Hey Yangdu / Whoever Else

madbomber1998

madbomber1998

Joined
Nov 27, 2008
Messages
182
So I'm just finishing up the final stages of starting up a disaster response / humanitarian efforts non profit and am looking for a few good missions that we can start working on immediately, that don't require a large amount of manpower on our end (because I simply don't have it yet) but will be actually helpful and that will be used appropriately.

And I thought about Himalayan Imports and Nepal, with winter rolling around and the damage done to the infrastructure in the region you guys are in over there.

Do you guys still need any help rebuilding? Anything else we can do to help out over there? I'd be interested in any ideas and such of how we can help.
 
Contacting auntie direactly would probably be the best way to discuss your ideas on how best to assist the region. Her email is himimp@aol.com.
 
Yea, I was going to send her an email, but I got sidetracked by work stuff. :-p

I'll get her one sent out here today sometime.
 
Good on Bomber! Are you 501c-4 now or is that what your working on (assuming your in the US)? Its much easier to get funded when you got all that paperwork done. Wish you the best. Im sure you'll get plenty of help and recommendations around here.
 
I'm working towards 501c3, I have to operate for 9-12 months then show financials to the IRS for them to approve me. I have everything else up and running, state non profit status, etc.

I also have fiscal sponsorship from a current 501c3, so that they can accept donations tax-free as if I were a 501c3. I've been working on this for about 7 months now and want to get it up and running ASAP. I've got an operation in Venezuela we're working on and one in Kenya I'm in the planning stages already.

Any ideas / recommendations / whatever would be awesome. I'm just trying to get some low-manpower, low-administration cost projects going this year so I can start helping people. (I like helping people)
 
Just to show how dedicated I am to this, I've sold / am selling a bunch of my stuff, including part of my knife collection, including a few of my HI pieces to fund this startup :-p
 
I ask because i have survived a few disasters myself. Mostly hurricanes and fires and seen how people get taken advantage of during these kind of times. In my case the real disaster was having to deal with all the money hungry buzzards that circle after the disaster. Ninety percent of the people present after the disaster were there to exploit the government, agencies and the victims of their money.
While we were trying to rebuild FEMA crews (contractors with illegal immigrant labor) would come on the property and steal tools, building materials and anything else they could get including my kitchen sink. My neighbor bought a new mobile home and someone even stole the steps to the front door during the night when he was sleeping. Imagine taking that first step out the door in the early morning all bleary eyed coffee in hand and falling 5 feet to the ground. People would follow delivery trucks around and steel packages before you could even get to them. Five years later the disaster comes in the form of the IRS wanting to tax everything you got during the recovery efforts. YeeHaa! No one tells you that. It never ends! I think people need to know what to expect and not be mislead by these buzzards that made their money and disappear.

On the other hand there were people that would drop a hundred dollar bill in a plain white envelope and put it in your mailbox. I wasnt hurting for money but they saw us camping and decided thats what they wanted to do. Honestly at the time I would rather have had five gallons of water and a bag of dog food. Get ready for all kinds of people;) I will say it is the few genuine people that sincerely want to help that make it all worth it. Hats off to you and them brother! I often wanted to set up a website kind of a "What to expect" and how to prepare afterwards for the onslaught because you never get the real story after the news crews leave. The problem is that many who need help dont have an internet connection. Boots on the ground is the best approach sometimes. When its all over you remember the good people that helped you when you needed it most. Your that person. Dont forget that!
 
Ya man, I totally agree. I've seen so much fraud and people getting ripped off and waste and such on all sides of the disaster relief issue. Most non-profits waste huge amounts of the money they bring in, not even like paying large salaries to their guys and such, but like straight up waste. It's far worse overseas, where most overseas non-profit work ends up only getting like 5-10% of the stuff actually to the people on site. Most of it gets diverted to the governments and they waste / steal it all. This is why I'm looking for people like the Himalayan Imports people who are locals who know exactly what to do with the money / resources, can tell me exactly what their locale needs, and can directly distribute it correctly. I've got a similar thing going on in Venezuela, bypassing the highly corrupt government who ends up taking like half your stuff upfront as bribes. Even people like the Red Cross, who is usually a good organization, has serious problems helping overseas. Look at their Haiti response, trying to build houses afterwards. They brought in 10's of millions of dollars specifically to build houses in Haiti, and after like 5 years could only build like 8 houses total because of the issues they had to deal with. The rest of the money was wasted trying to deal with the situation, not knowing how to deal with 3rd world countries.

You should write a blog post that we can post on our webpage's blog, talking about what to expect and such. Our page is supposed to be done, at least as a beta version, here in a few days. I'll drop you the link when it's up and running.
 
I would love to have a link to it and ill help any way I can. many unforeseen things happen you wouldnt expect that people should know. I wish I had a few outsiders with experience to give me some advice at that time.
I could imagine trying to do this in other countries with corruption and all. It is great to see people vetting these organizations to maximize the assistance to the victims. As far as Mrs. Martino I think you could put 5 million dollars in her hands and never have a worry one. Its a matter of principal with her. You picked the right group of people here. I suppose if too much assistance started coming from one source then the government might step in to "monitor" the operation and you know what would happen then:rolleyes: Just like the knife business she's running. If her operation got too big im sure the government would want their share as most governments do US including. The bureaucracy is what really eats up the funds. For the Gov to build a $100,000 house it cost probably $1,250,000 by the time they pay the social service people involved, construction company, permitting, engineering, and the list goes on. Oh and it takes years not months to get things done. Good luck to ya. Keep me updated.
 
Ya, the reasons you mentioned are why I thought of HI's. I've always had good dealings here and I know others all speak highly of her and everyone involved the same. I'd much rather SERIOUSLY help a few local people with what they REALLY need than to just throw money at random problems and not know what works and what doesn't.

Hopefully our beta version of the webpage will be up tonight, it'll still be under construction but do what I can :-p I'll get you a link when it's done.
 
For now we are good on building and any
help you can offer for Kamis kids and orphan kids of Nepal education funds would be a big help. Thank you for your continue dharma work and supports to HI .
 
I like education as a way to help people. I prefer the whole 'teach someone to fish instead of giving them a fish' concept.

What exactly do you guys need in the way of education help?

- Mark
 
Mark,
You might consider a phone call to Yangdu. She reads most of these post but she dont always get back to them as regular as you might need for an issue like this. Shes pretty busy so you might have to try a few times.

danny
 
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