Thanks for that. I'm sure many aid agencies will have learnt valuable lessons out of the Haiti aid response.
jantimot,
Fair points. I'm not sure I'd contribute to any sort of a peacekeeping mission. I'm only confident about contributing to humanitarian aid missions. In this instance I expect them to deliver food, water shelter and medical aid to those in need - I don't expect them to do anything more than that. I'm not sure what a UN peacekeeping mission did or did not do is a reflection of whether they can deliver aid effectively.
In any event I can see why you distrust the UN - I for one can't see any major blips in the UNHCR's record and thus I'm happy to back them. If evidence emerges otherwise (this doesn't have to be first hand accounts, it can be a news report from any reputable news outlet, ie. BBC, Reuters, NYTimes, etc), I'll stop my donations.
WhatGFC,
Thanks for the advice, but I'll trust the people at CARE Australia.
Gotta say I've had to say a lot more than I expected on this issue. And I didn't even raise the Islam issue in the original post (ie. the fact that muslims and islam had little to do with the cause of the Syria civil war)!
One UN agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), has delivered 500 million meals in Syria so far this year.
"We have reached a stage in Syria where some of the people, if they don't get food from the World Food Programme, they simply do not eat," the WFP's Syria Regional Emergency Coordinator Muhannad Hadi said.
The biggest donors to the UN aid effort are the European Commission, which promised another 400 million euros on Thursday, followed by Kuwait, the United States, Britain and Japan.
Russia and China have so far contributed $US10 million and $US1 million to the UNHCR, Mr Guterres said.
