There were two fundraisers I wanted to attend on Friday night; one at Tadg’s and the other at Urbanguild. Unable to be in two places at once though, I paid a brief visit to Tadg’s early in the evening, gobbled down one of his gorgeous vegan pizzas with a lovely Oatmeal Stout and made my donation to the worthy cause on my way out. I heard later that Tadg’s event raised spectacular amounts of cash for IDRO (International Disaster Relief Organisation Japan). I’ll be posting more on that brand new, local NPO tomorrow.
At Urbanguild, our good friend Sean Roe was hosting his very last JunKroom. Sadly, I wasn’t able to stay for the whole event but I did enjoy two performances in particular: musicians Christopher Fryman, Komaki & the dancer Misuzu and also Bridget Scott’s performance with Problematica. You can see my photos of this event at the bottom of this post. Sean’s event raised 50,000 yen for two very good charities doing important work in Tohoku. Here’s some information on them both in case you feel like bulking up that figure a tad:
1) ゆめ風基金（Yume-kaze fund)
Well organized fund which was founded for helping handicapped people in the disaster-stricken area in 1995, when the big earthquake hit Hanshin. The Office is located in Osaka. Usually, handicapped people are in much harder situation in shelters. To help them immediately after the disaster, the fund gathers and saves donation in long span (their original plan was to save one billion in 10 years, though it hasn’t been realized yet; now about 0.2 billion).
The fund has a network connecting 51 associated societies (Yume-kaze Net) in each prefecture in Japan. These societies provide local information as soon as natural disaster happens. The fund provides the pooled money to that region, considering the precise needs of people there.
They are now working in Tohoku and calling for donations. They have only one bank account for donations (meaning, it is both for pooling and for Tohoku), but if you are inclined to donate directly to Tohoku, write “とうほく” on the message form in the transfer paper.
郵便振替口座（P. O. Savings Transfer account）
Account number: 00980-7-40043 Account holder’s name: ゆめ風基金
2. JVC (Japan International Volunteer Center) is also working in Tohoku.
They send everyday goods and medical resources to Tohoku and also support the Kesennuma City volunteer centre in Miyagi prefecture. The centre accepts 100- 200 volunteer members everyday. They remove mud and rubble in accord with people’s needs there.
P. O. Savings Transfer account
account number： 00190−9−27495
name： JVC東京事務所
write「東日本大震災」on the paper.
As for JunKroom? Sean says: “Please watch this space for for future developments….The JunKroom event will take a break and restart in London where I hope to be able to promote the excellent work of my friends in Kyoto and give UK audiences the chance to see some of the best Music, Dance and Art coming out of Japan.” Link to JunKroom website for more images.
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