Re: GEN : Weeding question and Overseas Donations

[Earl Sande <sandes@CODETEL.NET.DO>]

I for one hate to throw out my disarded items and being overseas I have to
think five times before I make my decision.

I hope you don't mind a word-from-the-wise, but donations overseas - while
they mean well and often schools or organizations do need almost anything -
often posed difficulties that donors are unaware.

1.  the expense - even sea freight, clearance fees, etc. are very expensive
and recipient schools who must absorb this cost often lose because the
funding comes from the library budget itself ;

2.  some governments do not distinguish between new and used items, have
restrictions that we might find strange, require pre-inspection at their
foreign embassy, or other time consuming (often costly) procedures ;

3.  some personnel may consider it their right to remove items or whole
packages from a shipment.  These are often re-sold or find their way to
other than the intended receiver ;

4.  the shipment may be used as a "cover" for other goods, goods that you
would not like delivered.  We have reason to suspect that two of our own
personal shipments had other items included and removed somewhere along route.

5.  and, finally, recognize that many, many schools and organizations that
you plan to donate to will have in their host country non-English speaking
populations.  My own example from a few years ago was an appeal to donate
items to the street children's library, finding that the children could not
read English.  My experience is that International Schools that have
English-speaking students tend to be well funded.

Before you donate overseas, please be sure there is a need and that the
items can get to the receiver with a minimum of cost.

Earl

Earl P Sande
Elementary School Librarian
Director of Library Services
Carol Morgan School
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
e-mail :  sandes@codetel.net.do

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