In just 3 weeks after Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami, the Red Cross has collected over $1 billion from donors all around the world. However, not even a cent (literally) of that money has been distributed to Japanese quake victims so far.
The Red Cross has dispatched more than 200 emergency relief teams to the disaster zone and organized thousands of volunteers to assist victims. But no displaced people have received cash handouts from the pot of 870 billion yen ($10 billion) collected by the Japanese Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Central Community Chest of Japan.
Tomohide Atsumi, president of the Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster, said the Red Cross has “a policy of equity and places a high value on equality, and it takes times to assess damages.”
In contrast, he said, donations to nonprofit groups often get spent immediately. Atsumi said his organization used funds collected right after the disaster to buy underwear and other supplies for evacuees and charter a bus for volunteers to help victims in northern Japan.
Unfortunately, this isn’t anything new. Less than 40% of the $1.5 billion raised by charities for the Haiti earthquake has been spent – and it’s already been more than a year since that tragedy.
I’m sure we all want the money we donated to be spent wisely, but when it’s happening at such a slow pace that it may take months to even begin the process, it kind of takes away from the core purpose of the deal. By the time the Red Cross gets over its bureaucracy and starts spending that money Japan will probably be rebuilt and the affected families won’t be desperate for financial aid anymore.
What makes this even sadder is that while the Red Cross is busy planning things, the mayor of Minamisoma, a Japanese town in Fukushima Prefecture, has recorded a video asking the world to help his struggling town. He could could sure use a fraction of that billion collected by the Red Cross.
