Appeal for humanitarian assistance to the earthquake & tsunami affected people of Japan

As we now all know, devastating earthquake struck on 11th March 2011 in Japan (373 km North East of Tokyo, about 130 km off the eastern coast of Japan) with a magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter scale, triggered devastating tsunami. To date, more than 3,000 people have been rescued, but the death toll currently stands at 1,600 and is expected to rise. The most affected area is a town called Minami-Sanriku-cho in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture. The entire village has washed away and there are grave concerns for 10,000 residents -half the town's population. Around 380,000 people evacuated from the tsunami and earthquake affected areas are being sheltered in 2,050 evacuation centres. Another 210,000 people living within a 20 km radius around the Fukushima nuclear power plants have also been evacuated.
The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS), in its role as auxiliary to the government, has mobilized its full emergency response capacity in response to the disaster. More than 60 response teams are in operation, and 178 disaster medical teams have been deployed with another 111 teams on the way.  However, the response is being hampered by continuous aftershocks, tsunami alerts and fires, and many affected areas remain inaccessible.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), being a sister national Society, long development partner of JRCS and a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has expressed its deep sorrow and sympathy to President of JRCS, who is also the President of the IFRC. As an expression of solidarity, BDRCS plans to support the earthquake/tsunami victims to supplement their efforts for mitigating the sufferings of the victims. It should be noted, BDRCS constructed many cyclone shelters at the coastal area of Bangladesh and has been implementing various programmes for the vulnerable communities with the support of the JRCS. Moreover, in response to every major disaster JRCS supported BDRCS in implementing response and recovery operations.

BDRCS also realizes that people of Japan are very good friend of the people of Bangladesh. People and Government of Japan have been supporting Bangladesh through various means of cooperation e.g. development, disaster response, risk reduction.

In this context, BDRCS earnestly appeals to all business societies, corporate business houses, banks, philanthropist, individuals, social clubs, civil societies and aid agencies to donate BDRCS for humanitarian assistance to the victims of Japan earthquake and tsunami. BDRCS appreciates donation either directly at our National Headquarters (684-686 Bara Moghbazar) or through banking channel as mentioned below:

Account Title : Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
Account Number: 01-1336274-01
Bank : Standard Chartered Bank, Dhaka
SWIFT CODE : SCBLBDDX

Account Title : BDRCS Main Collection Account
Account Number: 240000191
Bank : Sonali Bank
Moghbazar Branch, Dhaka

Your cooperation will be highly solicited.

Prof. (Dr.) M. S. Akbar MP

Chairman