Tuesday, March 15, 2011

JANO Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund

JANO has announced the start of their Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund to help the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11,2011. See the details here:

JANO Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund
JANO 東日本大震災義援金募集

Of course there is more than just JANO to send your donations. There are quite a few lists going around like this one on mashable.com, or this one on msnbc's technolog. One of the best pages I've seen though is Google's Crisis Response project's 2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. Not only do you have the option to donate on that page to the Japan Red Cross, Unicef, or Save the Children, but it has a whole host of information and links to valuable resources. And it's available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese languages.

There is also a lot of information around where to watch Japanese TV (Channel 3680 on AT&T Uverse for example), the fact that all cell carriers are providing free calls to and from Japan, that many Airlines are offering travel wavers for tickets to Japan. See this travel waiver page at United.

It is just so hard for me to imagine the devastation caused by this. Some of the videos and pictures, and now some of the stories coming from survivors are just scary. Add on to that the possible nuclear accident posed by the reactor at Fukushima is just mind boggling. It will take years for the affected areas to recover. So if you have the ability please donate somewhere. They will need all the help they can get.


Update: Check out this new experimental app out for Android phones - it'll help international aid groups communicate with local Japanese residents. It'll translate voice sentences. It's not perfect but it got "My name is Robert" just fine. On the other hand it translated "sugoi desu" as "it's terrible", which depending on the context could be true, maybe.

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