Since I last wrote you, I visited parts of Japan that were hit by the tsunami.
I thought I’d see wrecked houses, but it was worse. I could only see foundation stones of houses which barely showed that there were once houses here. I’ve never seen anything like it before. One minute, as you’re driving, everything looks normal. Cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The next minute, the whole scene drastically changes.
Everything was washed away. If you look carefully, you’ll see household items scattered across the ground: toys, notebooks, spices, pots and pans, a radio, photo albums – each of them a piece of somebody’s life.
Everyone in my group was silent. We didn’t know what to say.
That was the shocking part. Then we went to the Evacuation Centre where WFP was distributing high-energy biscuits and building a large tent that would be used as a warehouse to stock relief supplies. Here, I saw the remarkable strength and determination of the survivors. One man told me, “We will never give up. I promise you that this will be a great town the next time you come. With your cooperation, we will persevere.”
I saw with my own eyes that the aid we provided was effective. In gratitude to each and every supporter, the survivors repeatedly said “thank you”.
The people of Japan can feel that the world was there to help them. Donations came not only from developed countries but also developing countries – countries that Japan had helped in the past. It’s quite moving.
Lastly, I need to mention that the workers on the ground are absolute heroes. Many of them lost close family members and all their belongings, but they remain committed to helping other survivors and rebuilding their country.
Everyone is doing their part and working together. WFP is also part of the big team, supporting the local people and workers who are determined to support their fellows and rebuild their own country. It’s a truly unique and impressive operation.
Thank you for helping to make it possible,
Yuko
Ms. Yuko Yasuda Japan Spokesperson World Food Programme
P.S. To watch the longer version of the video, click here.
From: Yuko Yasuda, WFP Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 To: Levendreams Subject: Thank you from Japan
I grew up in Japan. I’m accustomed to earthquakes. But nothing could have prepared me for this one. It was the first time I saw buildings in Tokyo actually sway back and forth.
I watched live TV coverage as the tsunami swept away entire communities. It was like a horror film, but these are real people – thousands are dead, thousands more are missing. In one city, nearly half of the population is still missing.
And now we're gripped with the fear of radiation from nuclear power plants. It's a real-life nightmare.
In the past, Japan has helped the World Food Programme respond to some of the worst disasters around the world. Now, when my country is coping with its own tragedy, I feel proud to stand united with Japan to help people in need.
I’m deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from all over the world, and for your personal contribution. Thanks to the generosity of friends like you, in just 36 hours we raised all the funds we require for our operation in Japan. Thank you.
Amid the devastation left behind by the earthquake and tsunami, transporting goods is an enormous challenge, but families remain in desperate need of emergency supplies and WFP is providing its expertise to make sure those supplies are delivered quickly.
As the lead logistics agency for the United Nations in emergency operations, WFP has decades of experience in delivering food and other relief items in the most difficult environments.
It will take a long time to recover from this disaster. But, between the heroic rescue efforts coordinated by the Japanese government and the incredible support of the international community, I know we’ll get there.
Thank you for the role that you are playing.
Sincerely,
Yuko Yasuda Japan Spokesperson World Food Programme
The World Food Programme (WFP) fights hunger worldwide, saving lives during emergencies while building a better future for the next generation. WFP is funded solely by voluntary donations.
Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon.
Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask all of you,
what's your contribution gonna be?
What problems are you gonna solve?
What discoveries will you make?
What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?
Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn.But you've got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don't let yourself down.
International Medical Corps: သူ့ ဝက်ဘ်ဆိုဒ်မှာ ဒုက္ခသည်တွေအတွက် ကိုယ်လှူဒါန်းချင်တဲ့ ပမာဏကို ရိုက်သွင်းပြီး လှူဒါန်းနိုင်ပါတယ်။ဒီနေရာကနေ သွားပါ။
GlobalGiving.org: International Medical Corps လိုမျိုးပဲ Japan Earthquake နဲ့ Tsunami ဒုက္ခသည်တွေရဲ့ လိုအပ်ချက်တွေကို လုပ်ဆောင်ပေးနေတဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေကို ထောက်ပံ့ပေးသွားမှာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဒီနေရာကနေ လှူဒါန်းပေးပါ။
ဒီအောက်မှာ ဖော်ပြပေးထားတဲ့ ဗွီဒီယိုလေးကို အစမ်းကြည့် ကြည့်ပါ။
World Food Programme 
