Red Cross built just six homes after collecting half a billion dollars in Haiti earth

[CMartel]

American Red Cross exposed as massive, incompetent fraud: built just six homes after collecting half a billion dollars in Haiti earthquake donations
Sunday, June 26, 2016


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/054476_Am...#ixzz4CtvsAG7B
NaturalNews) You can't make this stuff up. From Propublica.org:

The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.

The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.

The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.

In effect, the Red Cross exploited the Haiti earthquake as a way to get gullible donors to wipe out its massive operational debt. Check this out:

Inside the Red Cross, the Haiti disaster was seen as "a spectacular fundraising opportunity," recalled one former official who helped organize the effort. Michelle Obama, the NFL and a long list of celebrities appealed for donations to the group.

The Red Cross kept soliciting money well after it had enough for the emergency relief that is the group's stock in trade. Doctors Without Borders, in contrast, stopped fundraising off the earthquake after it decided it had enough money. The donations to the Red Cross helped the group erase its more-than $100 million deficit.
The American Red Cross: Where donation money disappears into a massive bureaucratic black hole
So what did the Red Cross actually do? Like all big bureaucracies, its top officials all stood around shoving thumbs up each other's a$$es and calling it "success." Via ProPublica:

The Red Cross' initial plan said the focus would be building homes -- an internal proposal put the number at 700. Each would have finished floors, toilets, showers, even rainwater collection systems. The houses were supposed to be finished in January 2013. None of that ever happened. Carline Noailles, who was the project's manager in Washington, said it was endlessly delayed because the Red Cross "didn't have the know-how."

So the Red Cross collects half a billion dollars from gullible donors, but doesn't know how to build homes for the victims it claimed to be helping? This reality reeks of so much waste that I'm now nominating the Red Cross to be a full-fledged government agency, where it's amazing waste-amplified talents can be put to use on a larger scale, wasting far more taxpayer money than ever thought possible.
Millions spent teaching impoverished children with no water or soap how to wash their hands
While all the Red Cross's home building plans were being laughed off the table, the organization decided to use its half a billion dollars in funding to -- and I'm not even making this up -- teach hand washing skills to children who have no water and no soap. F-Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?

Instead of making concrete improvements to living conditions, the Red Cross has launched hand-washing education campaigns. The internal evaluation noted that these were "not effective when people had no access to water and no soap." (The Red Cross declined to comment on the project.)

You might think that somebody at the Red Cross would first realize that washing hands requires running water, but that would be giving them way too much credit. It's not about actually helping people, you see... it's all about raising money to raise Red Cross salaries and bonuses!

Bottom line: If you give a single dollar to the American Red Cross, you're a fool. The organization is a fraud. Pick a more honest non-profit next time, and do your homework before giving money to these donation fat cats who pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses while doing next to nothing to actually help real people in the real world.

[zenkai]

I've been saying for years that the Red Cross is nothing but a bunch of crooks and I refuse to donate to them

[Azadina]

I've been saying for years that the Red Cross is nothing but a bunch of crooks and I refuse to donate to them

I've known for years that charities are largely scams. Very little goes to those in need, that people think they are donating to.

[micwini]

Charities are scams. This is not news. Never donate to any charity.

[lockedout]

The American Red Cross
President and CEO Marsha J. Evans' salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses

[Deleted]

I can't imagine anything more shameful than taking the money of good people trying to help those in need and keeping it for yourself.

I hope the people responsible get serious prison sentences.

[cordrann]

The American Red Cross
President and CEO Marsha J. Evans' salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses

Given the scope of the organization that really isn't much for a CEO in today's world.

[Nerdgasm]

I heard something like this last year, and from what everyone said, it's not that they spent 500m on 6 houses, it's that they started a project for permanent housing that was a failure, so they had to focus on the temporary shelters.

According to the red-cross, this is how they spent their money:

Emergency relief: $66 million
Shelter: $173 million
Health: $73 million
Water and sanitation: $47 million
Livelihoods: $48 million
Disaster preparedness: $56 million
Cholera prevention: $25 million

http://www.redcross.org/news/article...ns-about-Haiti

Now, if this is real or not, I don't know. The only humanitarian organization I follow is the MsF.

[Venant]

I can't imagine anything more shameful than taking the money of good people trying to help those in need and keeping it for yourself.

I hope the people responsible get serious prison sentences.

There needs to be an investigation into the Clintons when it comes to Haiti. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time and Bill Clinton was appointed to oversee reconstruction.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-...iti-1431300232

[Independent voter]

Did the American Red Cross only build “6” new permanent homes? Yes, these were part of a pilot project outside of Port-au-Prince. As the project progressed, we learned a number of lessons that helped us revise our long-term shelter plans. The solutions we decided on ultimately helped more people than can be served through new construction efforts and could be implemented faster, helping people living in camps get back into safer homes and conditions sooner.


Did we plan to build more new homes? Yes, plans for three different communities of new homes funded by the American Red Cross were developed, of which two were outside of Port-au-Prince. In all three cases, there were competing claims of land ownership and clear land title couldn’t be established. We also learned that new housing communities built outside Port-au-Prince often remained unoccupied because people strongly preferred to move back into the neighborhood they lived in before the quake - near their jobs, schools and family.


Did we help 132,000 Haitians obtain safe and improved housing? Yes. In the days following the earthquake, the Red Cross provided emergency shelter in the form of 860,000 tarps to people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Of course, living underneath a tarp or tent is only a short term solution, so the American Red Cross developed plans to provide medium- and long-term housing.
•Working with partners such as Habitat for Humanity, Handicap International and others, the American Red Cross provided more than 6,100 transitional homes for nearly 31,000 people and more than 25,000 people received upgraded and progressive shelters.



This is the Redcross' side of things

More at the link

http://www.redcross.org/news/article...ns-about-Haiti

[Damajin]

Yeah this type of situation exists in other charities, but the bigger ones are especially prone to it since they actually engage in marketing their 'services' and aren't just devoted to one and done missions. When you wonder why despite all the donations that happen to charity every year bad situations still exist, this is a big part of the reason. Too many of these 'charities' are huge frauds that are just better connected than their competitors.

[lockedout]

Given the scope of the organization that really isn't much for a CEO in today's world.

We are an independent entity that is organized and exists as a nonprofit, tax-exempt, charitable institution pursuant to a charter granted to us by the United States Congress.

[jackofwind]

Non-profit just means that any excess money earned has to get fed back into the company/employees instead of being saved as profit.

I thought everyone knew this?

[Bryntrollian]

Non-profit just means that any excess money earned has to get fed back into the company/employees instead of being saved as profit.

I thought everyone knew this?

Most people don't

[purebalance]

Article is from a conspiracy theory website. Not buying it. Half the other articles on the side are like monsanto this, monsanto that, Deniro is working for big vaccine establishment, and women killed in her home for exposing government secrets etc.

- - - Updated - - -

Non-profit just means that any excess money earned has to get fed back into the company/employees instead of being saved as profit.

I thought everyone knew this?

People think non profit means that they don't even pay employees and that everyone is a volunteer lel.

[Celista]

Did the American Red Cross only build “6” new permanent homes? Yes, these were part of a pilot project outside of Port-au-Prince. As the project progressed, we learned a number of lessons that helped us revise our long-term shelter plans. The solutions we decided on ultimately helped more people than can be served through new construction efforts and could be implemented faster, helping people living in camps get back into safer homes and conditions sooner.


Did we plan to build more new homes? Yes, plans for three different communities of new homes funded by the American Red Cross were developed, of which two were outside of Port-au-Prince. In all three cases, there were competing claims of land ownership and clear land title couldn’t be established. We also learned that new housing communities built outside Port-au-Prince often remained unoccupied because people strongly preferred to move back into the neighborhood they lived in before the quake - near their jobs, schools and family.


Did we help 132,000 Haitians obtain safe and improved housing? Yes. In the days following the earthquake, the Red Cross provided emergency shelter in the form of 860,000 tarps to people whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Of course, living underneath a tarp or tent is only a short term solution, so the American Red Cross developed plans to provide medium- and long-term housing.
•Working with partners such as Habitat for Humanity, Handicap International and others, the American Red Cross provided more than 6,100 transitional homes for nearly 31,000 people and more than 25,000 people received upgraded and progressive shelters.



This is the Redcross' side of things

More at the link

http://www.redcross.org/news/article...ns-about-Haiti

Half a billion dollars in aid and they were only able to provide tents? That seems pretty bad. But if we crunch some numbers...

6,100 transitional homes
6 permanent homes
860,000 tarps
25,000 "progressive shelters"

Red Cross probably gets a discount on tarps and many were likely donated. Very conservative estimate on tarp cost: $10-20 a tarp, or a total cost of $8.6 - $16 million. Cost was probably closer to $5 or less per tarp.

Half a billion dollars - 8.6 - 16 million/ 25,000 shelters + 6 homes + 6,100 "progressive shelters" = $13k per shelter, give or take.

Not sure what a "progressive shelter" is, which can inflate numbers.

According to that article they only spent $173 million on shelter, so minus the tarps (not included in this estimate) $173 million /37,100 = around $4.6k a shelter.

Those numbers are not bad although if their "shelters" and "progressive shelters" are simply nicer tarps then yes, those numbers are quite inflated.

[RickJamesLich]

It's interesting how the forum went from a phony Red Cross scandal to a very legit one. That being said, lengthy prison sentences are in good order here. This is a severe betrayal of trust and a clear example of blatant greed when others are truly in need. Assuming the article is true of course.

[Kraenen]

Forget about that, they drew a cartoon which was perceived as racist by some nuts!

[Kapadons]

Charities are scams. This is not news. Never donate to any charity.

Charity:Water - 100% of your donation goes to bringing reliable drinking water to people who don't have it. They have donation tracker to show where your donation went. Really solid charity actually doing good work.

They almost went bankrupt while having like 800,000 in the bank because they refused to use donations to fund operational expenses.

[Daerio]

It's interesting how the forum went from a phony Red Cross scandal to a very legit one. That being said, lengthy prison sentences are in good order here. This is a severe betrayal of trust and a clear example of blatant greed when others are truly in need. Assuming the article is true of course.

Only scapegoats go to prison for massive financial fraud in this country; it's otherwise seen as fair play and capitalism at its finest.

Red Cross hasn't done anything that everyone else isn't also trying to do, apparently.