A note from the Harvard Club of Japan

“The need for funds for relief in Tohoku remains great, and it is heartening to see the strong and rapid response across the Harvard community to this urgent situation. HBS alumni from years 2005-10 working with HBS students in the classes of 2011 and 2012 have mounted a very effective fundraising campaign. The Harvard Club of Japan commends all those involved and urges you to push even harder to reach and exceed your goals. Lives and futures are at stake, and we must do all we can at this critical time.”

Carl Kay
President
Harvard Club of Japan
http://www.harvardclubofjapan.org/

Other resources (message from Harvard Club of Japan President Carl Kay)

For six days in a row (March 21-26) there will be a series of events
on campus called Harvard for Japan Week. Posters detailing these
events are attached and can be seen at the new Harvard for Japan web
site at http://www.harvard.edu/harvardforjapan

Donations

Given the severity of the situation in Japan, a group of HBS alumni/student/faculty teamed up to reach out to the broader HBS community to ask for their support for Japan. In response to inquiries from the HBS community regarding donations, we have created a short list of organizations active in the Japan Earthquake Relief Efforts, selecting a mix of large and local/grassroots highly credible organizations that offer tax deductibility in the US/Japan.

We would like to keep you posted on our activities and keep track of financial contributions generated from this initiative. To do so, we appreciate your help in filling out this short 3 minute survey (click here to access) .

click on logo to access website

• Japanese NGO active internationally and domestically in emergency humanitarian assistance (eg, warzones, natural disasters) and development
• English instructions: click here to donate to their Seattle office. Donations are tax deductible in the US (501(c)3 organization). 100% of the donations will be sent to the Japan office
• Japanese instructions: click here to donate by Bank, Postal Bank, E-bank, Rakuten Bank or Credit Card. Tax deductible in Japan (Specified Nonprofit Corp/認定NPO法人)

click on logo to access their website

• English instructions:
• To donate by credit card click here (Google Crisis Response website). As Google is aggregating the donation, you will NOT be able to get tax deduction in Japan with this method.
• To donate by wire transfer click here (RCJ website, wire only option available). This is a direction donation to RCJ so tax deductible in Japan
• Japanese instructions: click here to donate by Bank, Postal Bank, Credit Card, Convenience Store or Pay-Easy. Donations are tax deductible in Japan (特定公益法人/Special Public Interest Promotion Corp)

click on logo to access website

• To donate by credit card or Amazon payment click here.  Donations are tax deductible in the US (501(c)3 organization)
• Note: Your gift to the American Red Cross will support our disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific. On those rare occasions when donations exceed American Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters

Thanks you for your support,

HBS Japan Outreach Team

Development Gateway: Japan Crisis Mapping: Fluent Japanese Speakers/Writers Volunteers Needed

Japan Crisis Mapping: Fluent Japanese Speakers/Writers Volunteers NeededJapan is experiencing one of the greatest challenges in its history. In order to assist in monitoring the crisis and to provide information to those in support, fluent Japanese speakers/writers are needed to translate the large volume of incident reports submitted daily for geographic mapping within the “sinsai.info” platform (http://www.sinsai.info/ushahidi/index.php/?l=en_US). Some of this information is used by the Google PeopleFinder service to provide real-time assistance to those most in need.

The Sinsai.info platform is a deployment of software provided by Ushahidi, a non-profit technology company that specializes in developing free and open source software for crowdsourcing, visualization, and interactive mapping. Ushahidi (“testimony” in Swahili) has assisted in several crisis mapping events including the Kenya elections, the Haitian earthquake, and recently during the ChristChurch earthquake in New Zealand.
If interested, please contact Stephen Davenport (sdavenport@dgfoundation.org) at the Development Gateway to arrange a time to help.

Posted by: Kiyomi Saito Class of ‘81