Raising awareness

Hi there,

I am still so unhappy about the English coverage of Noel in DR and would really like to something bigger than just sending money (which we've done already) - I would like to somehow make English people more aware of what happened and the extent of it and try to get something set up for people here to donate (financially mainly as that's probably the easiest from so far - but also as so many people from here come to DR on holiday maybe to make them aware that they can pack a few extra items in their suitcases).

What I'm asking is does anybody have an suggestions/ideas or anycontacts within the media that could help out?

I have written to my local MP and the PM about this - whether or not it will make any difference I have no idea but in my opinion anything is worth a try. I was so angry that my country hadn't done anything to help.

Dolores said:

Actually, lots of coverage on the disaster may boomerang, so it is just as well. Long coverage of disaster could lead to people cancelling their trip here.

Disaster relief organizations are already working on the situation. Fact is that the tourist areas were not affected at all by the flooding, with the exception of some of the workers homes that may have suffered. In many cases, companies are providing assistance for their workers. The individual contributions can be brought with the tourists that come down.

Check the links in the Tropical Storm Noel thread for possible ways to contribute and make monetary donations from abroad.

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Is there no way to do it showing that tourist areas are not affected?

As I said we have already donated but I'm sure there must be so many people in this country that if they knew about what had happened they would want to make a contribution whether financially or other - e.g through the mandale website.

So basically as no brits were affected the british media can't be bothered to report or do anything about it?

Chirimoya said:

Unless it is a massive disaster, or they haven't got much else to talk about, they will always look for a local angle - like the nationality of aid workers as well as victims.

I saw that the British government did send a ship - the RFA Wave Knight - with two helicopters to help with the rescue operations and aid distributions - and a proportion of the European funds donated will have come from the UK.

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That's good news then - at least something is being done from here to help. We're going to check out how things are before we come next time (which is unlikely to be until March - but going on previous disasters there'll probably be many still without, we may even be rebuilding hubby's grandmas's house when we come if she hasn't decided to stay with his parents or aunt since her hubby passed away this this week) and try and bring as much as we can then. But in the meantime I guess all we can do is donate money. Chiri, I passed those bank details etc that you sent to all friends and family so hopefully that'll help a little too.