Archive for April, 2021
29 April 2021
Day 24 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
Spend it Well has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the significant donors to the East Timor flood relief effort.
The bar chart from the UN’s report released today (below in US$) shows that Spend it Well’s donors have provided more assistance than each of the EU, China, Korea, the USA, the Asia Foundation and the ANZ bank. Our involvement would rank even higher if you take into account that 100% of donated funds have been used to buy food and supplies for people in need – none of our funds have been used for wages or other administrative costs.
What this shows is that individuals and small organisations can make a difference. It has been made possible because of the generous donations by hundreds of people and our great partnership with Sabeh to help us organise and deliver tens of thousands of items.
The UN report which can be viewed here shows that more than 31,000 households have been affected across the country, with almost 4,000 people still in evacuation centres, many of whom may not be able to return to their homes. Over 2,000 hectares of agricultural area have been affected by the flooding.
20 April 2021
Day 15 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
The $20,110 of donations we have received in the last 7 days have now become $40,110 due to Peter McMullin’s generous matching grant. Our huge thanks go to Peter and to everyone else who helped us to achieve this with their donations.
UNICEF reports that 45 people died in the floods and that they affected 25,709 households and destroyed 4,546 houses across East Timor. In Dili alone, 8,885 people were displaced and 1,434 children are living in temporary shelters.
When we first spoke to Sabeh about working together to deliver food and supplies, we thought we’d be able to contribute about $10,000. But in the 15 days since Simon’s first message about what had happened in East Timor, people’s generosity has been extraordinary and we’ve received $162,863. Because we are on the ground, small and nimble and found a great partner in Sabeh, we’ve been able to spend $99,600 to date, to buy and deliver food and supplies quickly to more than 9,000 people.
We have approximately $60,000 still to use to help. We are reviewing daily how best to spend this. When we receive requests like those below, we know that our donor funds are being used well helping people to be warm, clothed and fed.
Today Dr Andre from Sabeh received a desperate call from students who have been living in makeshift tents with no assistance at all since their boarding house in Dili was flooded. We were able to have food and supplies delivered to them this afternoon.
Yesterday Sabeh carried out another massive delivery of food and supplies bought by Spend it Well’s donors to the 4 villages in Laclo (outside Dili in Manatuto District).
Most of the need we are now seeing and trying to help with is outside Dili. It’s hard to get supplies to people in the districts because of Covid border restrictions and road collapses, but we are finding ways to make it happen. We’re now sourcing and preparing for another big delivery for more than 500 families in Same, Baucau and Metinaro which are all outside Dili.
  
18 April 2021
Day 13 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
It’s 2 weeks today since the floods hit East Timor. This is what we’ve all managed to achieve since then:
Days of Flood Relief Work: 13
Total Money Raised: A$154,533
Total Donor Money Spent: A$98,600.73
Refuge Camps Supported: 2
Villages Supported: 30
Approx Number of Families Supported: 1,800
Approx Total Number of People Supported: 9,000
% of Donor Money spent on petrol, wages, truck hire or other admin costs: 0%
Items Bought and Distributed include:
46,625 kg of rice
1,836 2 litre bottles cooking oil
78,840 packs of noodles
725 cans of pork
1,331 cans of beef
1,246 packs of coffee
1,440 eggs
1,595 1kg packs of sugar
1,246 kg packs of flour
200 kg of onions
200 kg of garlic
3,060 spoons
2,280 plates
1,819 mattresses
3,103 blankets
2,220 mosquito nets
752 tarpaulins
4,608 bars of soap
6,000 packs of detergent
3,168 packs of santitary pads
2,250 kg second-hand kids’ clothes
1,330 kg second-hand adults’ clothes
$1,900 medicine
Simon Fenby from Spend it Well and Dr Andre from Sabeh started a collaboration 13 days ago in response to the flood crisis. Sabeh had many volunteers able to assist and we thought we’d be able to raise a small sum of money to buy some food and supplies. Our donors’ generosity has far exceeded our hopes though and we’ve raised $154,433 (and still counting). Spend it Well’s procurement operation has scaled up from a purchase total of A$4,200 on day 1 to A$22,000 on Day 12. So many volunteers have been working to make this happen all day every day for the last 2 weeks
The gratitude and grace of people we have been able to assist has been extraordinary. We’re not finished yet – we’ll keep spending the money we’ve been given for the purpose it was given – helping the people of Timor to recover.
16 April 2021
Day 11 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Relief
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Spend it Well East Timor Flood Relief
Day 11
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| We are closing in on our $20,000 matching donation total – with donations since Tuesday currently at $15,690. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated.
Yesterday, supplies and food were delivered to 72 families – 347 people in 5 different villages around Dili. Sabeh headed out to deliver supplies to one of these villages at 7pm last night when they were told that they had nothing.
We’ve been hearing that the districts outside Dili are in desperate need of assistance. So today, we and Sabeh have delivered 3 trucks and 6 utes full of food and supplies for 405 families – 1748 people in 4 villages in the Luco area (part of Manatutu district), 65km east of Dili. Because of the Covid perimeter we were only allowed to go half-way, where the Laco community moved everything onto their vehicles to take to the village.
The food and supplies for Laco (paid for by Spend it Well donors) cost A$17,000 which bought:
420 mattresses
420 mosquito nets
420 blankets
270 kg second hand children’s clothes
720 eggs
8,400 kg of rice
420 x 1kg packs of flour
420 x 1kg packs of sugar
192 cans of beef
16,800 packs of noodles
360 packs of sanitary napkins
288 bars of soap
152 packs of coffee
420 x 2 litre bottles of cooking oil
1500 packs washing up detergent
A few donors have asked us how we are doing this monumental job of sourcing. Supplies are still easily available in Dili – this is because so few of the people who lost everything have the money to replace what they have lost. One of our team has been managing all our procurement, negotiating hard for bulk rates from stores in Dili which are being delivered to Sabeh, whose volunteers package them into family packs before we distribute them in the afternoons. Our Spend it Well team is almost exclusively volunteers – working all day for each of the last 11 days to get help to people.
It’s amazing how much you can get done with a great team of people, an incredible need and people around the world who have generously donated money. 100% of your money has been used to purchase the supplies that have been delivered. All associated costs such as petrol and truck hire have been separately funded. No money has been lost to bureaucracy or administration. Thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
   
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14 April 2021
Day 9 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
| In the two days since Peter McMullin promised to match donations up to $20,000, we have received $10,120. We have 5 more days to try to reach the total. Thank you so much to everyone who has so generously donated (many people for the second time).
While people have been donating money, we have been spending it on the ground. Over the last two days we spent A$19,000 on food and supplies for 471 families – about 2,300 people in 5 villages.
That money bought:
420 mattresses
420 mosquito nets
840 blankets
252 4m x 3m tarpaulins
420 spoons
270 kg second hand children’s clothes
600 kg second hand adults’ clothes
5 x large community frypans
8,400 kg of rice
150 x 1kg packs of flour
420 x 1kg packs of sugar
20,000 packs of noodles
720 bars of soap
240 x 2 litre bottles of cooking oil
720 packs washing up detergent
We are receiving more requests for emergency relief every day.
 
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