Relief effort experience#1:Donation for Japan in United States, Florida, Gainesville

     I was an exchange student in US about 2 years ago. I missed my host family and friends up there very much, so I planed to go back to US and see my host family and have a small vacation during the spring break. 
    
     Then, 3.11 happened. 
     
     I had no idea for about a week if I CAN go to US, or I SHOULD NOT go, leaving my family in Japan, or perhaps I SHOULD go, due to the continuous aftershocks and the news on radiation. Everything was unpredictable around this time, and there was no direction to follow.  
     However as the time goes, I started to think that I can do something more productive if I go back to US, instead of staying home and being stuck watching TV, checking the news.
     I had several plans in my head, working for the relief effort for people in Tohoku. I told my idea to my host sister and my host mother, and some of my friends who are actively working on volunteering and relief effort. And they were willing to help me out.
     I asked my parents and grandparents for the permission to leave Japan in this complicated and tense situation. They said "It's all right. You should go there, maybe here is not a safe place anymore." This comment scared me a little, but everything was set on for the trip to US.
    
     One idea was to collect personal stories on 3.11 from my friends, posting on a website and raising awareness of people in US. I thought that what people hear and watch through media can be somewhat different from what is really happening in Japan. So I started working on my idea to make them come real. I asked my friends to send me an e-mail, writing about what happened on 3.11, what they did, and how they thought, and what they have on their mind right now. A lot of my friends replied to my message and several friends helped out to translate those messages in Japanese into English.

     Translating personal stories on the plane, 17 hours of flight was quite short. I got to the airport, felt the warmth and more relaxed, but also with a weird feeling on my mind. Many things happening in my home country, but I was out of the whole situation at that time. 

     Right after I got to Florida, Gainesville on 18th of March, I had a chance to hold a meeting who would like to help my plans. Here is a note from the brainstorming we had. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_200988049919500&view=doc&id=202349609783344

I used Facebook group page in order to share information, idea, and events. And we decided to donate collected money to American Red Cross, because we thought that is the safest and trustworthy place to out money.

   What we actually did from the list was strawberry jam making, art work making with kids at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School http://www.pky.ufl.edu/ and drawing people's name in Japanese calligraphy style at one the booths at a local festival. Addition, a lot of my friends who dance Argentine tango donated money to us, and American Red Cross. 

     Below are drawings of kids from P.K.Yonge, and how it was used on the day of the festival.

     

     For the long term, one of my friends and me set up a website named "A wish for Japan," as a place to share personal stories of my friends. http://awishforjapan.webs.com/ This website is currently not updated often. I think it was a good idea at the beginning, but lost its clear purpose and resource of information. I wonder what could have been better to make something for a long-term.

     As a whole, we gained $955 to donate. Of course, I was impressed by this amount of money, but that was not the only thing. I was very VERY impressed that I was having fun, doing relief effort in US. It may be because I was apart from the incidents, but I felt that a lot people in US have different idea on donation. In Japan, I feel that collecting donation is more about emotional thoughts and feelings behind, showing sad pictures and sad stories, and never having fun while doing the effort. It seems to me, being a devote or a sacrifice.
     I thank to all people who cooperated, and contribute their time and effort to the activities, and at the same time, still making a thought on idea of donation and/or volunteering in different country.