As rescuers prepare to handle the crisis in earthquake-ravaged Nepal, the Western New York chapter of the American Red Cross is advising people that cash donations are the best way they can help.
The American Red Cross is assisting their counterparts in Nepal with services including mapping and information management to help rescuers in the field. Among the supplies they've provided are tarps to serve as roofs and mosquito nets to protect people from malaria threats.
Meanwhile, citizens interested in helping out are being told that cash gifts are more useful and easier to manage than donations of goods and services.
"Your mind says we want to get clothing and things like that to these people but we're not equipped as the Red Cross to sort those, store those, ship them overseas and get it to them," said Jay Bonafede, Regional Communications Officer for the American Red Cross in Buffalo. "A financial donation will allow us to basically accomplish something very similar and get those supplies there directly, where they are needed."
The Red Cross has approximately 19,000 non-food relief kits available in Nepal. Buffalo-based volunteers were not making immediate plans to mobilize and travel overseas but Bonafede added that they are prepared in the event their expertise is needed.
For more information about the Red Cross effort to assist earthquake victims in Nepal, visit redcross.org.
Additionally, a website is available that helps loved ones search for names of people directly affected by the earthquake and determine their whereabouts or status. You can click here to access that site, Nepal Restoring Family Links. The link allows users to search through the list of missing persons and people who have responded that they are alive, register names of persons with whom they have lost contact and register names of persons who wish to inform others that they are alive.
