elbales

I can't even get my mind around the scope of the disaster. I lived in Japan for three and half months when I was 20. The people I met were so very kind to a small, unsure foreigner who just wanted to learn about the culture.

Yesterday we donated $100 to the Red Cross. There's a link on my sidebar. Even if all you have is $10, please, please give. If you don't like the Red Cross, there's Doctors Without Borders. There are other efforts going on, too: for one, the YA author Maureen Johnson is doing a charity raffle for Shelterbox, an organization that "that goes into areas of the world affected by disaster with large green boxes that contain shelters and the materials needed for people to restart their lives on some level. The boxes always include a top-quality tent, and they usually include stoves, blankets, water purification systems, and tools. This is true, life-saving stuff, hand-delivered by volunteers trained in survival techniques."

ETA: The Johnson raffle has ended; they raised more than $14K. If you want to donate directly to Shelterbox, it seems to have a pretty good reputation internationally. Note that they don't take location-specific donations, so if you really want to be completely sure your money will be directed to aid in Japan, you may want to choose another charity.

Through Facebook, I found this Google doc of post-quake tweets from Japan translated into English. It moved me to tears. One of them mentioned a person from the US who dialed his own phone number with the country code for Japan on the front. The American talked in English to a complete stranger who spoke his language only imperfectly, and he did it just to be able to tell someone in Japan that people were thinking of them.

Even if all you can do right now is retweet or echo a link or a story, please do it.

Thank you.