Too Much Help? There is such a thing

I read an article on the MSNBC website talking about the disaster relief going on after the devastating magnitude-7 earthquake that recently hit Haiti. It talked about how after many disasters uninvited help rushes to the scene, but can actually do more damage than it does good.

When disasters hit, trained relief teams are sent to the areas in need of help, and if more help is needed, it will be requested. The article talks about how people, with purely good intention, try to be the hero and go to help, but more often than not come unprepared and actually get in the way of useful help, costing money, valuable resources, and even lives.

This shows that people, although they have good intentions, need to be more considerate when deciding how they can help. Instead of rushing to help, planning on the movie-romanticized weekend of being a hero, I think that those wanting to help should contact disaster response organizations to see how they could help, maybe with a donation or volunteering time here at the response team bases instead of showing up uninvited.