まず、ありがとう
First of all, I would like to extend a hearty thank you to everyone who contributed to our fundraiser for the Tohoku/Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami relief effort. With your help, over the course of merely one week we raised a grand total of 120,000 yen (almost $1500 USD by current exchange rates). Nearly $300 of that was from online donations alone, and the generosity of the IUJ community both here in Uonuma and throughout the ‘diaspora’ has left myself and fellow GCF members touched and heartened. Again, thank you.
Secondly I must personally thank my wonderful boss, Mrs. Kojima, whose assistance was indispensable. She is an amazing, efficient and kind woman, who immediately responded to my request for help and went above and beyond even what we asked of her. Also, I want to thank Louis for his dogged hard work on this fundraiser’s behalf – and for lending his time, language ability and patience to this endeavor.
Where our donations went
Our donations were sent to Second Harvest Japan, a food bank style organization. Normally, they provide food to orphanages, battered women’s shelters and other organizations in need. They are currently collecting donations of money as well as of food and other basic supplies in order to assist disaster victims. According to the Second Harvest Japan website, “for every 1,000 yen donated, we deliver 10,000 yen worth of food to the needy.” Therefore our donation of 120,000 yen translates to 1,200,000 yen worth of food relief. You can see details about their operations from the Second Harvest blog or from their english twitter feed.
Sendai, March 19, 2011 - from the Second Harvest Japan blog
We know these donations are urgently needed:
Search-and-relief efforts in the prefecture of Miyagi, where the police chief believes the final quake-tsunami death toll could reach 15,000, have been delayed by driving rain.
“We basically cannot operate helicopters in the rain,” Miyagi official Kiyohiro Tokairin said.
“We have been using helicopters to deliver relief goods to some places but for today we have to switch the delivery to places that we can reach by road,” he said.
More than 350,000 people are still living in evacuation centres in northern and eastern Japan.
There are shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the shelters, officials say.(emphasis added)Source: BBC
Donations are still very much needed. While our GCF donation drive is now closed, there are still many ways you can contribute if you so desire. As I mentioned in my previous post, you can donate money through the following reputable organizations (this list is most certainly not exhaustive):
GCF Donations for Earthquake Victims
Radiation Concerns
I want to very briefly touch on remaining concerns about radiation here in Japan. Please refer to this widely circulated and easy to understand radiation chart from xkcd- it really helps to put things in perspective. Bear in mind that it is not written by an expert but rather compiled from multiple sources. As mentioned in the previous post, I would recommend referring to MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub for the most accurate information about nuclear risk.
As a friend of mine pointed out, American news has tended to sensationalize these issues more than the Japanese news. She linked to this article, saying “I don’t necessarily agree with this article 100.1%, but it makes a good point.” I feel the same – this commentator seems to put the japanese news media on an unduly high pedestal, but I agree with their point about the hyperbolic nature of most western news coverage of the ongoing disasters in Japan.
[...] the success of our previous donation drive, and because donations are still needed in Tohoku for all of those displaced, GCF is relaunching a [...]