ABDF

Let me tell you a story.

When I first arrived in Batticaloa almost three years ago, it was only a few months after the tsunamis had hit. One day, after watching a van drive by sporting the flag of a well-known American aid organization (that shall remain anonymous), my friend Jesu turned to me and said, "All they are doing is cheating us!"

"How so?" I asked.

"Because they use us to make money. They come around in their big vans with their Western salaries and make these plans and don't ask us what we need, but make a lot of promises and they get a lot of money, and we never see any of it."

I saw this myself over and over. The major agencies are based in Colombo, the capitol. They send out representatives in air-conditioned vans to Batticaloa, where they spend a weekend driving around. Then they return to Colombo and draw up a Grand Plan. And then nothing happens.

They don't talk to the local people, and have no way of knowing what the real needs of the community are; they just know what’s good for them and proceed accordingly. And of course, they were using public sympathy for the victims to raise huge amounts of money back home.

Now there are a lot of reasons for this lack of true response on the ground, some beyond the control of the large agencies, and some are even legitimate reasons. But whatever those reasons may be, the fact on the ground is that very little gets done.

By the time I left in late 2005, my little group of six independent volunteers had built more houses, supplied more kid's homes, helped more people, than that big American agency I had seen driving about in their van. In fact, just before leaving Colombo, I saw in the paper that 10 months after the tsunami, all agencies combined had built fewer than 1,000 homes across the entire nation.

And twelve of them were ours!

Where does your money go?

With most agencies, especially the larger ones, you can write a check, and your money disappears into the coffers and you're never exactly sure what your money is doing. All of you will recall, perhaps, the scandals revolving around donations made for 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina victims.

But with the ABDF you will know exactly where your money is going. With me on site supervising our various projects, you will know that your money is being spent in the most efficient and timely way possible. In addition, I will be able to provide before, during, and after pictures (and hopefully video clips) of the projects that YOUR money will fund. You won't get that from the major charitable organizations.

You will know that YOUR donation has directly affected the lives of specific people; you will see these folks yourself, and you will see the impact of YOUR money.

So what are some of these projects?

On my recent rip to Batticaloa, I saw there was an immediate need for clean drinking water, especially in the newly "liberated" areas. I've received several requests for tube wells, which are the manual ones you pump by hand. (Electricity is iffy in those areas, and so it's best to go low-tech.)

I've also been asked to help electrify newly-built villages for tsunami-displaced people. A girls’ school has asked for help in setting up an English lab to help their students learn English. And several children's homes have requested help in providing basic supplies to their kids — soap, ceiling fans, security grates for windows, sanitary supplies, etc.

There is a ton of work to do.

All of these projects require comparatively very small amounts of money to be completed. Some are as low as $50 a month(?) and others require a one-time cost of about $1,000. As you can see, if ten people each donated $50, that money would go a long way in Batticaloa. Even $10 can do a lot of good for these people, especially when added together to buy a water pump or pay for a teacher’s salary.

So please, consider giving $100, $50, $25 or $10 to the ABDF, and especially give some thought to recurring, monthly donations you can make as well. It's easy to do, and I know you will get a lot out of it. If you know of someone - friends or family - who might also want to see their money go directly to help people in need, please ask on our behalf.

If your work place has a giving program, please approach them for us. If you belong to an industry or labor organization, or know someone who does, please let them know about us. If you think you might be able to give an in-kind donation, please contact me and I can go over with you what we need.

Please make checks out to "The American-Batticaloa Development Fund" and mail them to:

For further information on how the ABDF is run, or the projects we plan on funding in 2008, please either email me or call me at 916-434-1268.

I want to thank you in advance for your help.

Much love to all,

— Bennett Hinkley

Project Director