Japan Quake Situation Update for World Vision Corporate Partners

-- World Vision Response Teams Assess Needs; Begin Distributions

-- Corporations Join the Response

-- Best Ways to Help

SEATTLE, March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- World Vision has deployed an assessment team to northern Japan from Tokyo led by a Japanese emergency response manager with experience in Haiti, Pakistan, Myanmar and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This team reached the city of Sendai within 48 hours of the devastating quake and Fukushima on Tuesday, and is coordinating with local government officials and partner organizations to determine how to start relief operations to support children and their families.  

A team of emergency responders have been mobilized and dispatched from the U.S., Switzerland and the UK, with more on standby, to assist the efforts of World Vision's Japan-based staff.

World Vision has worked in Japan for more than two decades and responded to the Kobe earthquake in 1995. The office in Tokyo has some 75 staff.

"We're grateful for our generous corporate partners who are standing with the people of Japan during their time of need," said David Owens, World Vision's Vice President of Corporate Development.

UPDATE ON WORLD VISION'S RESPONSE:

World Vision has appealed for $10 million globally for its Japan response. As of Wednesday, 16 March 2011, World Vision has raised $2.4 million in the U.S. for the response, including $23,000 in text donations.

Distributions of relief supplies

World Vision's distribution operations begin on Friday, 18 March 2011, in Minami Sanriku, a devastated town where 9,600 people have been displaced into 40 shelters. Japanese authorities organized the distribution, which is near Tome City.

The supplies are to reach 6,000 people, and items to be distributed include:

• 4,500 blankets
• 130,000 sanitary supplies/wipes for children
• 100,000 sanitary napkins for women
• 4,800 bottles of water

(in addition to small initial distributions of baby food and warm baby coats).

World Vision's Global Pre-positioning Response Network, a logistics system that includes warehouses of relief supplies in Dubai and Frankfurt, is poised and mobilized to ship urgent items to Japan as needed.

Child-Friendly Spaces

World Vision plans to establish Child-Friendly Spaces in the quake zone once critical needs are met. These spaces offer psycho-social support for children affected by disasters, and allows them to resume normal childhood activities and experience structure and security that are often lost during emergency situations.

CORPORATIONS JOINING THE RESPONSE

Customized Giving Pages for Employee Response

Corporate partners Verizon, JP Morgan Chase and others have set up customized web pages for employee giving campaigns.

Engaging Customers

• Best Western, the second biggest hotel chain in Japan, is preparing an email blast appeal to 600,000 customers.
• VISA, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover have all waived credit card interchange fees on donations to World Vision's relief efforts for Japan for the next month.

Best Ways to Help

Cash donations are the best method of getting relief supplies where they are most needed as quickly as possible. This can be done in 3 ways:

• cash grants from your company or foundation
• cash donations from your employees
• cash donations from your customers

At this time, World Vision is not receiving Gifts-In-Kind donations. Please contact your World Vision representative for ways your corporation can get involved in this response, or call 1-800-642-1616.

For more information on World Vision's efforts, please visit www.worldvision.org/press.  For Japan-specific updates, please visit http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/emergency-presskit-Japan-quake.  Or follow us on Twitter @worldvisionnews

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve the world's poor – regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

SOURCE World Vision U.S.