Vital organization GrassRoots smooths the way for other aid groups

Vital organization GrassRoots smooths the way for other aid groups: "PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — In the aftermath of a disaster, there is a world of people with good intentions but little idea of how to deliver on them.

Enter GrassRoots United, the brainchild of Californian Sam Bloch, who had five years’ experience managing hundreds of volunteers in disaster zones in Thailand and in Peru, starting with the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. Doctors, nurses, engineers and unskilled volunteers were plentiful at disaster zones, he discovered, but the administration needed to organize them often was lacking."