How can I help the people in Japan? and i dont mean donations?
My brother lives in Yokosuka which is not to far from Tokyo. I visited there last summer.
I plan on going there over summer. Airplane tickets arent an issue. My father is a Delta Airlines Pilot and I get free travel benefits. Yea pretty sweet huh? I would like to do volunteer work there over summer when I visit. Either military or thru Red Cross, or w/e relief fund is over there.
I am a military dependent and I have military base access.
What can I do when the time comes? like over summer i mean i have a pretty sweet job right now and its easy as heck to get days off. I could spend my whole summer there if I wanted!! PLz answer!
Mary O2011-03-12T10:52:27Z
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You have a good heart, and you obviously come from a high quality family.
Unfortunately, the Red Cross does not accept spontaneous international volunteers--and as far as I know, no other organization does, either.
In order to be an international Red Cross volunteer, you have to have extensive training in mass care--shelter operation, feeding, client tracking, and information dispersal--and at least five years of local and national disaster response experience. You also need to speak the destination's language fluently and have proven cultural competence and flexibility. If you join now and make the commitment of time (about 40 hours of training and one on-call week a month) and energy, you might be ready for the next U.S. disaster.
Helping to raise money is always a great service.
The Red Cross spends donated money in or near a disaster area, to purchase necessary supplies from local businesses. This means that these businesses can continue to pay their employees, who already affected by the disaster. Otherwise, they would lose their jobs on top of everything else that has happened. Donating money keeps people going in ways far beyond immediate supplies.
Also--the earthquake happened on Friday. The Red Cross and other relief organizations already existed, right? So before the disaster hit, they had offices in place to get information and coordinate their responses.
Relief agencies need stuff independent of any specific disaster.
Agencies need vehicles to get to disasters. These are usually vans and trucks. These need gas, oil, tires, inspection, maintenance, and insurance--all of which costs money. Agency offices need electricity, water, computers, Internet access, phones, phone service, printers, paper, toner--and people. People need to be paid living wages and have healthcare insurance in full-time jobs. (You want that, right?)
All of that already had to be paid for, so when disasters occur, the agencies are ready. Without unrestricted donations not tied to any event, relief agencies cannot have any of these necessities--and can't respond as effectively as necessary.
Japan is a highly industrialized country. They will stand on their own two feet and recovery quite promptly in this time of disaster. Haiti and Southeast Asia were not well-off countries like Japan. Not to mention, Japanese people in other areas of Japan will rush in to help soon.
Your best bet would be to donate to a large, legitimate charitable organization such as the Red Cross. However, if you want to do more, you could help rebuild houses or bring food in the damaged areas listed above (since some homelessness will be one of the main issues to appear from this). Also, you could donate directly to Japanese hospitals and aid organizations, if you change your mind about donating.
I'm sure your kindness is most appreciated. Let's hope for painless-as-possible road ahead for the Japanese people. <3
Visit the Red Cross website to check about local relief efforts that will be launched in affected areas in Japan. Call your brother to see what local orgs and community centers are doing. When approached by charitable organizatons about helping out always research about them first to make sure they are not fruads