抗击埃博拉 慈善机构动作迟缓

When Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $25 million last week to support the treatment of Ebola victims and their families, they gave the gift to the foundation that funnels private donations to the Centers for Disease Control, not one of the nonprofit groups that Americans typically shower with money during a humanitarian crisis.

上周，Facebook的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)和妻子普莉希拉·陈(Priscilla Chan)捐赠了2500万美元（约合人民币1.53亿元），用于帮助埃博拉患者及家属。他们把钱交给了一个负责把私人捐款转给疾病控制中心(Centers for Disease Control)的基金会，而不是交给非营利组织；通常情况下，在发生人道主义危机时，美国人会纷纷向非营利组织捐款。

Compared to the rush to donate after major disasters of the last decade or so, charitable giving to address the Ebola tragedy is almost nonexistent, and the relief agencies that typically seek donations after a catastrophe are mostly silent. “Have you had any email solicitations?” asked Patrick M. Rooney, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “If there had been an earthquake or tsunami, my question would be who had solicited you and how many times? Americans aren’t giving because they haven’t really been asked.”

相较于过去约十年来，大灾难发生后的捐款状况而言，用于救助埃博拉疫情的慈善捐赠约等于无，通常会积极寻求捐赠的救援机构，本次可以说是没有动静。“你收到过募捐电邮吗？”印第安纳大学礼来家族慈善学院(Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy)副院长帕特里克·M.鲁尼(Patrick M. Rooney)问道。“如果发生了地震或海啸，我的问题就会是，谁向你募捐过，有多少次？美国人没有在捐款，因为还没有人真正向他们募捐。”

Ever since terrorists took down the World Trade Center in 2001, Americans have generously supported the organizations that swing into action after earthquakes, floods, cyclones, mudslides and other disasters. Propelled by the Internet and cellphones, which make giving as easy as clicking a button, Americans donated billions of dollars to help victims of the 2004 tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean, the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, and the 2010 Haitian earthquake, among other calamities.

自从恐怖分子2001年撞击世贸中心以来，每当有地震、洪水、龙卷风、泥石流等灾害发生，美国人就会慷慨解囊，支持采取应对行动的组织。使用互联网和手机，捐款变得非常轻松，只需要点击一个按钮。有了这样的方便条件，美国人为2004年摧毁印度洋周边地区的海啸，2011年日本发生的海啸和核灾，2010年海地发生的地震，以及其他灾难，捐赠了数以十亿计的美元。

But the Ebola crisis is different, charity officials and experts say, though it is hard to say exactly why. Perhaps it lacks the visual drama of a natural disaster. Or it is harder for people to understand what their money can do to fight a disease with such a high mortality rate and no sure treatment. It is not even clear that providing food, housing and protective equipment will have any impact — or how those things will get where they are most needed.

但这次埃博拉危机的捐赠情况不一样，慈善官员和专家说，尽管很难准确说出为什么会出现这种不同，也许它没有自然灾害那种视觉冲击力。或者是因为，人们比较难理解自己的钱可以派上什么用场，因为这种疾病的死亡率非常高，而且没有确切的治疗方法。人们甚至不是很清楚，提供食物、住房和防护装备有没有作用——以及这些东西怎样抵达最需要它们的地方。

“It’s just been more difficult to raise money around this,” said David Whalen, chief development officer at Partners in Health, founded by the physician Paul Farmer to help bolster health care in poor regions.

“为这件事筹钱，反正就是更加困难一些，”健康伙伴(Partners in Health)组织的首席开发官大卫·惠伦(David Whalen)说。该组织由医师保罗·法默(Paul Farmer)创建，宗旨是帮助提高贫困地区的医疗水平。

In addition, charities initially had small operations — or none at all — in the stricken region for which to raise money, and there was hope that the outbreak would be contained.

此外，慈善机构最初在受灾地区开展的行动规模很小，或根本就没有进入那些地区，而且当时人们感觉埃博拉疫情的爆发有望得到遏制。现在，资金就是为这些地区筹集的。

Médecins Sans Frontières, known in the United States as Doctors Without Borders, was on the ground at that time, working to fight the disease. But the organization saw no uptick in fund-raising until late July, said Thomas Kurmann, director of development for the United States branch.

国际医疗组织无国界医生(Doctors Without Borders)，即Médecins Sans Frontières，当时在受灾地区抗击这种疾病。但直到7月下旬，该组织获得的捐款才多了起来，美国分会的发展主任托马斯·库曼(Thomas Kurmann)说。

“The real spike came in September,” Mr. Kurmann said, when representatives of the organization addressed the United Nations. “There was a lot of media coverage and that translates into additional donations.”

“真正的激增出现在9月，”库曼说，当时该组织的代表在联合国发表了演讲。“有很多媒体报道，因此吸引了更多捐款。”

Doctors Without Borders asks donors not to earmark their contributions for a specific emergency because it wants to be able to deploy its money where it is most needed. But it does not reject earmarked gifts. So far, it has received about $31.5 million in private donations designated for the Ebola crisis, about $7.3 million from United States donors, Mr. Kurmann said.

无国界医生组织呼吁，捐助者不要把自己的捐赠设定为特定紧急情况的专项捐赠，以便该组织能把钱用在最需要的地方。不过，它也并不排斥专项捐赠。到目前为止，该组织已收到约3150万美元指定用于埃博拉危机的私人捐款，其中大约730万美元是美国人捐赠的，库曼说。

The International Medical Corps already has some 200 medical employees working in a 70-bed Ebola treatment center in Bong County, about 120 miles outside Monrovia, Liberia, and is working to construct and open a 50-bed center in Sierra Leone.

在利比里亚蒙罗维亚约120英里外的邦县，有一个70张床位的埃博拉治疗中心，国际医疗队(International Medical Corps)已经有大约200名医护人员在那里工作。该组织正在在塞拉利昂施工，准备开设一个50张床位的治疗中心。

The Medical Corps started quietly fund-raising — there are no photos of its Ebola-related activities on its home page — in late July. “It was slow going at first,” said Rebecca Milner, chief fund-raiser for the organization. “I think the pivotal moment was when the missionaries were brought back to the U.S. We’ve seen the interest and concern increasing since then.”

7月下旬，国际医疗队开始默默筹款——在其主页上，没有和埃博拉有关的活动的任何照片。“一开始比较慢，”该组织的首席筹款人丽贝卡·米尔纳(Rebecca Milner)说。“我觉得，拐点出现在那些传教士被带回美国的时候，之后，越来越多的捐助者对此表示了兴趣和关注。”

She said the slow pace of fund-raising reminded her of efforts to raise money for famines. “You really have to beat the drums and hope the media gets there to shine a spotlight on the issues,” Ms. Milner said.

她说，这种缓慢的筹款步伐，让她想起为饥荒筹集资金的时候。“你真的必须敲锣打鼓，希望把媒体吸引到那里，以便突显问题的严重性，”米尔纳说。

The group has raised about $2.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions so far — and it would rather have the cash than donations of equipment. It needs only very specific types of “personal protective equipment” — the gloves, hoods, jumpsuits and other gear health care workers need to protect themselves.

迄今为止，该组织收到了250万美元的现金和实物捐助——相比于装备，它更愿意接受现金。抗击埃博拉需要的“个人防护装备”类型非常具体——手套、头套、连衣裤，以及医护人员用来保护自己的其他装备。

Getting a variety of different types of suits and gloves and goggles greatly complicates the training process, Ms. Milner said. “Your life literally depends on knowing the exact right way to put the gear on and the exact right way to take it off, and we can’t train for a variety of different equipment,” she said.

米尔纳说，收到各种不同类型的套衫、手套和护目镜，让培训过程变得非常复杂。“知道如何以正确的方式穿戴这些装备，以及如何以正确的方式把它们脱下来，这是性命攸关的大事，我们没法针对每种装备开展培训，”她说。

Direct Relief, which collects and distributes medicines and supplies to health care workers on the front lines, like those at Last Mile Health in Liberia, got “masses of gloves,” according to Thomas Tighe, its chief executive.

慈善组织国际直接救济(Direct Relief)收集药品和物资，并把它们分发给一线医护人员，比如利比里亚“最后一里医疗”组织(Last Mile Health)的医护人员。国际直接救济的首席执行官托马斯·泰伊(Thomas Tighe)说，他们收到了“大量手套”。

When it went to charter a 747 airplane to ferry supplies to Monrovia, Direct Relief had raised just $100,000 that was earmarked for Ebola relief. “I kept wondering if we would get an overdraft charge from the bank,” Mr. Tighe said.

在包了一架747飞机，把物资运到蒙罗维亚的时候，国际直接救济获得的专门用于埃博拉援救工作的捐款只有10万美元。“我一直在想，银行是否会向我们收取透支费，”泰伊说。