Every year the world faces multiple Man Made and Natural Disasters. Larger, more bureaucratic organizations often reach out to their donors soliciting dollars for Emergency Aid, but it often takes many months for that help to reach the people who so desperately need it. Why?
Because large organizations become victims of their infrastructure.
HOT's nimbleness permits us to help people when they need it and because of our constant vetting of our partner Agencies, who are on the “front lines,” we are often able to IMMEDIATELY disperse funds and know that they will INSTANTLY go to help the people in desperate need. In most cases HOT discontinues its help within a week to 10 days for that is generally when the first of the money from the behemoth charities starts to reach those in need.
HOT does NOT respond to all disasters. Why? Because unless HOT has a partner on the ground, or in the case of Katrina where we quickly and thoroughly vetted an Agency to work with, HOT will not get involved. HOT will NOT blindly transfer money to Agencies that it has not researched and when it is not confident every dollar will go to help those in need.
We are often sending money hours before it is spent and therefore we cannot wait to contact our donors to ask them for help. When we do this the money comes from left over amounts (after seeding the “regular projects”) from what our large donor gave us or from using undesignated contributions from other donors. We would like you to consider directing part of what you give each year to a fund that HOT would be able to use to help those in need on Day 1 of a tragedy. Sadly, there will be other disasters and we are looking for designated contributions of any size that will help us build a fund of $500,000 to permit us to always be able to respond quickly to needs. As in all designations, please be specific, and tell us if you want your funds to go to help those dealing with Natural Disasters or if it should go to only help Victims of Terror, or both.
I am going to list below some of the Major Man-Made and Natural Disasters in the World in the last 6 years and quickly tell you how and when HOT was involved in helping its victims.
2005 – Hurricane Katrina – HOT sent 10 forty foot trailers over the first 10 days, each containing what MEMA (the Mississippi agency that functioned as well as FEMA functioned poorly) volunteers told us was really needed such as bottled water, specific canned foods, disinfectants and other sanitary items. HOT galvanized an entire community to work with us.
2005 – Hurricane Wilma – The storm destroyed houses and made most roads impassable but HOT managed to get to the Caridad Center the day after the storm. We were able to provide immediate assistance, by providing money for food, bus passes (for the few busses that were running), and lodging for the families whose homes were destroyed by the storm. Additionally, HOT purchased large amounts of food which it brought to RRJFS and participated in the apartment by apartment delivery of the food to home bound elders.
2006 – Israel’s War With Hezbollah – Within hours after the vicious rocket attacks on the north of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Israeli’s fled to the center of the country exhausting its housing, supplies and social service infrastructure. The next day we got emails from many of our “partners” telling us what they needed to meet the needs of what was the equivalent of an instant refugee population. We were able to make immediate dollar and shekel transfers to partners that we had confidence in and who quickly mobilized to expand their programming. Subsequent to the War HOT gave the seed money that produced matching grants to fund an Emergency Command Center in a secure bunker that’s advanced computerized communications system has been set up to coordinate all help to civilians during times of crisis. HOT has not forgotten Shlomi.
2007 – Rocket Attacks on Sderot – By May the rocket fire from Gaza was so intense that thousands of residents fled and those remaining were afraid to send their children to school and were even more afraid of where they would play after school. HOT, with the help of a donor and another organization, refurbished six bomb shelters into dual use shelters so that they could be used for teen centers and after school care. HOT has not forgotten Sderot.
2008/2009 – Towards the end of 2008 Hamas shot more and more missiles into southern Israel and the Israelis responded with a major operation into Gaza. Until a cease-fire, Hamas was relentless in firing missiles. To ensure the safety of the children of Sderot (and the surrounds) Israel daily bused them to areas in the middle of the country for school. Since these children were away from home from dawn to dusk it was imperative to make sure they had a complete lunch. We contacted one of our long time donors and they matched our funds, permitting us to feed many of these kids. HOT has not forgotten Sderot.
2010 – The Haitian Earthquake displaced a higher percentage of the population of a country than any Natural Disaster in our lifetimes. HOT was unable to partner up with anyone on the ground during the early days after the quake and left it to the larger organizations to supply relief BUT we found a way to do our part by working with Feeding South Florida and supplying weekend food for the poorest children living in the “Little Haiti” section of Miami. What we are doing their ensures these kids get food on days that they are not fed by the Federal Hot Meal Program AND frees up money for their parents to send money to their relatives in Haiti who are still suffering. The suffering in Haiti is continuing, as is our support for “Little Haiti”.
2011 – We do not have the resources nor the contacts to do anything other than pray for those that are suffering from the ravages of the earthquake and following tsunami and economic disarray and radiation that the Japanese people are continuing to face.
2011 (AGAIN) – We just returned from Israel. Hamas was again shooting rockets into southern Israel including Sderot. There is now another cease-fire. How long will the “new cease-fire” last? We don’t know, but as mentioned above we are continuing to help the people whose homes face rocket fire at every moment.
$500,000 is not enough to save the world but it is enough for HOT to be there on Day 1 and to make a difference, a profound difference.