In another thread regarding the Saturday afternoon convention program, 95stormfront wrote about the WTS aid in helping victims of a storm:
They again shamelessly plugged how they were Oh-so- helpful to victims of Allison, the rainstorm that put the city of Houston underwater two years ago and how money poured in from witnesses around the world. Yeah-Right!!!!! What they failed to mention was that all the supplies they used were either donated, or bought at very reduced rates using government grants, stored in donated space, all the labor was provided free by brothers in the building industry. They also failed to mention that it took anywhere from 6 to 8 months for them to finish the work on individual homes and that after it was finished, you were presented with an invoice detailing all the hardware used with a total of what the retail cost of what those items would've been. Of course, this total was a suggested donation amount. The JW's I know showed much humility and giving spirit in the way they were bitching about how much the WT was expecting from them monetarily, while at the same time, those who had it, using their insurance windfalls buying big ticket items they'd, under normal circumstances, never be able to afford. I happen to know that there were a lot of "shepherding call" going on to certain peoople who were "helped" by this arrangement. There was a lot more to this story than they were willing to admit.
I have never heard of this type aid before. People donate money for a relief fund. That fund plus maybe some money from the WTS is used to help rebuild/repair homes. Then the homeowners are shamed into donating back the costs of the materials?? That's not humanitarianism. That's fleecing of the flock. And then they have the gall to brag about how humanitarian they are for helping in the relief effort.
If done properly, the WTS could actually make a profit from this relief effort. Brothers donate most of the money to buy relief items and building materials. Local brothers do all the work to repair/rebuild. A "suggested donation amount"(read "bill") is presented to the home owner which is the amount spent on materials used. If each or even the majority of homeowners were to donate that amount back to the WTS, then a profit is generated to the WTS because the original monies came from the brothers that donated to the relief fund, not the WTS.
Do they have no shame??