Send money, not shoes

The New York Times has picked up on a central theme of disaster relief in Haiti and elsewhere: poorly targeted aid can hinder, rather than help. "Every aid worker has a favorite story about useless donations," says the story, citing the case of microwaveable TV dinners sent to cyclone-hit Bangladesh. The case I best remember appears in this photo...

After Hurricane Stan ripped through Chiapas, Mexico in 2005, the charity Caritas was inundated by donations of surplus shoes from a national retailer. Clown shoes, platform shoes, funky disco shoes, nothing under a size 9 and hardly appropriate for dimunitive Mayan feet picking their way through mud slides. The retailer got a tax write-off and a good feeling; Caritas lost office space and manpower to store and pick through the "donations." It is often the people on the ground who know what is best for them, argues Saundra Schimmelpfennig on her blog Good Intentions are not Enough. If you are going to send anything, send money.

(In the photo, Caritas director Norma Medina, surveys a collection of donated shoes, waiting for takers - Conrad Fox, 2005)