Donate If You Can

Hey folks,

I know it's hard to figure out how to help in a crisis as large and far away as this one is, especially with reliable information being so hard to get. I think, as with most large-scale disasters far away, the best Americans can do is try to fund efforts that experts are spearheading.

Here's the page for the International Committee of the Red Cross. If you donate to their Tashkent regional efforts, the money will be directed toward dealing with the humanitarian crisis in southern Kyrgyzstan and border areas in Uzbekistan.

The Red Cross has around 80,000 refugees at the Uzbek borders, which have been overwhelmed. Dysentery is appearing in camps. Some of the injured are scared to seek treatment. This is a humanitarian crisis that will not be going away anytime soon.

I know it's a hard time for everyone, and I know that Kyrgyzstan is a small country very far away, making it hard to give up one's hard-earned and needed money. I'm sure I wouldn't care quite so much if I hadn't walked and worked in these places, eaten in homes that have now likely been deserted and burned, cared for and been cared for by people caught up in this chaos. But please, please, help anyway you can.

Love