Mercy Corps provided first international response following earthquake
By Steve Holgate, Washington File Special Correspondent
Washington - In the wake of the October 8 South Asia earthquake, the Pakistani people and government knew they could rely on the international community for much of the relief effort. But few Pakistanis know that the first international response arrived by helicopter within six hours of the earthquake. Even more surprising to some was that the first response did not come from the United Nations or some governmental agency, but from the American private sector, a group called Mercy Corps.
The generosity of the U.S. government to international relief efforts is recognized around the world. When a tsunami wreaked havoc throughout South and Southeast Asia in December 2004, the U.S. government made available hundreds of millions of dollars in relief assistance as well as helicopters, ships and supplies from the U.S. military. It also has responded to recent hurricanes in Central America with another outpouring of aid.
Now the U.S. government has pledged more than $500 million for earthquake relief in Pakistan and the surrounding region, and already has delivered on much of that pledge.
Yet, the scope of American generosity does not end with government aid. That is only half the story. Sometimes obscured by the heavily publicized lists of government assistance is a second wave of American giving that can deliver, and often does, nearly as much assistance as the government itself. This overlooked donor is the American public, stepping up to lend assistance wherever it is needed, through private donations and private relief organizations such as Mercy Corps.
INDIVIDUALS, PRIVATE CORPORATIONS MAKE SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS
Tens of thousands of individual Americans, countless U.S. corporations, untold numbers of churches, mosques and temples and dozens of private relief agencies contribute to international disaster relief efforts every year. In 2005, millions of dollars of this private aid have flowed toward Pakistan despite the enormous outpouring of private donations already committed to disaster relief efforts in the Gulf Coast region of the United States following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Since its founding in 1979, Mercy Corps has become one of the most preeminent and respected relief agencies in the world. Based in Portland, Oregon, this private organization currently is active in 35 countries, and has taken on an important assistance role in earthquake-ravaged areas of Pakistan.
In less than two months, Mercy Corps has raised more than $6 million in private donations and government grants for its relief efforts in Pakistan. Many of the private donations come from individuals, giving anything from a few dollars to a few thousand. Much of the money, though, comes from American corporations, whose corporate responsibility offices direct their charitable giving to where it best can be used. In many instances, concerned employees push their companies to make donations in the wake of disaster.
Working in cooperation with local organizations, Mercy Corps already has established six health clinics in earthquake-affected regions and has provided tents and other shelter for thousands who were left homeless. It also has opened new schools, located in winterized tents, and established a program to employ earthquake victims in building shelters, providing communities with badly needed money and individuals with meaningful work.
Neal Keny-Guer, chief executive officer of Mercy Corps, recently returned to Portland from a trip to Pakistan and says, "We are most concerned about the health and well-being of the children," adding that, "reopening schools can play a huge role in helping students feel more connected as they do familiar things in school that can help them process their feelings."
In addition to their wide-ranging scope, Mercy Corps' efforts have proved a model of administrative efficiency. Relief efforts make up 92 percent of its expenditures, with only 8 percent taken up by administrative costs, earning it the highest rating given by the American Institute of Philanthropy.
MERCY CORPS FOCUSES ON BUILDING LOCAL CAPACITY
For all its ability to react quickly and its experience in disaster relief, Mercy Corps' efforts extend far beyond the immediate relief of areas hit by natural disasters. A spokesman for Mercy Corps, Eric Block, said in a recent Washington File interview, "We're best known for emergency relief programs, but our real hallmark is mid- and long-term programs. The things that are done after the cameras have left."
In fact, it was a Mercy Corps official working on long-term projects in Pakistan who mobilized the first response. Faiza Janmohamed, Mercy Corps' Pakistan country director, was overseeing the organization's health clinics in Baluchistan and Sindh province and its 121 permanent staff members when the earthquake hit.
Janmohamed's presence and the organization's health clinics are emblematic of its commitment not only to long-term assistance, but to its ambitious goal of helping communities transform themselves, Block said. "Transformation of a community results from long-term programs that have long-term effects. These programs bring together people from diverse groups to build a stronger permanent community," he said. "We work with local organizations to build capacity for when we leave."
Mercy Corps starts this transformation by hiring most of its staff locally. This provides local expertise and builds self-sustaining local capacity for addressing a wide range of challenges. Of Mercy Corps' roughly 2,500 staff members around the world, the great majority come from the local communities. It is a reflection of Mercy Corps' philosophy that its country director at the time of the earthquake, the woman who mobilized the first response, is Pakistani, not American. Of the more than 100 staff currently working on relief efforts in the north, only three are not Pakistani.
Block underlines Mercy Corps' determination to make an enduring difference in the communities it serves, saying, "We want to leave behind us a more peaceful community - more secure, in the largest sense of the word, meaning more equitable, more stable, more prosperous."
Through the support of countless American citizens and corporations, Mercy Corps will continue its mission of transforming communities, just as other private American relief organizations continue to step up in time of need.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)