An interesting article in the New York Times today about bloggers and their attempts to dissuade Americans from donating blankets, clothing or other bulky/useless items (microwaveable TV dinners, anyone?) after the recent earthquake that devastated the country.
It is one answer to the question
“Why should I write a blog?”
“Teaching Americans What Haiti Needs: Money” Nytimes.com – 01/21/2010
In it, bloggers are extensively quoted in their efforts to persuade Americans NOT to send blankets, clothing or water to the country, but to send money.
I like this article because illustrates two points very well: the ability to reach a large audience with your blog posts (being quoted in the New York Times still helps!) and the importance of tracking who is visiting your site.
“Ms. Schimmelpfennig said she had been able to track the visits to her blog — from ordinary Americans all the way to the White House. “I was with my nephew, and we suddenly saw a jump in hits after the presidents spoke in the Rose Garden,” she said. “We worked our way backwards using StatCounter and saw that the State Department and the White House had visited the blog a couple of days before that.”
Here are a few of the blog posts mentioned, all interesting reading:
Choosing organizations to donate to after the Haiti earthquake
Directly from aid workers: how to choose an organization to donate to to help in Haiti. This was the post read by the White House.
Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti
Some straightforward things NOT to do if you want to help: don’t donate goods (give cash), don’t go down to Haiti to ‘help’ (unless you’re a medical professional) and don’t forget about the need for aid once Haiti drops from the front pages.
Surviving Earthquakes (Getting Humanitarian Aid Right)
An article written in May 2008 on the particular challenges after earthquakes. Sobering reading.
