking to them for guidance and connections.
- A good source for current information on the situation is www.reliefweb.org, we’ll also start updating www.hodr.org regularly, and frequently.
We will need to raise substantial funds, probably in the range of $300K. We’ll start reaching out to past donors, but please be creative in considering any way to raise this major funding requirement.
Jogjakarta Marc Young, with initial help from TC, then Dave and JoAnne Driscoll, then Kevin, Jeremy, Stephanie, Michelle and dozens of others, ran a pure HandsOn project for 4 months in Sawit, Indonesia. About 60 volunteers, half alumni and half new to HODR, participated. Please read Marc’s glorious reports at www.hodr.org, and share the pride and stories the team developed together. In a classic example of HandsOn karma Nick Taranto, a HOUSA alum now working on a microfinance Fulbright program, came to Indonesia, and crossed paths with HODR – we are going to put up the $7,200 to fund this ongoing program to help sustain activity in getting Sawit back on its feet. Overall we spent about $50K on Jogjakarta, your donations, through the website or by mail, to help replace those funds would be much appreciated .
Reunion We had a fun reunion week, with many thanks to Suzanne Stahl for being the prime organizer. Work was done, songs were sung, a great time capsule ceremony took place at Beauvoir, volunteers performed the Sarah Hughes play “Dreaming Biloxi” at the Saenger Thetre, we had a sunset sailboat ride; you know, all the standard disaster volunteer stuff.
Financial We’ve completed our full fiscal year, and will have our IRS form 990 filed within a few weeks. Current draft shows we raised $770K with total management expense of 3.3%. Thanks to Tom Taylor for his extensive efforts getting the finances organized.
Hands On Network continues to operate full bore in both Biloxi ( Hands On Gulfcoast) and New Orleans. While we planned to share our next deployment together thankfully the easy hurricane season has, miraculously, passed us by. We continue our active dialogue toward moving forward together with HandsOnNetwork.
Opportunities We gave some consideration to helping out with the tree damage after the blizzard in Buffalo, and after the earthquake in Hawaii. We decided “no” in both case, based on our perception of the level of disaster impact, and the local response capability. Interestingly, Jim Mahar, one of our great HOUSA volunteers and leader of the St Bonaventure teams, has launched BonaResponds, and is leading a volunteer effort in the Buffalo area most weekends. We chipped in some money for some quality chainsaws, and they’ve also linked with a local HON chapter, so there may be more activity forthcoming there.
Coastal CHC We continue the support of Coastal, and the team has been instrumental in helping them receive a major rebuilding grant of $6.3M, plus several other targeted fundings. Getting the cash out of these grants is a constant battle, but we’re engaged.
National response Plan There has been much Katrina induced activity to improve disaster response; DHS is working on a coordinated planning effort, and the corporate community has launched: www.respondtodisaster.com; we try to stay tuned in to these programs.
That’s it for now – please feel free to call or write, we’re active, speaking occasionally, investigating partnerships, etc. Happy to appear anywhere to bear witness to what happened, or what we think should happen.
David N Campbell -Executive Director
PS. A Message from Darius
Hello all,
I recently met a gentleman from Vancouver, B.C. who has an interesting business model with, in my opinion a great purpose. Here is their statement from their site:
mondonation is committed to inspiring positive, global change through the development of sustainable, charitable strategies. Our ‘believe’ t-shirts are just the first in a series of ethical products geared to give back to all world communities. For every shirt or product bought from mondonation $1, $5, $10, or $20 (you decide) is given back to the charity of your choice.
Hands On Worldwide is one of the approved charities and I encourage you to wear your belief shirt and support Hands On at the same time. They have a beautiful website and some great videos too… check them out at www.mondonation.com
Also, we’re working with mondonation to create a joint marketing campaign around a disaster… we’re working around the idea of custom made prayer flags that provide a donation to HODR.
Darius A Monsef -Operations Director
Tags: All Hands