

Ask YC:  How can I help in Japan? - tirrellp

I know I can help in the 'normal ways with donations'.  But I actually have time to travel out there and give time, effort, and sweat.  Whether its technical/hacker stuff, or organization/project management stuff, or just plain old get hands dirty and help with cleanup stuff, I'm willing.  Does anyone know of some good channels to find out how I can help?
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patio11
I appreciate the thought, but it takes $2k to bring you here, which is enough
to put an out of work Japanese twenty-something on the project for a month.
He's literate and can understand directions.

I understand there are charitable traditions in which one's personal suffering
incurred matters more than results. In this case, you could work really really
hard at project management in the US, say it was for Japan, and donate half
your salary there and half here. Everyone would end up better off, because
you're vastly more effective doing that than your are being an illiterate
manual laborer.

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cperciva
You probably can't.

When disasters occur in impoverished countries with poor social
infrastructure, there is a great need for people to set up communications
networks, provide medical care, hand out vaccines, et cetera; but Japan isn't
an impoverished infrastructure-lacking country. They have a functioning
government and lots of technically skilled personnel; in the rare cases they
do need something, they will know and ask for it -- unlike places like post-
quake (and arguably, even pre-quake) Haiti, where the minimally-functioning
government had no idea what resources the relief workers on the ground needed.

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mariust
If you are a hacker and have one or more website put up the donation code on
your websites, that will help a lot. The people there are great in helping
each other but they need outside support that will cost a lot of money, so for
you the best way to help them is by donation and helping to rise donations, I
suppose. Thanks

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atgm
Donate blood, donate money.

Narita isn't even running flights and transportation out to that area is
untenable at best, foolhardy at worst.

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tirrellp
Thanks to everyone for the information.

