Report on Red Cross donations

This just in from The Japan Times, detailing the funds that have been collected by the Red Cross at home and abroad and what is being done with them.

¥174 billion in donations so far: Japanese Red Cross

Kyodo

The Japanese Red Cross Society said Wednesday it has collected about ¥174 billion in donations for people affected by the March 11 quake and tsunami, the largest sum it has ever collected, and that ¥65 billion of the amount has already been distributed to prefectural governments.

The Japanese Red Cross also said an additional ¥16.8 billion has been provided by its partner societies around the world and that the overseas assistance will be used to rebuild medical infrastructure and provide electrical appliances to those forced to move into temporary housing.

Tadateru Konoe, president of the Japanese Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo that about ¥8.1 billion will be spent to build a temporary hospital to provide emergency medical care in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

"One of the biggest challenges for us now is to work on the recovery of regular health services," Konoe said. "State plans to rebuild are in place, but they will take years to implement and in the meantime the Japanese Red Cross will do all it can to bridge significant gaps."

In Ishinomaki, only about 40 of the area's roughly 70 medical institutions are still operating. Konoe said the prefabricated hospital planned by the Red Cross will operate until a new municipal hospital can be built in the area, a task that is expected to take three years.

The overhead costs have not yet been deducted from the donations collected by the Japanese Red Cross, and the society has used its own funds provided by supporters before March 11 to offer emergency relief supplies, such as blankets, and to dispatch medical teams to the affected areas, Konoe said.

The society will also offer appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines and rice cookers, to people moving into the 72,000 or so temporary homes expected to be built. The household items are expected to benefit up to 288,000 people at an estimatedcost of ¥16.5 billion.

As for domestically collected donations, Konoe said both speed and fairness should be considered when distributing the funds.

The Japan Times Thursday, May 12, 2011