There have been two mega natural disasters in 2010: the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan. Because of the generosity of our members, UUSC is responding to both. So is the global community. But there has been a marked difference in the level of support to Haiti and Pakistan.

Worldwide, donations per affected Haitian reached an average of $157 two weeks after the U.N. appeal, compared with $15 per affected Pakistani. That's 10 times as much raised per survivor in Haiti than in Pakistan!

Why? Why do some disasters attract more support than others?

This is the question Elizabeth Ferris of the Brookings Institution explores in a report comparing Haiti and Pakistan. She begins by reviewing the scale of the two disasters. More people have been directly affected by the disaster in Pakistan than in Haiti: 20 million compared to 3 million. But a greater percentage of the overall population has been affected in Haiti than in Pakistan: 30 percent in Haiti compared to 12 percent in Pakistan.

Ferris also compares Haiti and Pakistan economically. While both countries are poor, Haiti is poorer; Haiti's gross domestic product (GDP) per person is about $733, while Pakistan's is $1,017. The economic damage from the disaster in Haiti represent a smaller number, but a far higher percentage of its GDP (119 percent of Haiti's GDP compared to the still very significant 5.8 percent for Pakistan).

Regardless of the statistics, humanitarian principles affirm that aid should be extended on the basis of need alone. So, why the significant difference in support?

The most common explanations, according to Ferris (and as a worker in this field, I would agree), include that there was more media focused on the crisis in Haiti than in Pakistan. Earthquakes are instantaneously dramatic — creating a sense of immediate urgency that works well in popular media, while floods (as experienced in Pakistan) happen over a longer time period. So people saw and heard more about Haiti. There was also far more death and injury in Haiti than Pakistan, and causalities prompt greater reactions. Finally, the proximity of the United States to Haiti, the large Haitian diaspora in the United States, and the long history of humanitarian and development work in Haiti are other factors that encouraged greater support.

But Ferris also questions whether there are other factors at play. Were global contributions to Pakistan lower because we might be concerned with corruption? (Even though Haiti ranks lower than Pakistan on corruption perceptions indices.) Or might we (of the major donor countries) be linking Pakistan to Islamic extremism? Are we thinking that Pakistan is a corrupt country that harbors terrorists? And if so, does that mean we might think some people need (or deserve) international aid more than others? Or do we perhaps think that Haiti is our neighbor, and other countries should focus on Pakistan? Or did the media's inclusion of stories about suicide bombings in the coverage of the Pakistan floods somehow influence our donations?

Ferris poses interesting questions. Within the report and the text of a subsequent speech on the same topic, she asks even more — questioning the role of politics, whether some kinds of assistance (or its delivery) are more harmful than helpful, and what role human rights and ethics play in the response to natural disasters.

Why do you think there has been such a disparity in response to these two disasters? We'd love to hear from you!

John Crossan, a participant on the Uganda JustJourney, shares his awe of the villages of northern Uganda and the environment that they inhabit.

The trip to Pader has been amazing. Two things I'd like to comment on are the villages we visited and the "bush." Actually, the villages are deep in the bush so they are related.

My wife and I were with the group that visited two villages — one with perhaps two young families and one built for the vulnerable or elderly. These villages seemed self-sustaining, especially with the availability of oxen and plows. A number of members of the villages told us their stories of survival during the war.

The bush is truly dense and extensive; a person who steps in the bush would disappear in a few steps, especially if he or she stays low. It is easy to see how a rebel or a villager could completely disappear in the bush, with its dense grass, bushes, and a few trees.

We have completed the first leg of our JustJourney. It has been a profoundly moving trip, rich with testimony of deep and previous wrongs as well as rebuilding, repairing, and envisioning an empowered future.

We have learned firsthand about the atrocities committed in northern Uganda and listened to heartbreaking testimonies of abductions, years of subsistence living in the bush, and deaths of mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives. We have felt the shame of having been part of this long-forgotten conflict.

But peace in northern Uganda is now at hand. Families have returned to their villages, schools are being built, children are beginning to feel safe again, and people are starting to earn their own livelihoods again. We visited villages which are alive with the energy of optimism, moving from owning one goat to five, one ox to two oxen and a plow — all indications of growth and rebirth.

We have spoken with villagers, government representatives, and university and school teachers, and each conveys a singularly consistent message: we believe in ourselves and the future of Uganda. The times of handouts and foreign aid are winding down, and Ugandans are ready to steer their own future.

So we leave humbled and hopeful — humbled by what the people of northern Uganda have endured and hopeful because we know their future is in their very capable hands.

Rev. Sally Beth Shore of the UU Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley, writes from Uganda, where she is part of Witness to a Return Home, a joint UUSC-UUA JustJourney.

Today our group is still in the Pader district, after spending two days out in the countryside where Acholi people have returned to their villages from the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. UUSC's partner organization, Caritas, has worked to help people return by having social workers help returning families find resources to enable resettlement. Today one of them, Jennifer, shared her story with us.

Jennifer's first experience with the war in northern Uganda came in 1996, when her village was attacked by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). She spent two days hiding in the bush with her young children until they were gone. A secretary by training, Jennifer left her job at the primary school when people were being displaced to camps, but she was able to get a job helping with food and supply distribution in the IDP camp for Sudanese refugees. In 2000, that camp was attacked by the LRA; she sought to make her way into the bush, but she was trapped in the office and surrounded that night.

In the morning she watched as LRA members sorted and butchered her coworkers, some of whose body parts were boiled in a kettle. Before she was forced to eat this, however, the government army entered the camp and gave chase to the LRA soldiers. Jennifer, taking her four-year-old with her, decided to make her way on foot to her home village, which took almost three days. She arrived to learn that the LRA was hunting her, and that they had already killed two of her uncles who had denied knowing her. Her father advised her to flee and gathered a little bit of money from relatives so she could make the trip to the town of Lira. She found lodging there, but had no more money and two children to feed. The women from whom she was renting her room helped her start selling small things in a market stall so she could support herself. After awhile, she was able to find a job as a secondary-school secretary in another town. However, the town where this school was located was not in Acholi territory; she was in the Langey area, and the Ugandan Army attacked there, so again Jennifer left her job.

She then learned of some American scholars doing a study in the IDP camps on the effects of war on youth, and she was able to work with them as a field researcher. As this study was concluding, she came to the attention of Martha Thompson, the manager UUSC's Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program, who had come to do an assessment with UUSC's Program Director Atema Eclai for  UUSC to begin work in northern Uganda. UUSC decided to partner with Caritas in Pader district in northern Uganda, helping people return to their villages. When UUSC launched their program through Caritas, Martha remembered her discussions with Jennifer and negotiated with Caritas to have her join the team working with the displaced. Jennifer began to work on the UUSC Caritas project in 2008.

It's easy to see why Martha was impressed by this amazing woman and wished to bring her onto the team. She has shown courage, commitment, and amazing resilience in the face of adversity. The need to support and care for her children, one of whom has been traumatized badly by his war experiences, has been a driving force for Jennifer. She supports not only her own two children, but seven of her sisters' children as well, because her two sisters were killed — one by the Ugandan Army, one by the LRA — during the years of fighting. When Jennifer engages with her clients, they learn that she is truly standing with them, having experienced many of the same horrors and hardship they have during the long time of war.

On the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Rev. John Gibbons, chair of the UUSC Board of Trustees and a participant on the Uganda JustJourney, honors the strength of the people in northern Uganda who have faced the devastation of war and are rebuilding their lives.

Tonight the electricity was out in Pader, a remote town in northern Uganda much traumatized by the long-forgotten war. As our group gathered at the end of a long day, former UUSC board member Jim Gunning lit our flaming chalice in part for its light but especially to remind us that the chalice was originally designed in the 1930s for us in Prague and elsewhere in Europe so that the Unitarian Service Committee could be identified as a safe haven to those fleeing the tightening vise of Nazism.

Now, in another country and on another continent, UUSC’s work continues as UUSC partners aid refugees who — despite horrific losses, dislocation and trauma — now attempt to return home to their villages in the aftermath of war. For many years, thousands of people were forced to live in the fear and chaos of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), women and girls risking rape when seeking firewood beyond the camp perimeters.

With many children abducted to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves, and many others murdered and missing, there is need today for both justice and reconciliation within families, communities, and badly brutalized hearts. In the remaining days of our JustJourney, we will continue to hear the stories of those hurt and healing.

Noticing that it is November 9, I realized that on this date in 1938 fascist mobs across Germany attacked, desecrated, and destroyed Jewish homes, synagogues and stores. Kristallnacht, the “night of the broken glass,” is recalled as a harbinger of the Holocaust. Condoned by the state and empowered by the silence of bystanders, evil enlarged overnight.

For northern Uganda, it was more than 10 years before the world much noticed the war and the suffering of thousands. “We felt abandoned,” the people say. Today, with the guns mostly put down and the camps mostly closed, many relief workers and nongovernmental organizations are leaving Uganda and returning to their homes in other countries. Meanwhile, the Ugandan people are now returning to their homes and villages, their lives devastated by war, still needful of justice and reconciliation. Sharing their lives and aspirations, UUSC remains with them.

On this anniversary of Kristallnacht, I recall those who once fled their homes in Europe and, on this dark night in Pader, I honor those who here and now are returning home. May peace prevail and may none be abandoned.

The JustJourney to Uganda arrived in Gulu (northern Uganda) on Sunday. Marie Kidder shares her impressions of the people and places they’re visiting in the north.

We are staying in a compound near the cathedral; there are bells at 6:30 a.m. Nuns who were up late to care for us were up early to make sure we had breakfast.

We are clearly in the north. One of our hosts said, "In the south, they say, ‘What can I do?’; in the north, they say, ‘What can we do?’" In the south, the institutions were run by the government; the churches are the anchor of the north. The religious compounds are for religious services, language lessons, schools, medical care, and security. We saw amazing caretaking.

We are reflecting on yesterday’s inspirational stories. Sister AnnaMaria from the Aboke girls’ school (where the rebels abducted 139 girls) talked about the abductions and the fact that she lost some of her girls, which she had to come to peace with. Fr. Luis told of the father who searched for his lost son, found him in government custody, and had to get paperwork to show he was not a rebel — only to return with the paperwork and find him dead. He said he's unable to forgive because his government killed his son for no reason. Paul, one of the Caritas leaders, told us that church leaders came together up here to start working on the peace process. Even imams joined in.

In our meeting at the seminary, they told us that northern Uganda was left alone without any help for nine years of the war. It was off limits to travelers. The Africans have a saying: "When two people fight, it is the grass that suffers."

Paul, the Caritas worker, is a remarkable young man. His nephew was abducted and later rescued, and Paul has forgiven him. One of four children, Paul has experienced much loss. One brother died of disease, and one other died in the war. Together they left five children, and Paul came back after university in Kampala to raise them. "I was a father before I was a husband," he says. He and his wife have a 14-year-old son and two daughters. Paul was a "night commuter" with his children, walking into Gulu every night to sleep.

UUA International Resources Director Rev. Eric Cherry shares the inspiration that he's experienced visiting UUSC partners in northern Uganda as part of the joint UUSC-UUA JustJourney. 

The past few days have been incredible. On Saturday, we left Kampala for northern Uganda, to begin the next phase of the trip. While in northern Uganda, we are travelling through communities that were ravaged by the civil war with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), largely in Acholi-land.

Our first stop was at the Akobe Girl's School, which was the site of a terrible event that finally brought the attention of the international community to the conflict in northern Uganda. More than 130 students were abducted by the LRA during a night raid. Following the raid, a brave rescue attempt by one of the nuns at the school and a science teacher led to approximately 100 girls being released.

The remaining abducted girls, like thousands of children from all over northern Uganda, were forcibly integrated into the LRA and suffered horrendous atrocities. Many further attempts were made to bring about their return and, over many years, all but one of the students ultimately did return.

We heard this incredible story and learned about the resilience of the school from its current headmistress, who served during much of the civil war. She described immense trauma and pain. But she also described the ongoing commitment of the school to its mission of providing one of the leading educational experiences for girls in Uganda. It was truly inspirational. The complete story is told in the book Stolen Angels.

At the school, we also connected with our hosts, who are the coordinators of Caritas, a human-rights partner of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. They introduced us to the Iceme Mission and its pastor, Father Luis. He cared for his community during the civil war and continues to serve them well during the ongoing recovery. He described the deep spiritual and emotional trauma that the community experienced and continues to struggle with.

All of Sunday was spent with Caritas partners in the town of Gulu, the headquarters of the diocese. The monsignor explained more about the context of the LRA and the struggle. He helped us to understand the psychological scars as well as the recovery efforts that are underway. The staffers at Caritas told moving stories of how they intervened — and continue to intervene — on behalf of their community, and spoke about interfaith initiatives to seek justice and reconciliation.

Today, we travelled to the small town of Pader where Caritas is working with internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are in the difficult process of "returning home" from camps. Along the way, we stopped at Fort Baker, which was a brutal transit site of the slave trade. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to visiting former IDP camps and people in that "returning process." We'll share more of that experience soon.

The survivors of the largest natural disaster in Haiti's history — January's earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale — are now bracing themselves against a new foe. Tropical Storm Tomas is slated to hit the island nation of Haiti tomorrow, Friday, November 5, at 8:00 a.m. Anyone who has read the news recently knows that Haiti has experienced more than its fair share of tribulations; communities are still struggling for the basic necessities while in the grips of a cholera outbreak.

While the eye of the storm is not expected to pass over the land, the heavy winds and rains will damage already unstable shelter structures that many of the 1.3 million displaced people are living in. The rains will also create puddles of water, breeding grounds for cholera and other water-borne diseases.    

While what the Haitian people are facing is almost too much to fathom, as a member and supporter of UUSC, you can be assured that our staff, partners, and allies are doing what they can to support their communities through this storm and in the long-term recovery process. As I write this, one of our partners is evacuating 40 orphan girls from one camp to stable structures on higher ground. One of the major concerns right now is that people who are living in camps are being told that they have to leave due to the impending storm, but they have no transportation and no place to go. This has only exacerbated the frustrations of people who are still living in emergency conditions almost 10 months after the earthquake — frustrations that are growing as the upcoming election approaches.

UUSC is working to make sure that policy makers in the United States are doing what they can to protect people in Haiti. UUSC joined with the Haiti Advocacy Working Group to get an urgent message to the State Department last night urging the United States to help transport people to safety. We got an immediate message back with a promise to follow up with key people at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations.

I urge you to send your thoughts, prayers, and support to the people of Haiti in the days to come. Whether or not Tomas comes ashore, we have a responsibility to do justice to the resilience of the people of Haiti by standing shoulder to shoulder with them in the fight for a just recovery. We will continue to update you as we get information from our partners and staff about the current situation in Haiti.  

I'm in Haiti right now exploring possibilities for a Haiti Volunteer Program. Outside it's raining cats and dogs, but that hasn't dampened the spirits of the 40 newly graduated students inside the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) training center here in the Central Plateau. They have come from across the country to complete the third session of a Trauma Resource Institute (TRI) training in how to recognize and better respond to people experiencing trauma in the aftermath of January's catastrophic earthquake, which took the lives of an estimated 230,000 Haitians.    

In MPP's cavernous auditorium, amidst shelter boxes sent after the earthquake from the Rotary Club International, these students have spent two days talking about how the body responds to trauma. In Haiti's familial culture, in which generations live under the same roof and on the same street, mental-health practitioners are still mostly unheard of. It is simply not culturally acceptable to talk about personal problems with near-total strangers — that is what family is for. But what if everyone in your family has suffered the same fate? Or what happens when everyone in your family is gone? How do you make sense of it all? How do you take those first tentative steps toward rebuilding? 

Through its partnership with TRI, UUSC has sent a team of trauma specialists from the United States to work with MPP in the Central Plateau and in Port-au-Prince to teach coping skills to earthquake survivors. Survivors are dealing with symptoms that include nausea, insomnia, nightmares, and weakness. The training provides survivors with the resources and skills to help people understand how their bodies react to trauma and how they can recognize and better absorb the effects of severe anxiety.    

The students graduating from this unique and innovative training will go on to participate in one of two extended programs, in which they will continue to grow the skills needed to become trainers themselves.

In Haiti's Central Plateau, a small revolution is occurring, and it is taking its inspiration from the humble tire — lots of them, in fact. Each one has been intercepted on its way to the trash pile and given a second life on a Haitian farm, thanks to UUSC partner the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP). 

This past spring, as people poured into MPP's training center seeking refuge from the chaos of Port-au-Prince, staff there were helping farmers increase their food supply and stabilize local food sovereignty. The Road to Life Yard is an innovative MPP project that collects used and de-treaded tires from Port-au-Prince, inverts them, and turns them into four-foot-wide planters that farmers can use to grow food. 

MPP staffer Marc Hare first came across tire gardens in Nicaragua, where he saw them being used to grow vegetables in the middle of the dry season. They required very little water but still managed to produce significant yields. When he came to Haiti six years ago, he brought the concept with him. 

The tires act as receptacles for rainwater, which keeps the soil moist long after a rain. For this reason, they consume much less water than traditional gardens — a plus in a country like Haiti that has seasons of limited rainfall. Also, farmers can control the soil that goes into the tire basin. Mark and others at MPP encourage farmers to use nutrient-packed loam, enriched by composting or vermiculture (which uses worm castings), to help build up the soil and ready it for production. Finally, because the tires are placed on slats above ground, they are less susceptible to being raiding by errant goats, cows, or pigs. 

MPP's Road to Life Yard program conducts workshops to teach farmers about the tire gardens (called piloti in Haitian Creole) and a variety of other proven agricultural techniques. After the workshops, MPP visits the farmers to observe how they are putting their newly learned skills into practice. In exchange, MPP asks participants to help teach their family and neighbors what they've learned. 

For the farmer, the tire gardens are a winning proposition, which may explain why more than 100 families are now using them. According to MPP, a single tire can generate over $200 a year in produce, growing enough food to feed a family, with produce left over to sell at the market. Less labor, better results, and a chance to earn income mean that MPP is helping farmers not only have a sufficient food supply, but also one they can control themselves. This puts them further along the path toward greater food sovereignty.