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THE JAPANESE-AMERICAN
SOCIETY OF NEW JERSEY ANNOUNCES A
LIST OF FRONT-LINE
VOLUNTEER AID ORGANIZATIONS WORKING IN THE TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE
AND TSUNAMI ZONE
March 21, 2011 - Fort Lee, NJ
- At this time, the Japanese-American Society of New Jersey
is not directly accepting donations, however we are
providing a list of Japanese relief organizations,
remittance addresses and instructions on how to make
monetary donations to them. Donations made by credit card
from abroad are fully supported by each of the organizations
listed below, and you can be assured that your donation will
be received.
Organizations that are collecting donations fall generally
in to two categories:
A. those that forward the funds on to very large relief
organizations, their representatives or government
administrative offices, and
B.
those who directly apply the donated funds to relief work
they are doing themselves onsite.
The
organizations whose information we are providing below are
the latter type and have already set up relief operations in
the disaster zone. Though varying slightly in their
approaches the relief efforts, each of them has a website in
English and is set up to accept donations by credit card
from outside of Japan.
a)
JEN
http://www.jen-npo.org/en/index.html
(Click the
“Credit Card” option under the “Donate Now” section of the
page).
From
the JEN English Website:
“We put
our utmost efforts into restoring a self-supporting
livelihood both economically and mentally to those people
who have been stricken with hardship due to conflicts and
disasters. We do so promptly, precisely, and flexibly by
fully utilizing local human and material resources,
considering this the most promising way to revitalize the
society.”
b)
ADRA Japan
http://blog.canpan.info/adrajapan/archive/411
(Credit card donation instructions in English)
http://www.adrajpn.org/
(Homepage and credit card donations in Japanese)
From the
ADRA English Website:
“There
are still so many people waiting for aid supplies such as
water and blankets. The situation on the ground is still
chaotic and there is no clear overview yet on how many
people are affected, where they are located, and what types
of supplies are necessary.
We appreciate your continuous support and assistance to the
people affected by the disaster.
You can also support by donating to ADRA through credit
cards, bank transfer and postal transfer.”
c) MSF
(Doctors Without Borders)
http://www.msf.org/msf/donations/donations_home.cfm
Taken from the MSF Website:
“Japan
Earthquake
MSF already has several teams in northern Japan. Our
doctors, nurses and support staff have begun working
alongside the Japanese disaster authorities to help people
through the ordeal of the earthquakes and tsunami. More
teams are arriving shortly.
We are able to immediately rush medical teams to where they
are needed after sudden disasters thanks to the ongoing
support of millions of donors worldwide. Your donation will
help us be prepared for new emergencies wherever they
strike, and continue our emergency medical programmes in
over 60 countries worldwide.
MSF operates independently of any political, military, or
religious agendas. Medical teams conduct evaluations on the
ground to determine a population's medical needs before
opening programs. The key to MSF’s ability to act
independently in response to a crisis is its independent
funding. Ninety percent of MSF's overall funding comes from
private sources, not governments. In 2008, MSF had 3.7
million individual donors and private funders worldwide.”
When donating, consider that while many well-known American
non-profits and other large organizations are collecting
donations for Japan relief, as of March 18, 2011, none has a
direct presence in the affected areas. Further, if you wish
to donate in such a way that the funds are used in the
overall general relief efforts being coordinated regionally
by the national, prefectural and local government
administrative authorities, you have a choice among many of
these global organizations that work at this level. The
proportion of these proceeds that end up being consumed by
administrative activity are much higher than the volunteer
organizations listed here who depend solely on private
donations and are making minute-to-minute, day-to-day
resource allocation decisions based on the activities of
their front-line personnel. If you wish to make a donation
that will find the most direct route to aiding the unique
and often unexpected situations that arise in such
catastrophes, then the privately-funded volunteer
organizations are most appropriate.
Finally, donations of items are not encouraged. The
individual needs of each area affected vary significantly,
and donated items more often end up going to waste in spite
of the donors’ good intentions, a problem the sadly and
ironically occurred in the aftermath of the 1995 Hanshin
earthquake.
As director of the Japanese-American Society of New Jersey I
feel it is incumbent upon us to support the continuing
recovery efforts in the disaster zone and across Japan as a
whole in any way we can. Coordinating donations in this way
is an important part of that mission. Over the coming weeks
and months we will host a series of charity events at
several locations in New Jersey to raise further donations
for charities that will most cost-effectively bring relief
to the victims on their long road to recovery. We wish to
extend our most profound thanks to the citizens of New
Jersey for their kindness and generosity in helping our
country recover from this terrible tragedy.
Sincerely,
Mina Yoshigaki
President & CEO
The
Japanese-American Society of New Jersey
The Japanese-American Society of New Jersey (JAS NJ),
located on Main Street, Fort Lee, New Jersey, was founded in
1974 and is dedicated to promoting understanding between
Japanese and American cultures. JAS of NJ offers language,
cultural, translation, and interpretation programs. Members
are given special discounts to attend classes and access to
our extensive library. Benefit from the decades of
experience and valued service in the New Jersey/New York
area. |
