THE EARTHQUAKE WHICH STRUCK Pisco on Wednesday evening has left at least 500 dead, 1,600 injured and tens of thousands homeless. Relief efforts are slow because of the disruption to power supplies, transport and telecommunications.

If you want to help, you can make the choice: do you want to support immediate relief, or to alleviate suffering caused by disasters in general?

To help those affected as quickly as possible, give to charities which are already on the ground, such as Oxfam (see profile), the Red Cross (see profile)  or SOS Children’s Villages (see profile).  As they have ongoing projects in Peru, they should be familiar with the area and won’t need time to settle in.  This also provides them with connections - Oxfam has links with local partners, SOS runs Peruvian children’s villages, and the local Red Cross has a big disaster-response branch.

Do consider whether you want to concentrate on immediate humanitarian relief – which the Red Cross, for example, specialises in – or whether you prefer to give to an outfit which also looks at long-term solutions and development, such as Oxfam.  The UN World Food Programme combines long and short-term approaches to address hunger throughout the world, and has already sent $500,000-worth of food to Peru.  It accepts donations – don’t forget to fill in the Gift Aid form.

If you want to address natural disasters in general, don’t forget that organisations which help to reduce poverty have an important role to play: when an earthquake or flood strikes, those with inadequate housing and no way of leaving the area are especially vulnerable.

Donating food, clothes and other goods will only be useful if charity shops can sell them to raise money – sending them to the crisis area is usually impractical and expensive.

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