More Than $125-Million Raised for Humanitarian Aid in Middle East

By Caroline Preston

More than a month into the fighting between Israel and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah, some donors are stepping up their giving to help victims of the fighting. But while a few nonprofit groups have reported that the pace of contributions is accelerating, they say the money raised so far — about $125-million — still falls well short of needs.

As a result of the escalating violence in the embattled region, many charities are now increasing their fund-raising efforts.

Islamic Relief, which recently upped its worldwide fund-raising goal from $5-million to $6.4-million, has received more than $1.4-million through its U.S. office, in Buena Park, Calif., to provide humanitarian aid in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

“It’s a really encouraging response, and as people see the humanitarian need, they are responding,” says Mostafa Mahboob, a spokesman for the aid group. But “the more we see of the situation on the ground,” he says, “the more we realize this is going to be a long-term recovery and there is going to be great need.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross has increased its fund-raising goal tenfold in response to increased devastation — from $8-million to $81-million. (While the group receives most of its support from governments, the American Red Cross has provided more than $66,000 toward the international Red Cross’s goal.)

At the same time, Jewish organizations are increasing the amount of money they hope to raise for relief and rebuilding in Israel.

United Jewish Communities, the umbrella group for Jewish federations, has raised at least $115-million so far in a campaign for $300-million to create summer camps for children displaced by attacks, provide trauma counseling, refurbish bomb shelters, and offer assistance to victims of the fighting and their families. (The organization had started with a goal of $18-million.)

Doron Krakow, a senior vice president of the organization, says that the campaign’s current goal is a “bare minimum” that could be further expanded.

“One reason our number is not definitive is that as each day passes, the extent of the damage gets worse and the scope of rehabilitation gets bigger,” he says.

Faster Pace

Other charities that initially received a tepid response from donors say that contributions came at a faster pace this month. Mercy Corps has now raised more than $1-million, compared with $70,000 in the two weeks after the war broke out, to provide food, medical supplies, and other help to people who have fled their homes because of fighting.

Matthew de Galan, chief development officer at Mercy Corps, says that some fund-raising techniques the charity traditionally relies on, like paid advertising, have been unsuccessful in attracting money for the crisis. Instead, the charity has focused on communicating with its most-generous donors, emphasizing the situation in the Middle East on its Web site and in e-mail appeals, and contacting Lebanese-Americans and others with ties to the crisis.

“We’re pleased that it took off really dramatically,” says Mr. de Galan. “It’s been in the news now for some weeks, and the humanitarian side of the story is more and more a part of the coverage. People realize it’s a problem that’s not going away.”

Other charities that say they are pleased with relief contributions include American Friends of Magen David Adom (Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross), which has raised more than $4.5-million; the United States Fund for Unicef, which has brought in $720,000; American Near East Refugee Aid, which has raised more than $300,000; and Life for Relief and Development, which has received more than $325,000.

Political Scrutiny

But as the number of people displaced by the crisis, particularly in Lebanon, continues to grow, other charities say that getting donors to make cash contributions to meet humanitarian needs in the region remains a challenge. (Some estimates have projected that nearly a million Lebanese, a quarter of the population, have left their homes.)

Catholic Relief Services has raised $567,000 toward its goal of $1-million, while Save the Children has received just $25,000.

Fund raisers and others say that some donors may be turned off by the politics involved in the crisis and greater scrutiny over how people direct their gifts.

The United Jewish Communities campaign has drawn fire from at least one rabbi who suggested that Jewish donors should be supporting Lebanon and the Palestinian territories as well as Israel.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun, says that giving money only to Israel sends a bad message: “Since when should a Jewish organization care only about Jews when the Torah explicitly commands, Thou shalt love the stranger”?

He plans to establish a fund to raise $50-million for reconstruction in Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. For its part, United Jewish Communities has said that supporting Lebanon or other countries is not part of its charitable mission.

But at least one relief group working in Lebanon reports that its aid efforts there have been buoyed by Jewish donors. International Medical Corps has received several big gifts from Jewish individuals and organizations, raising $400,000 so far.

“We’re finding that Jewish organizations really want to help,” says Margaret Aguirre, vice president for communications. “They want to show that they care about all people and want to help people wherever they are.”

Even so, contributions to Israel have far outpaced those to Lebanon, in part because some donors fear that their support could be misconstrued, says Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Mr. Hooper says the disparity is partly due to donors’ fear that their contributions might be viewed as supporting Hezbollah or be subject to increased scrutiny by the government, which has monitored many Muslim groups’ finances since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mr. Hooper’s council has funneled donations to a Muslim aid organization in Southfield, Mich., but he says that the council’s employees have not felt that they could ask donors to give cash.

“We were reduced to asking people for supplies. At least people might feel comfortable sending rice or flour,” he says. “There is no such chill on the pro-Israel community.”

Violence Hampers Aid

For nonprofit groups trying to provide relief supplies in Lebanon, fund-raising challenges are overshadowed by the difficulty of getting aid to those trapped in combat areas and others who have fled the fighting to take refuge in schools, community centers, parks, and other public spaces. The lack of security and destruction of roads, bridges, and other infrastructure has made reaching them all but impossible.

The last bridge over the Litani River, which flows westward in southern Lebanon, was hit by an airstrike last week, preventing aid trucks from reaching the south. Three trucks belonging to the charity Doctors Without Borders remained stuck on the northern bank, while employees carried four tons of supplies by hand across the river, loading them onto vehicles on the other side. Meanwhile, only one of five scheduled convoys belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to travel to the country’s south the next day.

“There is simply no safe way to reach an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population in southern Lebanon,” says Neil Keny-Guyer, chief executive of Mercy Corps, who just returned from a trip to the region. “This is one of the most complicated humanitarian environments I’ve witnessed.”

The inability to transport supplies into Lebanon, meanwhile, threatens to greatly aggravate the humanitarian crisis. Fuel, in particular, is in short supply. Many hospitals say they have less than a week’s supply left; the U.N. World Health Organization estimated that if the fuel problems were not resolved, 60 percent of hospitals would not be able to operate by the end of last week.

After the fighting stops, aid groups will face the formidable task of repatriating hundreds of thousands of people who left their homes, as well as helping to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

Land mines and other unexploded ordnance could make the repatriation process even more harrowing, as could a potential shortfall of funds for the country’s longer-term needs.

Charities need to seize the opportunity to raise money for longer-term needs now — before the crisis fades from the front pages of newspapers, says Mr. Keny-Guyer of Mercy Corps. “We’ve got the world’s attention,” he says. “This is the time to raise the resources and ensure there is a package for the reconstruction.”