Donated supplies too cumbersome and costly to ship, say embassy officials and relief organizations

South Korean airport ground handlers load aid supplies onto a cargo plane departing for victims of the earthquake in Southern Asia at the Incheon airport in South Korea. Aid workers in one of history's largest relief efforts struggled to get food, water and medicine to survivors. (Getty Images Photo)

BY ERIK HOLM | STAFF WRITER, Staff writers Emi Endo, Jamie Herzlich and Lauren Weber contributed to this story.

December 30, 2004

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To those compelled to do something to help victims of Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, government and relief agency officials have a simple message: Send money.

Medicine, food and water are sorely needed in each of the devastated countries, but getting large amounts of those supplies to South Asia won't be accomplished by collecting them individually, aid groups said yesterday.

And when death from disease threatens tens of thousands more lives in coming weeks, collecting blankets and clothing isn't the best way to help.

"The cost of sending the goods from here - from America to Indonesia - takes time" and is costly, said Harbangan Napitupulu, an official with the Consulate General of Indonesia, the country closest to the earthquake's epicenter.

It is cheaper and faster to buy the needed items much closer to the affected areas, said Stephen Tomlin, vice president of program policy and planning for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based International Medical Corps.

"That way, the supplies get there immediately," he said, "Plus, the local economy, which is usually in a state of collapse, gets some kind of stimulation."

Tomlin, whose group is already working in Indonesia, said he saw the problems with accepting donations of supplies when Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998.

"When Maria donates her favorite teddy bear, she feels good about it and her parents feel good about it," Tomlin said. "But the logistics systems get really clogged up with nonessential things. ... When it comes time to find the penicillin, we have to search through too many teddy bears, shoes and clothes."

Erin Norton, assistant director of emergency services for the Suffolk chapter of the American Red Cross, said the agency has had to decline offers from Long Islanders who want to donate items.

It could take "over a month to ship stuff from here," she said. "The best way to help is to make some financial donations."

Across the country and in New York, people have been inundating both worldwide relief organizations and local groups - temples, churches and social organizations - with financial donations. Local companies also have teamed up with their employees to raise money.

Symbol Technologies in Holtsville has pledged $150,000 to various aid groups, while some company employees - including 125 in India - are donating a day's pay.

Islandia-based Computer Associates International Inc. donated $200,000 to UNICEF, while employees locally and overseas are chipping in.

Former Computer Associates chairman Sanjay Kumar, who was indicted this year on charges of securities fraud, said he will personally donate about $1 million toward relief efforts in his native Sri Lanka. That includes a $250,000 contribution to a fund set up by the Sri Lankan embassy in the United States.

But Kumar noted that the long-term reconstruction needs of the region are just as important as short-term aid efforts.

"The world responds as long as the pictures are on TV," he said. But "people here in the West forget that people's entire livelihoods have been wiped away. What we spend on a couple of Christmas presents, these people may live on for a whole year."

Staff writers Emi Endo, Jamie Herzlich and Lauren Weber contributed to this story.