Sustainable Relief, The Case For Nepal Communitere

As we awake to the news of another earthquake in Nepal there is another scramble to determine how we can help, somehow manifest our compassion into real action that positively impacts those in the disaster zones. A plethora of opportunities present themselves, each claiming the title of effective relief. Perhaps if we want to be confident our support reaches those impacted and insure that the support is sustainable we should look at the track records of organizations in maintaining their efforts in the long haul.

One such organization that has an incredible track record is “Communitere”. In both Haiti and the Philippines this organization responded quickly after disaster and remains on the ground today having manifested the space for sustainable solutions to develop and be implemented. This is not the attention seeking and high profile work that grabs headlines, but instead the down and dirty daily work that assists communities in developing sustainable efforts that have real long-term positive impacts.

The development of Resource Centers that allows a circle of mutual efforts between the local community and international response efforts insures that all efforts respond to the needs of the community, not what some multinational NGO board thinks is needed.

As Communitere has grown in each nation their operations have been transitioned to a board of local nationals who guide the organization towards ever expanding value to local communities.  There is not a better model for sustainable efforts than hosting organizations doing important work in support of local needs.

Today, this organization has committed to manifesting their model of ethical, sustainable and local centric relief in Nepal.  If you wish to lend your support to an organization that has a track record of long term relief that will manifest years into the future you could not make a better choice than http://communitere.org/

After much research, informed by many years of disaster experience, my personal recommendation could not be more grounded in the facts on the ground. Please check out the efforts currently continuing on the ground in Haiti and focus on how this organization is in the effort for the long haul, interested in real solutions for local communities.  Your support won’t grab international attention but you will be supporting a long term effort that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people of Nepal.