Economic Impact

The event went pretty well, we had a Facebook event page which we invited more than 1000 people, and we pitched successfully to several sites,

Day 3 is getting rather exciting. 3 of the interns left at 5am on a long train ride to the disaster area to volunteer for disaster Relief in the flooded areas in Kyushu where more than 250,000 families are ordered to evacuate.

Meanwhile in Grameen House Fukuoka, Prof Yunus arrived and opened the event officially today. "Keep up the good work" Commented the Nobel laurette for Peace as he walks around the exhibit and understands what the event, "Tohoku Road to the Future: March 2011 - March 2012" is about. 

I'm currently planning a project to bring art from the artists living in the affected areas in Japan to different parts of the world like NYC, Boston, Singapore, Taiwan and Mexico to help them sell their art and create awareness for the Relief 2.0 movement. One of the goals of this Art Festival is to change mindsets from donation based to one of conscious buying, which would give dignity to survivors who work and earn their own money and benefiting the economy in the disaster areas. I believe that this will accelerate the recovery process.

Danessa Santana and Jay Aponte, Art Directors at Cumbre Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, are working pro-bono on the re-design and final layout of Relief 2.0 Photo Book - Volume 1: Disaster Strikes to be published shortly in 3 languages with images of the impact of the earthquake and tsunami, disaster response and early initiatives for sustainable recovery with inclusion, dignity, generation of opportunities and distribution of wealth.

Our friend Kaori Brand and United Nations University have shared this inspirational video of the role of business and community together in the sustainable recovery process of Japan.

Our fourth mission to Tohoku focuses in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture and is done in support of the Women Help Women initiative launched by the Global Summit of Women and lead by a group of Korean and Japanese business women.

This is a list of businesses affected by the Big Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan participating in our Business Recovery as a Disaster Recovery Strategy Pilot in Japan. Our goal is to find matching businesses, partners and people willing to collaborate to get them to re-open their businesses and activate the local economy, generating wealth and employment as part of our "Disaster Recovery with dignity, inclusion, generation and distribution of wealth" initiative.