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United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Carol Bellamy, right, talks to children a

While big-name organizations like World Vision International are the face of tsunami relief in the United States, it’s often tiny groups in countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia that mobilize resources on the ground.

American money given to non-governmental organizations like World Vision often ends up helping agencies based overseas, who have infrastructure and a better understanding of local cultures.

Sothida Tan, a UCLA alumna who works for Operation USA, an NGO with offices on Melrose Avenue, says her organization is working closely with aid workers based in Sri Lanka to help tsunami and earthquake victims there.

Operation USA staff have worked with the Tamil Rehabilitiation Organization in Sri Lanka for 15 years, so when disaster struck in December, they knew who to turn to, Tan said.

After the tsunami, Operation USA sent water purification devices to the island nation off the coast of India, but relied on locals to tell them which communities needed access to clean water, said Tan.

“Our office is based in Los Angeles, and we can’t pretend to know what people around the world are thinking,” Tan said.

Aid groups familiar with local habits can also help larger organizations be culturally sensitive, says Michael Mahdesian, deputy for the bureau of humanitarian response at the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Clinton administration.

He recalls that the Muslim population in Bosnia did not eat pork products that were part of U.S. military aid drops in 1993.

“These MRES – meals ready to eat – were things that usually the GIs eat. ... We didn’t think about it, or we didn’t think it through thoroughly,” Mahdesian said.

One error commonly made by those who want to contribute but live far away from disaster areas is donating clothing and food incompatible with local climate and customs, Mahdesian said.

Bundles of these goods may be of little use to NGOs, both locally and internationally based, as they can take up space on planes that could be used to deliver medicine and other necessities.

In the second in a series of UCLA International Institute workshops addressing the tsunami, guests including academics and activists will speak on NGOs. Clayton Dube, assistant director of the Asia Institute, said the February event will provide students with a list of credible overseas aid agencies. A Sri Lankan agency with 35,000 workers will also be represented.

“The local groups don’t have a 1-800 number,” Dube said. “It’s harder to find this group.”

Dube said local agencies are vital to development and reconstruction in the nations in which they are situated.

Those groups are the ones that were there before disaster struck, and they will be the ones there after the cameras are gone, said Dube.

NGOs that collaborate internationally do so with the hope of strengthening local organizations and infrastructure, Mahdesian said.

“The whole doctrine of development is you want to help people to help themselves,” he said. “You don’t want them to become dependent on you.”