Generous and well-intentioned donations of food and other goods may hinder vital aid getting to people in need in Tonga, humanitarian organisations warn.
Pictures of Tonga blanketed in volcanic ash have emerged days after Saturday's eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano cut off the country's international communication and triggered a series of tsunami waves, devastating the Pacific kingdom.
As emergency responders, aid groups and governments work to provide life-saving relief on the ground, humanitarian organisations are reminding anyone wishing to donate, to do so responsibly.
The World Food Program (WFP) has worked in the Pacific since 2015 and said physical donations can often overwhelm the system, clog up supply chains and delay humanitarian efforts.
"We've seen donations like dresses, furniture, sports equipment, being sent to the Pacific," Acting Country Director of WFP's Pacific Multi-Country Office, Phillippe Martins, said.
"And all these items were not useful — they took up valuable port space, stopped vital aid from getting through, stretched resources of first responders, and also harmed the environment and [were] sent straight to landfill."
Items such as furniture, clothing, blankets and nappies can also be problematic.
Amy McLachlan is the response advisor to the Australian Red Cross's International Emergency Response Team and experienced this following Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji in 2016.
"Fiji was really inundated with a lot of very generous donations coming from a range of countries, but donations of things that were not needed, and perhaps not appropriate for the context," Ms McLachlan said.
She said even well-intentioned food donations could be problematic because it could take time for customs officers to check the items.
"Things like food [items] tend to expire before they can be checked and, sent out to people."
Ms McLachlan said after a disaster, airports and wharves might struggle to function as normal, as was being seen in Tonga now with its runways and ports clothed in ash.
And then there are donations that leave aid workers perplexed.
"One thing I remember arriving in Fiji, as an example, was a giant red chilli that looked like, maybe, a movie prop or something," Ms McLachlan said. "I don't know what people were thinking.
"But we also got things like high heels, [and] we often get things like ball gowns."
Ms McLachlan said there were enough unsolicited donations to fill 33 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"Often, a lot of these goods actually just unfortunately end up in landfill, because they can't be distributed."
The shipments can also end up costing the country they arrive at, millions in storage fees, according to WFP Pacific initiative Donate Responsibly.
Cash is king
Donate Responsibly noted the most urgent need in times of crisis is money, and no other type of donation can match its impact.
The organisations said the Australian Council for International Development, and Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission were helpful resources to find trusted charities.
Damaris Pfendt, the Pacific Humanitarian Coordinator for aid organisation Caritas Australia, said cash donations also allowed the flexibility to respond to changing needs after a disaster and provided greater dignity, by allowing locals to lead the recovery.
"It gives the community, the people, the organisations on the ground, a way to really decide what is needed."
Ms Pfendt said this also allowed the cash to enter the local economy.
"So, if you send cash, then if they buy from local resourced stores and so on, it goes back into their economy, which helps them recover as well."
What if you've already collected goods to send to Tonga?
Ms McLachlan said those goods could be donated to domestic charities, or a community might wish to use them to fund-raise.
"You can have a car boot sale or something like that, and raise some cash and contribute that cash to your chosen humanitarian organisation," she said.
"It's complex, at the best of times, getting shipping containers and sending them off to other places.
"Please leave it to the humanitarian organisations. This is what we prepare for all year round.
"The Australian Red Cross actually has a warehouse in Brisbane that's full of all different kinds of relief stock and we're always ready to send that out quickly, when needed, as we have done for Tonga."
Ms McLachlan said the Tonga Red Cross was currently distributing relief goods such as tarpaulins, water containers and mosquito nets to communities affected by the disaster.
"They have 10 staff and 70 volunteers all out there on the ground doing stuff across the country," she said.
"At the moment, they have enough prepositioned stocks to cover about 1,200 families [and] the Australian Red Cross are already dispatching some additional relief goods to help bolster that supply.
"Then we'll be standing back and waiting to hear what further needs there are so that we can get to work and keep up that support."
Donate Responsibly has tips if you're still determined to send physical items, including waiting more than a month after the disaster, not sending food and checking government "needs lists" to find out what items will help.
