Melissa’s Hope is an orphanage located in the area of Lizon, where the director, Tony Manshino and Jean Pascal Bain, are taking care of 18 orphans of which 13 have special needs. Taking over the orphanage was a learning experience for both Tony and Pascal, but mostly for Tony, who is a music producer and entrepreneur. Pascal turned it into
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Direct Relief and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) awarded this week $82,000 to the Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA) to support the remodeling of a mobile library vehicle. The current mobile library, which serves 150 households in Iwate Prefecture on the tsunami-affected coast, is a small truck with bookshelves. To continue operating and expand services to additional temporary housing establishments,
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By Carl Williams, Direct Relief Japan Recovery Coordinator While on a return trip through the broken and washed away city of Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture to meet with two nongovernmental organizations Direct Relief supports, I saw a familiar house on the other side of a huge ship grounded among immense piles of debris. It was a two-story house, which I remembered
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This is a personal “From the Field” story by Direct Relief Employee Jenny Hutain, Emergency Response Manager. September 11 marks the six-month anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As we reach this milestone in the recovery process, Floyd Mori (Executive Director, Japanese American Citizens League), Bhupi Singh (Direct Relief’s COO/CFO), Carl Williams (Direct Relief’s Japan Disaster Relief Coordinator), and I
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Direct Relief and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) recently awarded $400,000 to the Association for Aid and Relief Japan (AAR Japan) to support AAR Japan’s Phase 2 Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Project. Although AAR Japan’s primary focus is on the distribution of food and other essential items, the 31-year-old organization has also initiated long-term recovery efforts that include repairing
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Grassroots community organizations in Haiti that received funding to help their neighborhoods recover from the January 2010 earthquake are reporting positive results from the grants they received last year. Three such groups focused on education have had a particularly valuable and positive impact on children. Asanble Vwazen Solino (AVS), a free school in Solino, teaches children academics and trades. Immediately after
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