New: Donate to us!

Donate to HANDS!

While the world, and frankly, some parts of Japan, start to “move on” from the Tohoku disaster, coastal residents are increasingly being left out in the cold. 9 months into a recovery process that will take about 10 years, the people on the coast are nowhere near the point of being able to “move on” themselves. Meanwhile, many NPOs like HANDS that work directly in the disaster areas are struggling and going under due to lack of funding and interest.

Now, more than ever, HANDS needs your ongoing support.

NEW! Donate from outside Japan via ChipIn!

To make a donation from within Japan, please use the following information.

銀行名 (Bank name)：北日本銀行 (Kitanihon Ginkou, キタニホンギンコウ)

支店名 (Branch)：花巻支店 (Hanamaki Shiten ハナマキシテン)

口座種別 (Account type)：普通 (Normal)

口座番号 (Account number)：7034708

口座人名義 (Name of account) ：特定非営利活動法人ハンズ (HANDS!)

For information on how to do a bank transfer in Japan, please see this link:

http://www.survivingnjapan.com/2010/06/how-to-do-furikomi-bank-transfer.html

Why HANDS?

As of the end of December, HANDS had registered 1026 people and transported 4003 volunteers to and from the coast. We are still dispatching volunteers every day to distribute supplies, clean tsunami mud and rubble, help with landscaping, assist with events, and more. HANDS regularly helps coordinate events at volunteer centers to distribute food or other aid. The founder of HANDS has traveled the country as far as places like Tokyo, Nagoya and Shizuoka Prefecture and given lectures on the current state of the coast and how listeners can help.

HANDS is a smaller nonprofit, but there are advantages to being small. When people on the coast tell us they need something, we can react immediately while larger groups have to take time to deliberate. We’re flexible with volunteers as well—we take volunteers daily, sometimes on short notice, when many groups only dispatch volunteers once or twice a week, and we don’t ask people to attend an orientation.

Our group has relationships with the Rikuzentakata and Kamaishi volunteer centers. This means we can act as a contact to introduce small nonprofits, businesses or professionals who want to help the region. For example, a Hawaiian nonprofit called Kids Hurt Too reached out to HANDS a few months ago and we set up a meeting between Kids Hurt Too, HANDS, and the Kamaishi volunteer center. Now Kids Hurt Too will provide seminars in Kamaishi next June on grief and trauma and how residents can self-care to soothe their symptoms.

In another recent example, HANDS was contacted by a frozen foods company in Toyama prefecture and is now taking regular shipments of frozen food donations this winter to distribute to people living in temporary housing facilities that are too far away (30 minutes or more by car) from grocery stores.

HANDS is even in the business of throwing the occasional party. With the cooperation and support of the foreign community in Iwate, HANDS and Kamaishi Volunteer Center threw a Christmas party for children in Kaminakajima temporary housing unit. Later, HANDS received donations for wine and amazake, a traditional New Year’s alcohol made out of rice, and distributed the drinks to temporary housing residents for New Year’s.

The needs of the coast will change through the 10 years recovery is estimated to take, but HANDS is flexible and dedicated enough to adapt to those changes. And it might not just be Tohoku that benefits; Jun, the head of HANDS, said he wants to use our organization to help other regions hit by disasters in the future, within Japan and even overseas.

If you can, please consider supporting us this year so we can continue to help the coast.