Local organizations say the scale of disaster in Pakistan is beyond comprehension: one-fifth of Pakistan is under water, 20 million people have been displaced and at least 900,000 homes destroyed.

While the floods have caused more devastation than previous disasters such as the Haiti earthquake or the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, far less money is coming in. Relief agencies say they are running out of resources.

It's harder to raise money for disasters that play out over time rather than hit all at once, aid groups say. Another reason may reflect reluctance on the part of donors, including Pakistani-Americans.

Yet two Northwest organizations that suffered attacks recently in Pakistan have been among the first to rush to its aid.

K.M. CHAUDARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Villagers in central Pakistan flee their homes last week due to heavy flooding.

Federal Way-based World Vision now has a team in place in Pakistan that is working to provide water, hygiene, shelter and food to 300,000 people in areas hardest hit by the flood. It has opened five emergency health clinics to treat people with waterborne diseases, and hopes to offer cash for work programs and set up safety shelters for women and children.

Mercy Corps, headquartered in Portland, says it is working in the Swat Valley to provide clean water to 25,000 people a day via water tanks, high-volume filtration units and water purification tablets. Its 20-person team is also distributing food kits and tools to help in the clean up. The organization plans to expand relief efforts into Sindh Province.

World Vision and Mercy Corps both suspended operations in the country following attacks earlier this year. Six World Vision Pakistani staff members were killed in March when gunmen stormed their offices in Mansehra, and four Mercy Corps Pakistani workers were abducted in February on the road near Quetta. One was later killed and the other three released.

With a 24-year history in Pakistan, Mercy Corps resumed operations just days before the floods hit, said spokesman Joy Portella. Its aid workers in the Swat Valley led the way, saying
'"We have to respond to this," she said, but getting restarted has been very emotional.

World Vision estimates it will need $20 million to respond to the disaster.

Early on, "it was unclear just how massive the needs were because it was difficult to reach some of the hardest-hit places," said Randy Strash, the group's fundraising expert for disaster response. "Now, we know that millions of children and families need our help."

So far it has raised $478,000 in private donations in the U.S. and is applying for more in government grants, and a total of $2.8 million globally, less than 15 percent of its goal.

World Vision raised 50 times more for Haiti in the first two weeks after the earthquake than it has for Pakistan, Strash said, yet ten times as many people are now affected in Pakistan.

Other groups assisting in Pakistan include Medical Teams International, which is shipping medicines and supplies to the country, and the Jolkona Foundation, which works through a local partner called Barakat. Barakat works primarily in refugee areas with a focus on girls education.

Here is a searchable database with more information on groups working in Pakistan.

Look for a story by Seattle Times reporter Janet Tu later this week on local community efforts to help.

In the heart of Vancouver's poorest neighborhood, a thriving business is helping homeless and low-income people earn money by cleaning up the environment.

United We Can pays about 700 people a day deposits on recyclable containers they've collected, distributing more than $2 million a year to "binners" who eke out a living rummaging through garbage. I profiled the non-profit and its founder Ken Lyotier in this story today.

KRISTI HEIM

United We Can safety trainer James Hance, who grew up in Vancouver's tough Downtown Eastside, says he'd rather stay and help the community than work elsewhere. He stands in front of a T-shirt with a corner chewed off by rats in the organization's aging warehouse.

In addition, the non-profit employs 150 part-time and full-time workers to pick up from local businesses, sort bottles and cans in its warehouse, and haul them to a recycling center. United We Can earns a handling fee from beverage producers, who are required by law to ensure that their containers are refilled or recycled. The handling fee supports United We Can's operations, making it a sustainable business.

United We Can will be able to expand its work during the Olympics, hiring 60 additional people to help collect containers around downtown and at local hotels and restaurants.

KRISTI HEIM/SEATTLE TIMES

People line up with carts full of recyclables outside United We Can's bottle depot along East Hastings Street. The average "binner" earns about $10 a day.

Lyotier, who battled homelessness, alcoholism and drug addiction himself, said he has never turned away anyone who wanted to work.

"Many of the people working at United We Can came from the streets," he said.

"I personally believe that when people who have had obstacles discover they do have value," Lyotier said, "they sometimes make the choice to move on to a more normal model of what success means."

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is notorious for a concentration of social problems such as open drug dealing, homelessness, mental illness and prostitution. Blocks away from Olympics venues, the neighborhood will face a global spotlight next month as the focus of protests by activists who are frustrated by a lack of progress on social issues. And yet people at the busy bottle depot see a resilient community underneath.

"You hear a lot of bad stuff but I see so many good things," said United We Can safety trainer James Hance. "Everyone says all you find is misery here, but I find more kindness here than lots of other areas."

Football fans have to bundle up to keep warm during games. For homeless people it's a daily struggle against the elements.

CHRIS JOSEPH TAYLOR/SEATTLE TIMES

Can the Cougars out-donate the Huskies?

A non-profit serving homeless and needy populations is taking advantage of the rivalry between UW and WSU to stage a "Competition for Caring" during tomorrow's Apple Cup.

JIM BATES/SEATTLE TIMES

Husky fans get in the holiday spirit.

The competition, sponsored by St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County, will challenge Washington Husky and Washington State Cougar fans to see who can bring the most blankets and coats for donation.

Tomorrow between noon and 3:30 p.m. at Husky Stadium the charity will have a Cougar Bin and Husky Bin for fans to fill up in name of their favorite team.

About 100 community volunteers will also be going around the perimeter of Husky Stadium to collect donations. The winning team will be announced later on Twitter.

People not attending the game can drop off blankets and coats through Monday at St. Vincent de Paul thrift stores in Seattle, Burien, Renton, Kenmore, Kent, Everett, Lynnwood, Monroe and at its Food Bank in Georgetown.

The items will be given out at no cost to low-income and homeless people by the charity and through its partners in King and Snohomish counties.

UPDATE: Husky fans scored with 682 items; Cougar fans scored with 268 items. Cash donations are still being counted.

Despite the lingering economic woes that most Americans are still feeling, only one in five plans to reduce donations to charity this holiday season, the American Red Cross found in a new survey. More Americans will cut back on travel, decorations, parties and gifts.

ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Volunteers Ken Newman, right, and Caren Shepsky heft a 50-pound bag of rice at the Cherry Street Food Bank, run by Northwest Harvest. As hunger has worsened, Northwest Harvest's pantry is seeing more than 2,500 visitors on busy days this year, up from a peak of 1,800 visitors last year.

The results tell a somewhat different story than a recent Harris Interactive survey that showed charities will probably see a decrease in generosity this season. Some large charities are preparing for lower holiday giving.

Regardless of how they interpret the data, charities are downsizing their appeals and targeting smaller donations. They're also making the most of free social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and asking supporters to help them spread the word.

The United Way of King County recently launched its Give 10/Tell 10 campaign, which asks for $10 contributions to help struggling families hit by the recession avoid falling into homelessness. After making a gift on the site, donors have the option to pass on a message emailed to 10 friends, encouraging them give, too. The charity is also using Twitter and Facebook to network, post links and share facts, such as "$25 = a week of food for a homeless person in Washington."

"We really wanted to do something different to get the word out to people that the needs are so great right now and provide a low barrier way for them to get involved," said United Way spokesman Jared Erlandson. "The thought was what if we could get people to tweet not just about what they are doing tonight, but about how they just helped someone stay in their home for the holidays then we could really have an effective vehicle to get our message out."

Mercy Corps is getting creative around Thanksgiving with a new online tool that allows families and groups of friends to make donations together. The global charity is calling on people to match the amount they spend on their own Thanksgiving Day meal with a donation that fights global hunger. The average American family spent $45 on Thanksgiving dinner in 2008, Mercy Corps said.

Other interesting new twists include gift cards with a $5 donation to charity built in. The recipient can choose where to direct the $5 gift from among more than 5,000 charities.

Getting donor fatigue? Another option is to vote for your favorite charity and have a large bank pick up the tab. Chase is donating $5 million -- $25,000 each to the top 100 charities on Dec. 15, one $1 million and five $100,000 grants to others in February, and another $1 million chosen by an advisory board of active philanthropists.

Seattle's business community should consider homeless people as valuable assets, and tackle homelessness not as charity but as an investment in the future, the head of the world's largest philanthropy said today.

"Homeless people aren't just a problem to be minimized or cleared away," Gates Foundation CEO Jeff Raikes said, addressing more than 900 members of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. "They have amazing potential."

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Gates Foundation CEO Jeff Raikes has taken part in the One Night Count of the homeless population in Seattle for several years.

The chamber's new slogan for "It's Time for Business" could apply to the problem of homelessness, too, he said.

Half of Seattle's homeless population are parents in their prime productive years, with children in their prime development years.

In fact, homeless families tracked by the University of Washington had better high school graduation rates than the Seattle School District, he said.

"Most homeless families are right on the edge of being a productive part of a healthy community and a thriving economy," he said.

Raikes called for a new approach that would take some money being spent on shelters and put it into permanent homes, a careful needs assessment for each family instead of a standard response for everyone, more affordable housing, and an emphasis on preventing people from becoming homeless, such as short-term rent subsidies.

Seattle is the second most expensive metropolitan area in the country, he said. Building more affordable housing would be good for the construction industry and add jobs.

In King County, there are about 10,000 people who are homeless, but tens of thousands more barely able to keep themselves afloat. They earn half the median income and spend half of that on housing.

Close to 50,000 people are "living on the border of economic stability and destitution," he said.

Given a safe place to sleep, combined with services to address the root cause of becoming homeless, three-quarters of the 1,500 families in a Sound Families program moved on to permanent stable housing, Raikes said.

He called for expanding that model, and asked business people to volunteer their ideas and expertise and to support local government leaders to put homelessness on the political radar.

Note: Yes, Seattle really is the second most expensive metropolitan area in the country, based on Federal Housing Finance Agency 2Q 2009 purchase prices, beating out New York and second only to San Jose/San Francisco.

Economists may say we're coming out of the recession, but that doesn't ring true to local non-profits and people without work.

"Everybody's hearing about the leading economic indicators -- everything's getting better economically," says Richard Bray, who directs donor and community relations at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Seattle/King County. "We're not seeing that when it comes to the average person."

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY

Tom Kobayashi (right), who is 93, walks at the Friends of the Poor Walk last year, with Paul and Nicki Tran at left.

Calls for assistance last month were up 60 percent over last year, hitting an all time record of 411 calls on Sept 14, he said. The 2-1-1 community information line has referred 18,000 calls to the charity so far this year. The number of people seeking food at the Georgetown food bank doubled from last year, to 8,000 each month.

Another troubling trend has emerged -- the charity has noticed a jump in domestic violence cases -- only 1 percent of the cases it manages in a long range assistance program were related to domestic violence a year ago, but in the last month that number has grown to 10 percent.

The problem stems from economic difficulties, Bray said. "People are out of work, they're stressing out and unfortunately taking it out on some of the ones closest to them."

Joining the ranks of the poor now are former professionals who worked all their lives and were doing well before the recession, he said.

To raise money and awareness about local people in need, the charity will host its second annual "Friends of the Poor Walk" tomorrow from 9 to noon at John F. Kennedy High School in Burien. Other walks are planned in 150 cities nationwide, including Tacoma, Everett and Sequim. Details are here.

"The theme is walk a mile in my shoes, to reflect and think about someone who's going through hard times," Bray said.

Last year, one participant covered 50 laps on the school track, but the standout was Tom Kobayashi, who participated at age 92, and plans to walk again this year.

Kobayashi, of Seattle, is the longest serving St. Vincent de Paul volunteer in the nation. A Japanese American who was forced into an internment camp as a child during World War II, Kobayashi has spent the last 73 years as a member and leader of the charity, making weekly home visits to people who are struggling.

"If he can do it, anyone can," Bray said.

When you're homeless your feet take a beating. That was the simple fact behind the idea to provide a foot washing service.

KRISTI HEIM

Volunteers washed and massaged peoples' feet at a United Way event on Sept. 11, the first National Day of Service and Remembrance.

People approached a section of folding chairs inside Qwest Field and gradually began to sit down and take off their shoes. Volunteers brought over warm water in clear plastic boxes.

One man's feet were so frost bitten from last winter that it hurt too much to brush them with a towel. Another man asked a volunteer to recite the little piggy nursery rhyme on his toes. A third said it was the first time another human being had touched him in months.

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Candice Mooneyham gets her hair done during a volunteer event to help homeless and low-income people get basic services free of charge.

The United Way organizers hoped last Friday's event, which included hot meals and dozens of free basic services, could narrow the divide between people with homes and people without them, at least for a day. A wrenching year of layoffs and foreclosures had already pushed many of the housed into the other camp.

The activity also held a deeper spiritual dimension for volunteers like John Fergueson, an Episcopal priest from Kenmore. The Christian tradition is based on Jesus washing the feet of the Apostles, turning a menial task for servants into a lesson about humility.

"It's a way of acting on the solidarity of all people," he said. "The face of homelessness is different now. People are much more like us than not like us."

The community event drew 1,200 people, including the newly homeless: young people without jobs. People like Candice Mooneyham or Mike Schreck who didn't even look poor but had been sleeping on the street and in parks.

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People approached the foot washing station tentatively at first but eventually filled all the seats.

Mooneyham, 39, who came from Spokane and before that from Oregon in search of work, said she had slept outside under a bridge in downtown Seattle the day before.

"I have never in my life seen so many homeless around," she said. "I'm not really scared, but it's not something I hope to do a lot longer."

Mike Schreck, 42, who is now living in a Queen Anne shelter, said he dreaded the winter months when he will have to compete for a bed with men who have been living outside all summer. The unemployed waiter said social services are overwhelmed by people with drug and alcohol problems, while there's little help for those who just need work.

"As it gets worse more and more people who are economically depressed are going to be shocked at the treatment they will get," he said. "As the job situation gets worse there are going to be a lot more of those people."

People waited in line from dawn until the doors opened at 9 a.m. Some information booths hardly had a visitor. But hundreds of people, including a woman with her middle-aged mother and her baby in a stroller, stood in a line stretching around the inside of the building to a room where they could pick out a few items of clothing and get a new backpack. After a few hours organizers ran out of clothing and had to turn people away.

Friday marks the first National Day of Service and Remembrance, a way to honor the anniversary of September 11 by volunteering to help the community.

In Seattle, hundreds of volunteers will connect with people who are homeless or facing poverty in a day-long event at Quest Field. About 90 organizations are offering free services, from haircuts and dental work to help applying for jobs, housing, food stamps and veterans benefits.

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People get free haircuts during United Way's Community Resource Exchange, a day when dozens of local non-profits gather to provide free services for homeless people. .

The United Way of King County decided to hold its biannual Community Resource Exchange on the first National Day of Service, meant to encourage more volunteering and support for non-profits. Hundreds of projects are planned throughout King County on Friday, and more than 8,000 people have volunteered to work on them. Details can be found here.

The Community Resource Exchange, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Quest Field, gives people a central place to find help, relax, eat and socialize with others, said United Way spokesman Jared Erlandson. The non-profit expects to serve at least 1,000 needy people at the event, which is open to the public.

"Instead of having to navigate the gauntlet of services -- when they're spending so much time just trying to survive -- finding them all in one place is really valuable," he said.

The national day was established earlier this year as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. People can get ideas and share their own volunteer plans at this site.

On any given night in King County about 8,500 people are currently homeless, and over the course of a year, about 24,000 people have been homeless for some period of time, according to the United Way.

In another volunteer event Friday, the Jubilee Women's Center is getting a vegetable garden built by 25 Microsoft employees. The center provides low-cost housing for homeless women trying to get back on their feet. I visited the center a few months ago and met one of the residents, a woman who had fled an abusive husband and was working her way through law school.

They regularly receive canned food, but the garden will fill a big void in fresh produce. Local businesses donated the soil, seeds and building materials.