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Software lets Joplin groups track who gets help

Updated: May 12, 2012 5:18 PM CST

Joplin, Missouri

By Jehan Sheikh, Reporter

Since the May 22 tornado many organizations and churches have responded providing more aid to people in need. In the last year, around 12,000 Joplin families received 77,000 items of assistance.

The Joplin Charity Tracker Network is a computer program that the Watered Gardens Gospel Mission Center started and tracks who is receiving food, clothing and even shelter.

More than 40 organizations use the charity tracker and it allows them to network together to monitor the distribution of the resources.

Watered Garden officials say the program is a tool to help them determine who is abusing the system and who actually needs the assistance. They say they want to track who has food stamps in order to give to those who don't.

"Right now it's so important that we come back from allowing people to abuse the system over and over and over again I mean we have a lot of that that's happened, especially in disaster time when there is a lot of stuff being given away there is a lot of people that come and want some things," says James Whitford, the Executive Director for Watered Gardens Missions Center.

Here's a link to the original article.