This profile has been converted to a group account for the convenience of making and responding to collective posts.
EA/A-shared
Karma: 205
If anyone is interested, here are some personal comments related to how this post was collectively drafted. Only for informative purposes, and nothing else.
It was drafted with the hopes that it would be read in good faith. Unfortunately, it was also drafted with multiple concerns and worries, including about its reception. (As I’m writing this comment, I can say most readers have shown their empathy, and we’ve truly appreciated this at such times).
There has never been an aim to re-direct donations that could have gone to i.e. those top-recommended by GiveWell, nor to make the case that donating to these organizations is the “most effective” giving options out of many cause areas and interventions. The former is undesirable, and the latter is simply impossible to argue. (We’ve tried to make it clear that the options shared are the relatively more effective ones for this specific cause, with the curation limited to best efforts, in the very severe aftermath of the devastating earthquakes).
We’ve had particularly those of you considerately reaching out and checking in on the community members in Turkey in mind and/or are concerned with the ongoing situation on the ground, and once again, we extend our deepest thanks to you.
We’ve also had the community in Turkey and community members of Turkish originate or have other ties with Turkey elsewhere in the world in mind i.e. silence on some matters can be hurtful in itself. Turkey is an earthquake zone, many of us have experienced or at least felt earthquakes before, however, this has been exceptionally immense. This is the worst natural disaster most people in Turkey are going through in their lifetimes, even for those of us not in the areas directly hit by the earthquake.
Hi Finn, thanks so much for your kind wishes, support and sensitivity on this situation.
Hi Henry, thanks so much for your kindness and support, and we’re glad you’ve found this post valuable.
Recognizing the disagreements with your comment, importantly, we would like to express that we would appreciate it if this particular forum post is not used as a place to generally discuss for or against the effectiveness of disaster relief (via votes and/or comments). We would like to ask those engaging with this post to please be mindful that there may be readers directly affected by the earthquake and of the sensitivity of the subject, particularly at this time (the death toll has risen by more than 5000 people since we’ve made the first post and it’s still estimated to rise). We fully agree that disaster giving is an important subject to discuss and we encourage that discussion to take place; however, please use other existing EA forum posts on the subjects of disaster relief, emergency response, or other discussion threads unattached to this forum post.
Moreover, our post is by no means a general stance or an argument on the effectiveness of disaster relief, and there are differing views related to disaster giving overall, and to doing good in general (e.i. (ultra) neartermism vs (strong) longtermism) within the EA community in Turkey just as in the broader international community. Our post mainly intends to share our thoughts in response to the considerate questions and concerns we’ve received from some of you, given the severe magnitude of the earthquakes and the resulting losses, damages, and suffering. And there are EAs that are comfortable and interested in allocating some, generally much smaller part, of their charitable donations, to organizations or causes that may be simply difficult to assess, or to personal causes, or in an imperfectly effective way; just as there are others who prefer to only or entirely donate to fully evidence-backed charities for most neglected causes only. It is valuable to discuss both approaches to charitable giving, but, preferably in more appropriate EA forum posts than this one at the moment.
We once again acknowledge that there are many uncertainties and challenges of disaster relief efforts, making assessing the effectiveness and impact of disaster relief interventions very difficult. This has also been well-explained in a recently updated Vox Article by Kelsey Piper following the earthquakes in Turkey. We’ve tried to take into account as many considerations as we could based on the situation here in Turkey while making this list (e.g. logistical difficulties given infrastructure damages, immediate vs longer-term needs of survivors, Turkish government’s measures and capabilities of enforcement for various matters, such as those related to pricing of scare supplies etc.) This list reflects our current best efforts and is limited by it, written with the intention of hopefully providing information and guidance to those interested in hearing from us in Turkey.
Hi Henrith, thanks so much for your kind message, wishes, and the blog post you’ve published as Ge Effektiv, much appreciated.
Unfortunately, there are currently no organizations in Turkey that are thoroughly researching the effectiveness of local charities (i.e. nothing even moderately comparable to GiveWell) although there are several efforts and initiatives we are following, such as AçıkAçık even though they are mainly related to transparency, accountability, and social impact rather than cost-effectiveness per se. For this reason, the organizations listed in this post reflect our current best efforts related to gathering information from various sources, utilizing our connections and network in Turkey, and our ongoing deliberations internally.
We are comfortable that these are relatively among the better options, compared to some other options out there, for those considering donating—which is why we’ve decided to share them with the broader community as we’ve received questions—particularly given the time-sensitiveness of the situation. We do continue to look for and assess more information and may update this forum post in the following hours or days if we reach conclusions that there are better options—in terms of effectiveness or impact – even though it’s very difficult to assess and understand these for disaster relief in general.
I can also add that some of the charities you’ve recommended in Ge Effektiv blog post are also currently being considered internally related to updating this forum post, if/as needed. For example, Save the Children has been working in two of the areas hit hardest, Gaziantep and Hatay, since 2014, which seems to have proven advantageous for their direct response on the ground to the earthquake (https://donate.savethechildren.org/en/donate/turkey-syria-earthquake-emergency-donate)
(Another option we are currently strongly considering adding to the list in this forum post is Hayata Destek / Support to Life, a Turkish independent humanitarian organization working particularly on emergency assistance and refugee support—even though we wouldn’t be able to vouch for them fully either for the same reasons explained above: https://www.supporttolife.org/donate/ ).
Feel free to consider naming Ahbap (or other organizations listed in this forum post) in the Ge Effektiv blog post and provide necessary reservations if/as needed if you’d like to add them. Many thanks, once again!
On behalf of the community, thanks so much for all your support and thoughtful comments.
Hi Grace, we immensely appreciate your thoughtfulness, considerateness and support. Thank you so much for your kind words and wishes, and for linking our post to the article – and for writing the article itself. We hope the article will raise awareness related to this earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria, disaster giving overall together with its challenges, and effective giving in general while helping grow GWWC through those who may come across GWWC for the first time via this article. All of this is very much appreciated, many thanks, once again.