Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Support Marginalized Communities and Families in Japan!!

Dear friends,

Japan Pacific Resource Network (JPRN) based in Oakland, which is one of the leading organizations in strengthening the non profit sector in Japan and the bi-national civil society between the US and Japan, and Eclipse Rising have teamed up and launched the Japan Multicultural Relief Fund. We have setup this Fund with the endorsement of the Peace Development Fund.

We have set up the groundspring.org (online donation feature), you can make a donation HERE. Your charitable contribution is a tax-deductible donation.

As you may know, JPRN and ER and its members combined together bring close to 5 decades of organizing and solidarity experience with maringalized communities throught the Japanese nation-state, from occupied Okinawa, to Ainu and landless/denationalized Zainichi Koreans, to the 'Untouchable' Buraku caste communities. Amongst our extensive network of colleagues on the ground in Japan, we are currently determining the recipient organizations to ensure all the support is directly injected to those most vulnerable, exposed and farthest removed from a lot of mainstream governmental and NPO support -either due to invisibility of these communities in general, cultural/ linguistic barriers, as well as the highly anticipated discriminatory practices in the relief process.

Why are we doing this?

We are minorities from Japan and are already hearing word from our own families and friends about the challenges confronting them, so we hope this Fund will complement those of the government and other large institutional efforts and empower those who have been long serving their constituents to administer the support they themselves deem is critical and necessary in the manner they see fit.

JPRN has a track record in relief fund support, setting up and administering the Minority Relief Fund in the Kobe Earthquake of 1995.

We are also waiting on endorsements by some key allies.

Please visit http://www.jprn.org/relieffund.html for more information!

The final list of fund recipient organizations will be available on the site shortly.

Thank you so much, and please forward this widely and post on your social media & networks!

Twitter #JMRF

Facebook: Search Japan Multicultural Relief Fund

No comments: