The following is from a resident of Japan, who is well known to people that
have attended the American Embroidery Conference over the years. This is a
part of her letter describing the need over there. It seems that donations
will reach the critical areas best by following her recommendations. I'm
sure a lot of us want to help, but don't know how. I'm posting her letter
that I received today giving permission to post this.
Gen


Hello my name is Cindy Powers. I live in Kyoto Japan. I saw your message
on the AEC board and thought I would write you directly. I would be so
happy if you helped to publicize the links I gave Dianne for direct aid to
the survivors. Donations made directly to the Japanese sites will reach the
survivors much faster. If any of your friends are on twitter, they can
follow the work being done by Second Harvest
under the twitter name @2HJ_en. If there is any other information that you
would like to pass on to members of your group, please feel free to write me
directly. The survivors need all the help they can get as quickly as they
can get it.


Regards,
Cindy Powers





The situation in the northern prefectures is however quite dire. We have
had a cold snap and return to winter snow. Although there have been
stories
in other earthquakes of people being rescued as much as 10 days later, it
is now accepted that the freezing temperatures in the last two nights would
have killed anybody that had not yet been rescued. The death toll is
phenomenal, but all of these people died because of the quake and tsunami.
They
are not radiation deaths. Among Japanese living in rural areas, there is
a heavy predominance of elderly, those who have made it to shelters are
often without necessary medicines and there is a lack of food, warm clothing
and bedding. I am engaged in food and clothing drives to help these
people.
If you can help in anyway to publicize some of the donation sites, I would
appreciate it. One good site for online donations is:
_http://www.jen-npo.org/en/involved/donate1.php_
(http://www.jen-npo.org/en/involved/donate1.php)
Another group that is focused solely on feeding people is at:
_http://www.2hj.org/index.php/get_involved/donate_money_
(http://www.2hj.org/index.php/get_involved/donate_money)
The donations are denominated in multiples of 1,000 yen which equals about
$12.25~$12.50 depending on the yen fluctuations.