Masaya Uchino ’11 Launches Campaign to Improve Japanese Relief Efforts
In response to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Masaya Uchino '11 has launched a campaign to expedite donations for Japanese relief efforts, and these efforts are having a broad impact on the way donations are processed in the United States and delivered abroad.
When Uchino donated via a text last week, he had family and friends in mind. Many of them live in Japan, and he wanted to help. In making a donation of his own, he noticed a delay in the remittance of text donations.
As a result, he took further steps, first researching the process and then creating an online petition at Change.org to draw attention to the issue.
Not only have tens of thousands of people signed the petition, in response to his efforts, Uchino has received high-level political help. On Friday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, called on major wireless companies to expedite the delivery of mobile donations to Japan.
"This is one of those situations where the victims need the money right now, and a delay really just doesn't help at all," Uchino said. "It turns out there's actually a 30- to 90-day delay in getting the donations directly to Japan because the cell phone bill actually needs to get paid first."
"I simply just texted a number that the American Red Cross had and then they had a code that said 'donate' or something," said Uchino.
At the American Red Cross office, support for Japan hasn't matched levels seen for Haitian relief. About $64 million was given to the Japanese so far and $2 million from text donations made on cell phones.
Uchino's initiative follows a number of other Bay Area pleas. The Japanese Cultural and Community Center in San Francisco has sponsored a telethon. In addition, Local Bay Area mosques are collecting money.
Read the article, "Boxer Calls on Wireless Companies to Immediately Send Mobile Donations to Japanese Relief Efforts."
Watch the ABC7 Local video and read related commentary, "Law student starts campaign to expedite Japan donations."