Aid begins to arrive in Japan

The international community is beginning to deliver aid to to earthquake ravaged Japan. Governments and international aid organizations are sending military assistance as well as food, water and other goods to help the victims of the earthquake and following tsunami.

For this post, we present a round up of some of the organizations accepting donations for Japan and a summary of the aid response. First up, the Acumen Fund gives us some recommendations on who to donate money to.

* Architecture for Humanity has been working in post disaster reconstruction since 1999, designing and building homes, schools, clinics and community facilities. Yesterday at South by Southwest, founder Cameron Sinclair pledged to donate 10% of his salary if the donation link bit.ly/sxsw4JP is re-tweeted 100,000 times. You can make a personal, tax-deductible contribution there as well.
* The Japan Society has set up an earthquake relief fund for nonprofits working directly with victims in Japan: http://www.japansociety.org/news
* You can donate directly to the Japanese Red Cross and help locate missing persons on Google’s crisis response page: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
* Give to the American Red Cross by texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 via your phone bill if you’re in the US. Or give in other amounts at www.redcross.org.

Interaction provides this page that lists all of their member NGOs who are accepting donations for Japan relief efforts.

Finally, the Guardian has this story about the help that is beginning to arrive in Japan. Writers Liz Ford and Claire Provost note that some countries that just went through disasters of their own are helping out to.

Ninety-one countries and nine international organisations have so far offered to assist with relief efforts from last Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the government confirmed on Monday.

The number of countries pledging support increased over the weekend as the devastation wrought by the disaster became apparent. Fifty countries offered assistance the day the earthquake struck.

Among those offering support are countries that are still recovering from the consequences of their natural disasters, such as Pakistan and Bolivia.

China is among the 17 Asian states to offer support. It is providing $4.5m worth of humanitarian aid. The first shipment of emergency materials, including 2,000 blankets, 900 tents and 200 emergency lights, are due to be flown from Shanghai to Tokyo on Monday, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Seventeen Latin American countries, including Honduras, Ecuador and Brazil, and four African states – Djibouti, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia – have also offered assistance. Reuters reported on Sunday that the mayor of Kandahar city in Afghanistan has pledged $50,000 to support relief efforts.

The World Bank, Unicef, Unesco and the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs are among the international organisations pledging support.