Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

Dig Down and Help Out

There’s a reason some countries are some of “the world’s cheapest destinations.” They’re poor. So when a 9.0 earthquake hits Indonesia and a tsunami crashes into Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India, major devastation is a certainty.

I’ve spent at least a hundred nights sleeping in rickety bamboo huts on the beaches of Asia. They’re comfortable in that climate, they do the job, and they’re built from a material that grows like a weed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to wash them away. So anyone who has spent time in these affected areas watched the news with special horror. Families live in those bamboo huts. Whole villages washed away like a matchstick sculpture. Where there was something sturdier made of concrete, the water washed out underneath and it collapsed, often with people trapped inside.

A lot of the news in the US and Europe has focused on the tourists. We can all relate to the horror of sitting on a beach one minute and being sucked out to sea the next. Some 2,500 people from Sweden have died, close to the number of Americans who died in the World Trade Center bombing. In a much smaller country.

But the foreign deaths pale next to the ever-climbing numbers from the local population. There are estimates that the death toll could hit 100,000 in Indonesia alone. People who already had next to nothing have lost that little bit, along with loved ones, extended families, and often the only breadwinner or the family business.

So what can you do?
Take some fraction of what you just spent on holiday presents and send money where it is needed. Once the situation is stabilized, give again–either directly or by spending your vacation money in those countries where they need it. Thailand and Malaysia have two coasts. Indonesia has a thousand islands. Parts of the Maldives will be okay. Go there and make an economic impact.

You can find a comprehensive list of charity links at Transitions Abroad’s web site here.

I personally like the idea of this listing on Wikipedia: it has links to individual charities in the countries that are affected. So you can donate directly to the agency closest to the problem, avoiding layers of bureacracy. There are two in Indonisa, two in Sri Lanka, and many in India.

I also have great admiration for CARE, having seen the practical and useful work they have done in many developing countries, without trying to invest in grand projects that only grab headlines. And of course Doctors Without Borders could especially use help right now, as water-borne diseases could rapidly increase the number of deaths if doctors and medicine can’t get out in a hurry.

And don’t forget–donate via the Web! A larger percentage of your donation goes to relief this way, rather than to overhead.