Mark's Notebook


	And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order to the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce. - Soren Kierkegaard

After Storm, Relief Groups Consider More Work in U.S.

New York Times

Thursday 5 January 2006, 2:02 pm
Keywords: Katrina Hurricane Relief , News Articles

By Stephanie Strom

The chaotic response to Hurricane Katrina by government agencies and the Red Cross, the sole private organization charged by law with providing relief in national emergencies, has led organizations like Oxfam to wonder whether they have a role in disaster response here.

Now, as Congress considers whether it should broaden the mandate for disaster response beyond the Red Cross, Oxfam and other international humanitarian agencies may find themselves called upon to take on new responsibilities in the United States.

Nonprofit groups responding to a crisis abroad try to work collaboratively and with grass-roots nonprofit organizations that they have nurtured as part of their efforts to build civil society and eradicate poverty.

Oxfam's foray into domestic disaster relief began with the local groups, like the Southern Mutual Help Association Inc., that it had been working with for several years to tackle poverty and promote economic development and with new groups its workers on the ground identified.

"I had never heard of them before," said Sarah Walker, executive director of Visions of Hope, a tiny nonprofit that provides a variety of housing support to low-income residents of Biloxi, Miss. "But they were here right away and wanting to know if we'd be willing to work with them and naturally, we said yes."

Oxfam made a $30,000 grant to Visions, which used the money to buy vouchers that families could use at the Home Depot, Lowe's and other retailers for brooms, mops, flashlights and other equipment to clear out their homes. For Visions, with an annual budget of about $125,000, the grant made a huge difference.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/national/nationalspecial/01oxfam.html