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Japan Relief: RMF and Japanese NGO partner in Tokyo

March 17, 2011 - Japan

After reaching out to our network we are pleased to announce that we have located a Japanese non-profit organization JEN ("Japanese Emergency NGO"), to work directly with on the ground in Tokyo and the tsunami affected northern areas of Japan. JEN came highly recommended to us by our partners over at the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, who vouched for JEN’s trustworthiness and effectiveness in disaster relief.

JEN is an officially registered Japanese non-profit founded in 1994 in response to the humanitarian crisis in Bosnia, and has since then been conducting relief around the world for victims of war, internal conflicts and natural disasters. JEN’s motto of "psycho-social care and assistance for self-reliance" is very similar to RMF’s goal of real medicine focusing on the person as a whole by providing medical/physical, emotional, economic and social support.

As the situation is very fluid day to day in Japan, JEN is currently focusing on delivering food and supplies to emergency shelters set up through the region. The situation on the ground will surely change as this crisis develops and our partners at JEN will keep us updated with the latest assessments and needs. JEN has been updating their blog with stories of delivering food and blankets to the tsunami victims. See their blog here.

One of the JEN team members, Yuka Hamatsu, describes the situation on the ground on March 15th;

"Today we were planning to distribute hot meals immediately upon receiving relief items from Tokyo. The younger children were starting to lose their energy after spending four days in the evacuation center. They appear weaker and their faces paler. Everyone, including the evacuees, wanted at least the children to be given hot meals if it was not possible for all 1,200 evacuees at the center. We were still able to provide 600 meals of curry rice and spaghetti to the evacuees, despite the delay of the arrival of the relief items until tomorrow."

Stay tuned for further updates from on the ground in Japan on our website.

If you are interesting in donating to the earthquake/tsunami relief efforts in Japan, click on Donate and be sure to mention Japan as the donation purpose.

Categories: Disaster Relief or View All

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