Answers From the Hot Zone

How to help?

Periodically, the Hot Zone team will use this space to answer some reader questions and to provide updates on previous stories.

In this first installment, we want to address a recurring theme in Hot Zone coverage. A number of readers want to know more about how to help those featured in Kevin Sites' stories.

One reader wrote: "Why not set up a way to transmit money ... via something like PayPal ... to help people such as the mother and four children in Haiti [read Life Without a Net] to raise money for a net to catch fish, to buy 'safe' water, enough basic food, health care? The electronic age allows others to connect and respond. ... So why not set up a method to transfer funds for those who would like to help, even in a modest way?"

It's not as simple as PayPal, but the Hot Zone includes a "How to Help" section for each location Kevin Sites covers. It's located on the right column of the page, below the advertisement.

We research and provide links for established international groups that we believe can help channel donations to a particular country and its people in the most direct way. These groups not only have systems in place for disbursing and tracking money, they also usually have field officers on the ground in the places where the money is going.

The system isn't perfect - nothing in conflict is - but it's the most effective way to make a difference.

The reasons for this are complex and can vary by location.

Overall, it's important to keep in mind that conflict causes destruction. It sounds simple but cannot be overstated; conflict takes a heavy toll on a country and its people, resulting in poverty and disease, as well as the destruction of infrastructure.

Many of the places that Kevin Sites has reported from so far — Somalia, Sudan, Haiti and

The cruel irony, then, is that this lack of infrastructure makes it difficult to send aid to countries where people need help the most. Corruption and poor accounting practices are also a factor. It is often impossible to track money sent directly to a person or small institution in a war-stricken country, or to verify that your money has reached the intended recipient.

Material support isn't the only way to make a difference, however. Later this week, we'll post an update on Gulsoma, the Child Bride in Afghanistan.

-Hot Zone Senior Producer Robert Padavick 

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