Oh man! That kind of reminded me of the red cross taking millions in donations for Haiti and ended up building 6 houses.
Not 6 thousands, just six. :P
About how to approach subjects, I think you always have to pay attention to the audience.
I could be wrong, but that's what I try to do.
It's sad but your memory of Haiti replicates in many other situations around the world ..for instance, every Italian here donated something for the earthquake in Amatrice and central Italy.. the result? Winter came, people are frozen and homeless and funds have been allocated to build a track for bicycles and other similar amenities. If I think about it, in a true guy fawkes style, I feel like going to prepare some powder lol..I'm a lawyer and I lived these things directly enough to become disgusted about them. We can donate for haiti, nepal or many other causes but it will always be useless if we don't reach and tackle the core of the problem. As I wrote to a friend, yes it's true..inequality was always part of this world, but the difference is that nowadays we don't have an alibi and we cannot say "I didn't know about it". If we stop for a moment to look at puppies and kittens and start to inform ourselves ;-P