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東日本大震災 生活・産業基盤復興再生募金 ヤマト福祉財団

Yamato Welfare Foundation


The 1st-5th Stages Beneficiaries' Descriptions →新規ウィンドウで開きます


About the donation for
restoration of the areas
affected by the Great East
Japan Earthquake


Message and report from
   the Yamato Group

Every package we deliver also carries hope.

Seven months have passed since the earthquake. Our yearlong program to help rebuild the fishing and agriculture industries and restore infrastructure in the affected areas by donating ten yen for every parcel we deliver is continuing. Since April, we have handled 683,157,420 parcels (106,563, 477 in September alone), which brings the total amount donated to ¥6,831,577,420 (US$89 million*) as of September 30. Once again, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every customer who has used our delivery service.  

In this report, we will share information about how and where the money is being used.  Some of what you read may repeat what was written in a previous monthly report, but is offered here again for those who may be unaware of our fund distribution process and our current status.

Previously, it was determined that all the funds donated through the program would be administrated by the Yamato Welfare Foundation. Yamato Welfare Foundation was founded in 1993 to support the mentally and physically challenged in becoming independent members of their communities.  In the wake of the great earthquake, the East Japan Great Earthquake Life, Industry Infrastructure Recovery, and Rebuilding Relief Fund was launched for the purpose of supporting the recovery and rebuilding the industries and infrastructure of the affected areas. On June 24, the Japan’s Ministry of Finance recognized the Fund as an incorporated public interest fund.  This designation allowed donations to the fund to be treated as tax-exempt and used in full to support the affected areas for the purposes stated earlier. It was for that reason that we decided to donate the funds raised through our package delivery to this organization.

In April, we made a commitment to always keep in mind the pain only those personally affected can know, and to make that the impetus for our actions toward recovery.  Each and every member of our staff working in the affected areas makes sure that deliveries are made to the right recipients regardless of their current living circumstances, using whatever means are required.  It is a difficult job, which they are able to do because they share the neighborhood and reality of the affected areas with their customers. 

We know that there are many people for whom time has stood still since the day of the earthquake and tsunami. We shall never forget this. And we will continue working as we have always done.

Nine projects will receive a total of \4.1 billion as announced by Yamato Welfare Foundation on September 8.  This is how the funds will be used:

•	Purchase equipment to dispose of debris from the tsunami that has accumulated on the ocean floor of fishing areas and fishing ports in Miyagi Prefecture

•	Purchase and install ice-making machines to keep fish fresh at fishery product facilities in Miyagi Prefecture.

•	Restoration of aquafarm facilities and equipment damaged by tsunami in Miyagi Prefecture

•	Purchase equipment that will enable marine product processors to resume production in Iwate Prefecture

•	Restoration of freezers and frozen storage facilities to stabilize the supply of fishery products and prices in Iwate Prefecture

•	Restoration of roadside stations in Fukushima Prefecture, considered essential as places to sell agricultural produce as well serving as a local information center

•	Restoration of “Aqua Marine Fukushima” in Fukushima Prefecture, which involves renovation of facilities that control the temperature of the aquarium that receives 1 million visitors annually

•	Reorganization and consolidation of agricultural storehouses in six affect areas into one storehouse as part of the Sukagawa Iwase Agricultural Cooperative storehouse consolidation project in Fukushima Prefecture
•	
Purchase of fishing boats and restoration of processing facilities for marine products in Minami Sanriku-cho, Miyagi Prefecture 

Six of the nine projects are related to the fishing industry and are focused on supporting a rapid recovery of the industry’s distribution and processing capabilities as well as a return to fishing itself.

The members of the selection committee share a common goal to provide “visible, rapid, and highly effective support.”  They also share a goal that this support effort, as evidenced through the projects themselves, will become a model for effective restoration that others may find useful.  We are also gratified to report that the projects described in this report are exactly the type we envisioned and hoped would come to pass when we began this program.  

We will continue to move forward by demonstrating our commitment in specific actions.

October 6, 2011

*Based on exchange rate of US$1.00 = ¥76.76 as of September 30, 2011.

YAMATO GROUP