Wednesday, May 18, 2011

An anatomy of FUMBARO Japan project : why I'm watching

"FUMBARO Japan" project is not the only one.
There are so many NGO, NPO, volunteer groups. Of course, Japanese goverment and each public bodies doing best. And, as an Japanese, I thank for so much help from so many countries on the earthquakes and nuclear-plant acceident.

The reason why I'm following FUMBARO project is,
  1. It concentrates in matching between needs and relief goods. Out-sourcing logistics to Amazon. This strategy keeps away from bottle-neck problem.
  2. It does not wait for request. It does search for request on foot. (Network is not available there)
  3. Find out key-person from disaster-stricken area. Then ask him/her to be a network-node of the project. Now, FUMBARO project has over 200 nodes, and that number is going up.
  4. Via network nodes in disaster-stricken area, the project detecting changes of needs. Used to be, food is the first priority. Now, victims needs skills to build up their new town. The project began new plans to support them to get license to drive some heavy machinery.
For some people other than Japanese, it may seem ordinary NGO. But this style is very new and eccentric as a Japanese NGO. So, I'm very interested. Also I'm very worried about its success.

FUMBRO Japan project : http://fumbaro.org/

FUMBARO Japan project

Recently, I'm spending so many hours in Twitter.
There, "FUMBARO Japan" (Never say die Japan!) project http://fumbaro.org/ is going on.

The project covers "needs vs help matching" in recovery process from that earthquakes and following nuclear-plant accident.

Usually, this function is covered by the Japanese goverment and local public body. But in this disaster, some of local public body itself were severely damaged. So, thousand of people are still no-food, no-tapwater, no-electric power, no-home (some are gathering at relations home).
Many NGO, NPO, and volunteer groups are busy helping victims. But, still "needs research on-foot" is not completed yet. The "Fumbaro Japan" project covers this point.
As long as you can see on TV, and internet, most of striken areas are going back to "NORMAL". But, still there are so many people waiting help without network connection.

If you have any idea to help them, please contact to @saijotakeo on Twitter. Or, look at http://www.facebook.com/fumbaro.org on Facebook.

Further, if you can read some Japanese, you can send goods based on "Wish list" on Amazon.co.jp . "Fumbaro Japan project" is working on wish-list making from their "needs research"