The following is from a resident of Japan, who is well known to people that have attended the American Embroidery Conference over the years. This is a part of her letter describing the need over there. It seems that donations will reach the critical areas best by following her recommendations. I'm sure a lot of us want to help, but don't know how. I'm posting her letter that I received today giving permission to post this. Gen
Hello my name is Cindy Powers. I live in Kyoto Japan. I saw your message on the AEC board and thought I would write you directly. I would be so happy if you helped to publicize the links I gave Dianne for direct aid to the survivors. Donations made directly to the Japanese sites will reach the survivors much faster. If any of your friends are on twitter, they can follow the work being done by Second Harvest under the twitter name @2HJ_en. If there is any other information that you would like to pass on to members of your group, please feel free to write me directly. The survivors need all the help they can get as quickly as they can get it.
Regards, Cindy Powers
The situation in the northern prefectures is however quite dire. We have had a cold snap and return to winter snow. Although there have been stories in other earthquakes of people being rescued as much as 10 days later, it is now accepted that the freezing temperatures in the last two nights would have killed anybody that had not yet been rescued. The death toll is phenomenal, but all of these people died because of the quake and tsunami. They are not radiation deaths. Among Japanese living in rural areas, there is a heavy predominance of elderly, those who have made it to shelters are often without necessary medicines and there is a lack of food, warm clothing and bedding. I am engaged in food and clothing drives to help these people. If you can help in anyway to publicize some of the donation sites, I would appreciate it. One good site for online donations is: _