Japan is there some fund you can contribute to?

[ZZZenAgain]

Hi does anyone know of a fund to help the people in Japan after the quake/tsunami - or some way of showing support to them?

I am overseas but I would like to try and do something.

I hear what you say ....I hope too many will not suffer for too long.

This is a great story about half-Japanese Ocado founder John Gissing experiencing the dilemma of how to help Japan. Ocado will match your donation as well and funds are going to a Japanese charity that is actually helping on the ground.

This is the Ocado Just Giving Page.

I'm getting really pissed off with all the media-grabbing headlines saying Japan doesn't need donations. The NY times has done this, and now Slate among others. WTF. these journalists are going to have blood on their hands because people who would otherwise have donated are going to have visions of the "rich" Japanese not needing money. WTF. Japan has been devastated by this. At least 10,000 deaths and another 10,000 missing and that's before you get to all the homeless people in shelters.

sorry my post was not to anyone on this thread

Sakura - it is not just the media. The Disasters Emergency Committee are saying much the same thing thing .

Japan has not made a general appeal for humanitarian aid. The Japanese Red Cross are accepting donations, but they haven't made an appeal either. Major international agencies that have made appeals also have put in small print that says 'if we don't need all this money for our opperations in Japan we will use it elsewhere', which is entirely fair enough but doesn't support the view that there are helicopters not being scrambled, doctors not working or food not being bought because the Japanese government or the Red Cross do not have the cash on hand to pay for it.

Events in Japan are tragic, and the desire to help is real and heartfelt. But there has been no convincing case made that there are organisations with the logistic capacity to help in Japan that are not doing it for lack of cash.

After Haiti lots of small NGOs set up and money was raised but ended up being wasted or sitting in bank accounts because the ability to fundraise wasn't matched by the capacity to deliver coordinated aid.

Every well meaning appeal is not necesessarily able to deliver well. For example Shelterbox distributes survival kits (presumably in large part made up of products sourced in China) from it's base in CORNWALL ! If this was a good idea surely the Japanese govt would be buying it's survival supplies from Cornwall.

Rather than donate to a charity whose solution is to ship materials half way around the world and back, or to rapidly set up appeals by organisations with no track record for doing this work in Japan, better to give an unrestricted donation to MSF or the Red Cross to use wherever it is needed. As far as I can see the media is doing a fair job at getting this message out.

I've only read the first page of this, but I think there's a Japanese Red Cross, and if you give to that, it will all go to Japan (whereas if you give to the Red Cross it will have to be shared out).

Amazing how brave and resilient the Japanese have been in the face of such a tragedy, and how efficient they were in the immediate aftermath. No rioting or looting - a real example to the rest of the world. Really rooting for them, especially now with the nuclear disaster threat hanging over them.

HImalaya, I know you started the other thread which quoted the factually incorrect New York Times.
I think you, and the media, are creating an unecessary stir. Your post here has made me so angry.

'if we don't need all this money for our opperations in Japan we will use it elsewhere', which is entirely fair enough but doesn't support the view that there are helicopters not being scrambled, doctors not working or food not being bought because the Japanese government or the Red Cross do not have the cash on hand to pay for it.

That disclaimer has nothing whatsoever to do with your claims that Japan does not need aid or donations. IT's entirely unrelated.
And I see that you are seriously suggesting that doctors and people are not starving up there Get a life, seriously. Why are you on here trying to convince people that Japan doesn't need donations?

Sakura -

As I said the Disasters Emergency Committee are saying much the same thing.

As are serious aid analysts

As Give Well says the question about how and whether to donate, is not whether the emergency situation in Japan is grave and the loss of life tragic, but whether more donations would make a difference.

They conclude:

• Those affected have requested very little, limited aid. Aid being offered far exceeds aid being requested.

• Charities are aggressively soliciting donations, often in ways we feel are misleading.

• Any donation you make will probably be used (a) by the charity you give it to, for activities in a different country; (b) for non-disaster-relief-and-recovery efforts in Japan.

• If you?re looking to pursue (a) and help people in need all over the world, they recommend giving to the best charity you can, rather than basing your giving on who is appealing to you most aggressively with images and language regarding Japan.

• If you prefer (b), a gift to the Japanese Red Cross seems reasonable.

Overall, though they recommend making a gift to Doctors Without Borders who have been a leader in transparency, honesty and integrity by not soliciting funds 'for' Japan.

As to why I think this issue is important, this is what I was raising in other thread -- not about Japan, but more generally. I don't think people are thinking straight about charity, we seem to be conditioned (and conditioning our children) to respond to emotional appeals and news headlines, and charities are playing to this, which undermines their own effectiveness.

There are people dying in Cote D?Ivoire, Liberia, the DRC. There is a drought in East Africa. Pakistan is still recovering from Flooding, people in Libya need medical and humanitarian support. These humanitarian efforts are underfunded. Meanwhile in the US
4,500 new charities have been set up over the past week to give aid to Japan - a peaceful democracy with a developed economy and a well-functioning government.

I agree with Himalaya, and I say that as someone with a particular emotional attachment to Japan, having spent more than a decade living there (including time spent working in Sendai), and having lots of friends still in the country.

I have donated to the Red Cross Japan appeal, but I only did that because I know that a) the Red Cross is already established in Japan and so is best placed to make swift use of new donations, and b) the money I donated went into a fund which can be diverted to other countries if it is not needed in Japan.

I think many of the other fundraising appeals and new charities being set up are all very well-meaning, but by the time they get themselves organised, the urgency will be over. And Japan is much better placed than most other countries dealing with natural disasters to rebuild by itself with only limited outside assistance.

It seems that the Japanese Red Cross and Medicins Sans Frontieres are good organisations to give to - both very active and with the infrastructure in place. We've been raising money through Origami (with children too). We've called it Origami4tsunami and we have a Just Giving page (money goes to the Japanese Red Cross through the British Red Cross who have coded the page). I think we will add Medicins Sans Frontieres in to this page this week. We also have a blog: origami4tsunami.blogspot.com where you can see what we've been up to and you can tell us about what you are doing. If you would like to join in, it's easy - there's lots of great origami instruction on the web - links on the blog. You can do some origami either for people or with them, then give the money through the Just Giving page.

The Japanese Red Cross and Medicins Sans Frontieres are good organisations to give to - both very active already and with the infrastructure in place. We've been raising money through Origami (with children too). We've called it Origami4tsunami and we have a blog: www.origami4tsunami.blogspot.com where you can see what we've been up to and you can tell us about what you are doing. If you would like to join in, it's easy - there's lots of great origami instruction on the web - links on the blog. We have a Just Giving page (money goes to the Japanese Red Cross through the British Red Cross who have coded the page). It's at www.justgiving.com/origami4tsunami. You can do some origami either for people or with them, then give the money through the Just Giving page. If you just want to donate yourself through the Just Giving page, they will claim back the Gift Aid (if you're a UK taxpayer). Please tell people about this. Schools in Dublin, Sydney & San Francisco are planning to join in already so please spread the word here and abroad, and if you would like to, donate - even if it's pennies, it all mounts up. Thanks.

yes, I see that you also had an extra point to make in your other post HImalaya, but you linked to a factually incorrect article, lies basically, about the Japanese government not wanting donations, when the truth is Japan is desperate for donations.

Why are you using now , of all times, to promote your general point about charity-giving? Because honestly, it sounds like you're trying to say "Why give to the Japanese, they're allright, give to these, other worthier causes"

That might not be your intention, but that is how your posts are coming across to me.

Sakura- have you read the DEC post and the Givewell analysis? They say much the same thing as the NYT, and can't really be dimissed as uninformed journalists.

The Japanese government is a solvent, developed, well organised state. In terms of immediate emergency response it is best placed to act, and in terms of cash it can print money. Its asked other governments for specific technical assistance, but it hasn't put out a call for general humanitarian assistance.

Frankly if there were things the Japanese government could do, or that local NGOs could do beyond what they are already doing if only they had the cash to do it, it would be irresponsible of them to wait for people in the UK to hold bring-and-buy sales for them, or people in Cornwall to ship tents. That is never the best response, but humanitarian aid makes a difference when a desperately poor country with an incompitant government suffers a natural disaster. It's the last resort not the first one.

Japan will need international resources - billions - when it comes to reconstruction. But that will mean issuing government bonds to the capital markets.

I don't know what the DEC or Givewell analysis is.

I do know that the article you linked to was (I repeat) factually incorrect insofar as it was irresponsibly reporting that the Japanese government was refusing donations.

I think you should think about that tbh.

YOu are also adding another point onto it. By all means argue your point, but you don't need to put lives in danger by misquoting the Japanese government.

"Frankly if there were things the Japanese government could do, or that local NGOs could do beyond what they are already doing if only they had the cash to do it, it would be irresponsible of them to wait for people in the UK to hold bring-and-buy sales for them, or people in Cornwall to ship tents."

As for this para: Fuck off.
And I don'T care if this gets deleted.
The Japanese government is not waiting for anything. It is saying it is grateful for any donations, and we have shoddy and lazy journalists misquoting them and erroneously informing the public that they're refusing donations.

Sakura

Here are the links again - DEC - the UK Disasters Aid Committee www.dec.org.uk/item/497 this is the group of UK charities that coordinate national humanitarian appeals.

Givewell are a group of analysts that advice donors on which organisations can best use their money. I posted their assessment above blog.givewell.org/2011/03/15/update-on-how-to-help-japan-funding-is-not-needed-we-recommend-giving-to-doctors-without-borders-to-promote-better-disaster-relief-in-general/

I am not in Japan. It must be terrible. You are angry. But I think your anger is misplaced.