Volunteers Learning Together

This was difficult, discouraging work. In the face of such enormous needs, we often did not feel much like we were helping people to recover from the hurricane. We received a lot of support from the supervisors in the department (who were also volunteers). We were often reminded that although it might not seem that we were helping disaster victims, it was necessary for the Red Cross to finalize this phase of the operation in order to move into the second phase, which would include addressing some of the issues to which we were currently unable to respond.
 
Probably the most important support came from the other members of the team of volunteers with whom I worked most closely. We worked long hours – 10 hours a day, six days a week – and usually went out to dinner together at the end of the day. We shared our stories, both good and bad, and discussed the issues that were raised by the work that we were doing. We came from a wide variety of backgrounds and we did not always share the same vision of how to most effectively help people, especially poor people, in need. But, perhaps because we were all committed to doing the best we could for our “clients,” our conversations were honest and probing.

Considering a Variety of Perspectives

One recurring topic was the wisdom of the Red Cross policy not to restrict how people spend the financial aid that they received. The money is of course intended to help replace clothing and household items that have been lost and this is undoubtedly the way that most people use it. But, except for the purchase of guns, alcohol or explosives, the funds are unrestricted and there is nothing to keep a recipient from spending the money in ways that others might feel were unwise or wasteful.

Some Red Cross volunteers with whom I worked felt that since the money was donated to the Red Cross it should not be “wasted” and that it was the responsibility of the Red Cross to make sure that it wasn’t. Others, including me, felt that individuals were the best judge of what they most needed and that it would be demeaning and demoralizing for the Red Cross to pre-judge their ability to make good decisions.

I don’t know how much our discussions changed anyone’s opinions, but they were always civil and motivated by a deep concern for the problems we were directly experiencing. In our ordinary lives we tend to spend most of our time with people who share our world view; it is after all the way that most of us are most comfortable. If having to be the bearer of bad news was the worst part of volunteering in Baton Rouge, maybe the best part was having the opportunity to interact with good people who looked at things from different perspectives and who challenged me to reexamine my own assumptions.

Postscript

There has been a lot of criticism of the Red Cross’s response to the disasters on the Gulf Coast since I completed my volunteer service. From my own experiences, I know that some of it is justified. There were many communities that were well-served, but there were also some that received little or no attention from the Red Cross. The response was huge, but it was also sometimes chaotic and even ineffective. According to “A Failure of Initiative,” the congressional investigation of the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina issued in early 2006, “…the American Red Cross and other [charitable organizations] faced challenges due to the size of the mission, inadequate logistics capacity and a disorganized shelter process.”

That said, it is important to remember that the Red Cross accomplishes its work with a mostly volunteer workforce that turns over about every three weeks. The Katrina disaster was more than 20 times larger than any American Red Cross mission in its 125-year history. In response to hurricanes in all of calendar 2004, the Red Cross provided financial assistance to 73,000 families. For hurricane Katrina alone the figure is over 1.2 million families. Figures for nights of shelter, meals served and volunteers required are correspondingly in excess of all previous records.

The Red Cross clearly has a lot to learn from their experience with Katrina, and I hope that they are deeply involved in assessment and restructuring. However, as the congressional report makes clear, with all of its weaknesses and faults, the performance of the Red Cross and other charitable organizations was still far better than that of FEMA and other governmental agencies. “Despite falling short of being universally present everywhere there was a need,” the report explained, “the Red Cross and numerous other charitable organizations performed admirably and heroically in reaching the greatest number of people with impressive speed.” Perhaps there is something that our government agencies could learn from NGOs, should they care to look.

The congressional report on the preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina is available. At 380 pages you may not want to read it all, but overall it’s both informative and troubling.

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