Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
One good way to donate
I’m sure there are many others, but MSF was my choice.
From their homepage:
MSF has already treated more than 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti following Tuesday’s earthquake, but the needs are huge. An inflatable hospital with operating theatres is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours.
D.
They are a favorite of mine. You can set up your own site at http://www.firstgiving.com and have your friends here donate to Doctors without Borders. Here’s an example (that works if you want to just give right now!)
http://www.firstgiving.com/cakewrecksdoctors
They’re one of our favorite charities as well.
I checked their website for rules regarding volunteerism. Not the first time. And I was reminded why I haven’t signed on in the past: surgeons have to commit to a minimum service of 2-3 months. The Kize will let me take up to 30 days for relief work. Who can take 2-3 months off? Retired docs, I suppose. And IIRC, other kinds of docs have to commit to a year or more of service.
Maybe some day . . .
But in the meantime, we can still contribute $.
Just a thought: if you can stand the Jesus-y parts of it, there are frequently medical missions that recruit physicians for shorter periods of time. Doc’s stepfather is an orthopedist who was with Kaiser in Portland, OR; he went to India every other year or so with a Christian mission*. I don’t know if it was the same group every time or not.
But yeah – now that he’s retired, he goes for longer periods.
If that’s something that might interest you, I can ask him who he went with.
* He’s Indian, raised as an atheist in a secular upper caste family with Socialist/Communist leanings.
Please do. Today, I signed up with some sort of clearing house that puts docs in touch with a variety of such organizations. Odd thing is, they never sent a confirmatory email, so I have no idea what the deal is.
I think I’m still annoyed that the gov’t never responded to me, back in Katrina days. What, like hurricane victims don’t have ear wax and sore throat problems?
I know some MSF people, since they are headquartered here, and have had some interesting kitchen table conversations. Good organization!