Day 84: Japan: Working in Isolated Community Devastated by Quake

Donations and offers of humanitarian aid for victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami have been pouring in since the island nation was hit by the twin disasters Friday. And as Japanese struggled Monday to count their dead and get desperately needed supplies to devastated areas, top U.S. officials at both government and assistance agencies put out a simple message: Donate cash.

"Nothing will get there faster, and nothing will help more," says Rebecca Gustafson of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Japan, with the world's third largest economy, has significant disaster, health and safety infrastructures. And, with the largest mobilization of its highly trained military since World War II, the nation has rolled out its own massive rescue effort. But the enormous scope of the still-unfolding tragedy — and the looming specter of possible nuclear disaster — means that the country will need help, some now and more eventually, officials say. But it should be up to the Japanese, they say, to decide what is needed and when. And cash provides the greatest flexibility for filling needs as they are identified.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

Today, members of the 11-person Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team in earthquake-battered northeast Japan worked in evacuation centers with local medical staff in a small, isolated community in Miyagi prefecture.

“There were two local doctors in Minamisanriku who have been working in around 20 evacuation centers since the earthquake and tsunami, so team members today assisted them in their consultations,” said Emmanuel Goue, the emergency coordinator of the MSF team.

From Today, MSF staff plan to start a small clinic in another town near Minamisanriku using drugs donated on Monday. Once additional medical resources from the massive Japanese relief effort arrive, MSF will try to find other pockets of communities that may need medical assistance.

Donation: $5

To support Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), please visit:  http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org