Stanford Social Innovation Review: Forum: Where's the money?

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Forum: Where's the money?: ": Where's the money?
Category: Philanthropic Strategy
Posted: December 15, 2005 06:14 PM

Two weeks ago, I visited the northern coast of Aceh, Indonesia, curious to see not only how people are faring one year after the tsunami, but also how NGOs are spending the largest pool of humanitarian funds ever raised. On both counts, my report is the same: Not well.

After one day in Banda Aceh, I spent four more driving through the districts of Pidie and Bireuen. Even the view from the highway bore witness to the ongoing suffering of the Acehnese. Where thriving marketplaces and traditional houses once stood, there are now tent cities and government-built barracks. The skeletons of washed-up boats and cars still sit on the roads’ shoulders as far as two miles inland. Schools are boarded up. Fishing ponds bleed into each other and into the sea. Even in Banda Aceh, the province’s proud capital, 50% of the surviving population is still homeless. In rural villages, that number climbs to 70%.

When is more help coming? I didn’t know what to tell..."