Abe to accompany Prince William on tour of disaster-affected Fukushima - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

Abe to accompany Prince William on tour of disaster-affected Fukushima - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun: "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will engage in a bit of public relations when he shepherds Britain’s Prince William on a high-profile tour of areas in Fukushima Prefecture devastated by the 2011 disaster.

Abe and William will visit the prefecture on Feb. 28, just days ahead of the fourth anniversary March 11 of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis there."



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Qld communities suffer widespread damage

Qld communities suffer widespread damage: "Disaster relief funding has been quickly a"



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The Maravi Post - chinese-community-in-malawi-donate-k10-million-relief-items-for-flood-victims-life-and-style maravipost.com

The Maravi Post - chinese-community-in-malawi-donate-k10-million-relief-items-for-flood-victims-life-and-style maravipost.com:



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Seahawks’ TDs Might Hit A Homer - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Seahawks’ TDs Might Hit A Homer - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "The Seattle Art Museum (SAM), which last year talked smack on Twitter with the Denver Art Museum (DAM) all week leading up to the big game, has entered a high-stakes wager on the game. If the Seahawks win, the Williamstown, Mass.-based Clark Art Institute will loan Winslow Homer’s 1900 oil on canvas, “West Point, Prout’s Neck.”

If the Patriots let the air out of that attempt, SAM will send Clark the 1870 oil on canvas “Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast,” by Albert Bierstadt."



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Ebola Outbreak a New Case Study for Global Disaster Fundraising - Year-End Fundraising - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Ebola Outbreak a New Case Study for Global Disaster Fundraising - Year-End Fundraising - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: "he world has turned a corner on the epidemic: The World Health Organization said Thursday there have been fewer than 100 new cases in a week in the three most affected countries. But the fight isn’t over. And among the 8,810 people killed by the disease were nearly 500 health-care workers.

Many organizations working on the front lines included special messages about their response efforts in their year-end appeals."



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Crowdfunding helps revive quake-hit small businesses in Japan | The Japan Times

Crowdfunding helps revive quake-hit small businesses in Japan | The Japan Times

CCT Student, Amanda Andrei, Showcases Her Talents Through Her Typhoon Haiyan Photo Essay | Communication, Culture & Technology

CCT Student, Amanda Andrei, Showcases Her Talents Through Her Typhoon Haiyan Photo Essay | Communication, Culture & Technology

Team Rubicon's co-founder tells West Michigan about the importance of veteran volunteers | MLive.com

Team Rubicon's co-founder tells West Michigan about the importance of veteran volunteers | MLive.com: "I thought I should be there...I can help,” said Wood. When his offer to volunteer was rejected, he organized his friends and raised money to fly into the Dominican Republic, and then cross into Haiti. The group set up medical triage clinics to treat the critically wounded. They used counterinsurgency tactics to deliver humanitarian aid.

The trip led to the creation of an organization they called Team Rubicon after the river Julius Caesar led his legion across, signaling he was “irrevocably committed to his task” of taking Rome."



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Tens of thousands still living in tents 5 years after Haiti earthquake | The Miami Herald

Tens of thousands still living in tents 5 years after Haiti earthquake | The Miami Herald: "PORT-AU-PRINCE
When Jackson Morrisseau learned that he was approved for a new constructed government-sponsored house on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the retired father of two thought he finally found deliverance after losing almost everything in the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

But months after moving into the small yellow house, Morrisseau, 60, is having second thoughts."



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Former Haiti official: We have no idea where all that recovery money went | WashingtonExaminer.com

Former Haiti official: We have no idea where all that recovery money went | WashingtonExaminer.com: "Nearly five years after a 7.0 magnitude quake killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, Haiti’s recovery efforts remain muddled and confused, with the whereabouts of the billions of dollars pledged by the international community an apparent mystery to the country’s leaders.

“We don’t know where the money has gone,” Raymond Joseph, former ambassador of Haiti to the U.S., said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg’s “Market Makers.”"



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Refugee charity seeks to develop disaster relief - FT.com

Refugee charity seeks to develop disaster relief - FT.com: "In the world of emergency responses, cash is the new king. After decades of building vast logistical operations to deliver food, tarpaulins, tents and other supplies to disaster zones increasingly relief agencies have begun to accept that sometimes what the victims really need is just a bit of cash.
But there’s a problem. Even cash takes time. It can take six weeks before agencies can distribute the money to the people who need it — an eternity in the disaster relief world. Could they instead find a way to distribute cash responsibly just a few days after a typhoon or tsunami?"



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Who’s Afraid of Occupy Wall Street? The Red Cross, Apparently - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly

Who’s Afraid of Occupy Wall Street? The Red Cross, Apparently - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: "ProPublica and NPR have been doing an investigative series on the Red Cross focusing on its performance during Superstorm Sandy as well as other issues like possible misrepresentation to donors of the organization’s fundraising and overhead costs. The reporters are openly inviting people to help them with their “Red Cross Reporting.” (It is worth saying that reporting on the basis of anonymous sources, as is done in this article, is often a difficult sell, but in this case, there is corroboration in documents and in interviews with named individuals who worked with both the Red Cross and Occupy Sandy.)"



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Bob Geldof launches Band Aid Ebola challenge, takes fundraising to questionable heights - People - News - The Independent

Bob Geldof launches Band Aid Ebola challenge, takes fundraising to questionable heights - People - News - The Independent: "

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Canadian Red Cross Supporting Relief Efforts in Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit Makes Landfall

Canadian Red Cross Supporting Relief Efforts in Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit Makes Landfall: "With the support of the Canadian Red Cross, the Philippine Red Cross is better prepared to provide relief to communities affected by Typhoon Hagupit, which made landfall on the weekend. While the extent of damage has not yet fully been realized as emergency responders work around the clock to access remote communities, the Philippines is also bracing for potential flooding caused by the tropical storm."



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IRIN Asia | From Haiyan to Hagupit - what changed? | Philippines | Disaster Risk Reduction | Early Warning | Natural Disasters

IRIN Asia | From Haiyan to Hagupit - what changed? | Philippines | Disaster Risk Reduction | Early Warning | Natural Disasters: "acloban, the city that bore the bulk of the estimated 6,000-plus fatalities 13 months ago, has reported no casualties thus far.

“We evacuated sooner this year. People need longer than one to two days to evacuate,” Tacloban’s mayor Alfred Romualdez told IRIN, admitting he broke rules to suspend classes before the storm had even entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. “People need three to four days to evacuate. You cannot force evacuation. Before they can think about evacuating, they need to borrow money from their employer. Then it takes at least one day to return home to provinces.” "



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Congress allocated billions for Sandy relief. So far, this is where it's been spent | US news | The Guardian

Congress allocated billions for Sandy relief. So far, this is where it's been spent | US news | The Guardian: "fter hurricane Sandy hit, Congress granted federal agencies a total of $48b for disaster recovery. Two years later, much of it still hasn’t been spent.

Surprising, right? It’s true: the Office of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) has received $15bn for community infrastructure, and has only spent 12%. Transportation has spent about the same of its $12bn allocation for things like subway upgrades. The Army Corps of Engineers got $5.4bn for coastline protection, and hasn’t even spent a billion. Even Homeland Security, which received more than $11bn for Fema’s immediate emergency response, still has almost half to spend.

So what is a realistic timeframe for spending federal money?"



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BBC News - Typhoon Hagupit: Storm weakens as it nears Philippine capital Manila

BBC News - Typhoon Hagupit: Storm weakens as it nears Philippine capital Manila: "At least 21 people were killed by the storm, the Red Cross said, with the eastern island of Samar worst hit, but it caused far less damage than feared.

Thousands of people are heading home after about a million people were evacuated from vulnerable areas.

The city of Tacloban, which bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Haiyan last year, has emerged relatively unscathed."



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BBC News - Powerful Typhoon Hagupit nears Philippines

BBC News - Powerful Typhoon Hagupit nears Philippines: "Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter as the powerful Typhoon Hagupit heads towards the Philippines.

Hagupit, known locally as Ruby, has gusts of up to 230km/h (143mph) and is due to hit land on Saturday evening."



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Western Union Launches Million-Dollar Global Challenge to Fight Ebola | Business Wire

PRESS RELEASE



Western Union Launches Million-Dollar Global Challenge to Fight Ebola | Business Wire: "D, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company and The Western Union Foundation today launched a million-dollar global business challenge to help fight the Ebola outbreak, and announced a multi-faceted program in support of community relief efforts."



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‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ charity single comes under fire | Globalnews.ca

‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ charity single comes under fire | Globalnews.ca: "There’s a danger that this kind of appeal is slightly patronising,” British MP Malcolm Bruce told BBC Radio 4, “and gives the impression that Africa doesn’t have the capacity to do things for itself.”

Critics have also pointed out that many of those affected by Ebola are Muslim and, therefore, do not celebrate Christmas."



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