Where Did the Money Go?

In 2010 Haiti was devastated by earthquakes that leveled the country. The Red Cross raised nearly half a billion dollars to help rebuild roads, houses, and schools. However in an article written by NPR in 2015, claims that five years later none of Red Cross's promises have been kept. NPR and ProPublica investigated where the almost 500 million dollars that was donated has gone.

In their investigation they found misleading data and many failed projects (Sullivan 2015). NPR found that, "The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people, but the number of permanent homes the charity has built is six"(Sullivan 2015). This left many Haitians with false hope and confusion about what the Red Cross was doing with all that money. It turns out that much of the money never reached the people who needed it. Instead it turns out that a third of the money went to administrative costs and management fees (Sullivan 2015).

NPR found that a lot of the Red Cross's projects ran into trouble when they tried to actually build houses and help the people of Haiti. John Hannigan explains that no disaster can be resolved with out politics and government. This is precisely why the Red Cross had so many problems with getting the housing projects underway. They struggled with being able to meet government regulations and laws. They also had problems with dealing with old land laws. They did not work closely with the government or with the people.

Other organizations had more luck. For the example, Global Communities and PCI have built 300 multi house hold homes with running water (Sullivan 2015). These organizations achieved this by working closely with the Haitians, who were motivated to get things done because it is their country. They did not just hire the people of the country, the organizations has the Haitians actually running the projects and in high positions. Because of this they had success in rebuilding, unlike the Red Cross even though they had half a billion dollars.

This raises questions about relief. How effective can relief  be without working with the people affected by the disasters? Does the amount of money raised really matter if it isn't managed well? Should people give money to local organizations instead of international ones? In the case of Haiti half a billion dollars may have been more productively used if it was given to local organizations in Haiti instead of an international one.