JETAADC Update on the Earthquake in Japan, 3/14

posted in: Japan | 0
From:
Maurice Maloney
President, JETAADC
______________________
Dear JETAADC Member,

The Embassy and CLAIR have been having more success in communicating with JETs in the affected areas.  This afternoon, CLAIR New York updated its list of JETs whose safety has been confirmed, and we are happy to note that list has grown exponentially since Saturday.  Click here to view the list.  Again, if you have heard from any current JETs and their names are not on the list, please have them contact jlgc@jlgc.org as soon as possible.  We are also happy to inform you that today, Sydney time, CLAIR Sydney reports that all JETs from Australia and New Zeland have been contacted at least once since the earthquake.  Likewise, CLAIR London reports that CLAIR Tokyo has confirmed the safety of the 40 JET participants from the United Kingdom who were working in areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami last Friday.

A brief message from JETAAi (international): this past weekend a tweet and other posts on various sites indicated that CLAIR Tokyo had been evacuated and that all questions and inquiries needed to go to CLAIR NY. Though many of the workers at CLAIR Tokyo had been told that they could go home on Friday, the office is in no way closed and in fact, it worked through the weekend in coordination with the local CLAIR offices and JETAAi. JETAAi apologizes for any confusion this caused in an already chaotic and troubling time.

We would like you to know that the JETAADC Board has received many, many e-mails from JETAADC members about hosting an earthquake relief fundraiser, and we would like to confirm that we will be planning something soon.  We are currently in discussions on how best to go about doing so in order to maximize response and remove duplication of effort.  We will keep you posted on any developments.

We would like to thank everyone in the JETAADC Community for sharing their concern during the first 72 hours of the crisis and we will continue to send you updates on the status of JETs in Japan.  Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or any of the JETAADC Board Members.
Regards,

Maurice Maloney
President, JETAADC

PS – Should you be interested, it is being reported that a few of the major wireless service providers (ATT, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile) are waiving fees for voice and text messages to Japan.  Please check with your provider for more details.