The devastating events in Japan in March mean that it will take years to rebuild the lives of those affected. The disaster created almost 25 million tonnes of debris in the three hardest-hit prefectures, Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate, according to the environment ministry, and the clearance operation is expected to take 3 years. To put it in numbers this includes 16 towns, 95,000 buildings, 23 railways stations and hundreds of kilometres of roads. In the meantime more than 125,000 people have lost home and everything with nearly 300,000 people affected (not to mention the radioactive leaks from the nuclear plant).
MonkeysAlwaysWork feels deeply for the people of Japan and will donate 20% of profits from all your purchases until the end of December 2011, and after that I will assess the campaign. I guess that apart from being blown away by the images of the massive scale of destruction by the tsunami, with towns flattened and thousands of people swept away in moments, I also admire many aspects of Japanese culture and feel an affinity with its popular art, from manga to anime and the aestehetics of character design.
I'm currently researching the organisations and charities that work on the ground, to decide to whom donate financial aid. For instance Unesco is running a scholarship programme in support of children affected by the disaster, and the Japanese branch of the Red Cross is overseeing around 80 teams on the ground but donations are being taken at its branches around the world.
I would like to donate to an effective organisation, and not necessarily a big one, that works on the ground and ideally makes it possible to monitor the progress and where the funds are going; I haven't decided yet and I would welcome suggestions and concrete examples.
There is also a need for attention (to whom donate funds) as the multi-billion dollar clean up operation (which poses also an environmental headache) has of course attracted the interest of criminal organisations. The Guardian has reported that yakuza gangs and Chinese crime syndicates are setting up removal and construction companies. There is for instance a real danger that debris, including radioactive waste, could end up dumped illegally.
Over here it's also important to avoid fraud and check the legitimacy of organisations we're donating.
Update - Recovery phase: as it is difficult to assess how serious and effective smaller organisations are, I've decided to donate to the the Japanese Red Cross which so far it has helped to fit out over 70,000 temporary homes that will benefit around 280,000 people in the three prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate.
The campaign ran in 2011 and is now closed, thank you for your interest.
