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Grassroots Aid for Tsunami Victims

John Bosco is among the fisherman along Sri Lanka's northern coast who were affected by the tsunami. He lost his brother, grandparents and boat to the killer waves.
Anne Hawke, NPR /
John Bosco is among the fisherman along Sri Lanka's northern coast who were affected by the tsunami. He lost his brother, grandparents and boat to the killer waves.

As millions of dollars flow into aid organizations helping the victims of the tsunami, newspapers and Web sites continue to list mostly the largest and most reputable relief organizations.

But some people have begun to suggest donations to smaller, indigenous grassroots organizations. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

One e-mail making the rounds comes from Niaz Dorry, who calls herself a freelance activist. Once employed by Greenpeace, she's has spent the last 10 years working out of Gloucester, Mass., with small fishing communities, including many that were slammed by the Dec. 26 tsunami in Sri Lanka.

"I felt I had an opportunity to give to someone who I knew the face of," Dorry says.

She entered into an agreement with the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance to set up a bank account with a credit union in Maine. From there, money would go directly to fishing villages in Sri Lanka.

Within a week of the e-mail she had raised more than $12,000. And she began to hear from fishing groups from all over the place that wanted to help.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Margot Adler
Margot Adler died on July 28, 2014 at her home in New York City. She was 68 and had been battling cancer. Listen to NPR Correspondent David Folkenflik's retrospective on her life and career