[LD-SIG Discussion List] Ongoing Response to the Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake

[Hugh Nicoll]

Dear everyone

This message is to update you about the short-term and longer-term
commitment that the Learner Development SIG could make in response to the
Tohoku-Kanto earthquake crisis. We would welcome your ideas and input to
this discussion on email, and also at different events and conferences that
the LD SIG is taking part in this year (and where there will also be some
fund-raising organised by the SIG).

We are sending this message now, ahead of the Nakasendo conference this
weekend, hoping that there will be some discussion on email leading to the
conference where members of the SIG can also talk face to face about ideas
and suggestions for a longer-term project for the affected areas. The
intention is that we try to keep this discussion developing around different
events and conferences through to the JALT conference in November.

This message gives some background as to where these discussions and actions
have got so far.

On behalf of all its members, in March, the SIG published a letter of
solidarity (see http://ld-sig.org/ for more details) in response to the
crisis. The letter says that the SIG would be making a financial donation to
local NGOs actively involved in the relief operation. In late April and May
the SIG was in discussion with people actively organising educational
support for teachers and children in the affected areas, particularly Chuck
Sandy and his students at Chubu University, and Mark De Boer at Iwate
University.

>From these discussions the SIG was asked to donate some shodo brushes or
'fude' for elementary school children. So, the SIG bought 80 fude and got
these sent to Oshima elemertary school in the middle of May - see this link
for more details:

http://www.facebook.com/l/f0085RG3tKgn6AwG-h7G8EhZ0Wg/www.k-macs.ne.jp/~osim-s13/

At the Pan-Sig conference in May in Matsumoto members of the SIG committee
were able to talk with different LD members about what ideas they had for a
longer-term project. One person mentioned that they have a colleague who is
organising fund-raising and support for a different elementary school, near
Sendai, the one that this colleague went to as a child. Another person
mentioned that we could try and find out from teachers working in the area
and who are members of the SIG (or who are friends of people in the SIG)
what they believe would be helpful support for the educational needs of
children over the longer term.

There was both great interest and also a sense of caution, among SIG
members, in these discussions as people seem not to want to impose from the
outside, without due discussion and consultation with those in the affected
areas. So, one basic question is how we can go about this in an appropriate
way.

Though the exact ways in which the LD SIG will continue to support future
rebuilding efforts has yet to be decided, we are already able to collect
individual donations. If you would like to donate, please transfer the money
to the LD SIG account at the Shinsei bank.

Shinsei Account information: Note: When sending funds ("furikomi"), please
enter the account holder name in romaji or kana, not both.

Account Holder 座名義人:  Hugh Nicoll
ヒュー・ニコル
Bank name 銀行名: Shinsei Bank 新生銀行
Branch Number 支店番号: 400 (Head Office 本店)
Regular Account 普通座
Account Number 座番号: 1690285

In order to keep track of the donations collected at events, as soon as you
have made a donation please email the LD SIG treasurer, Hiromi Furusawa, <
elt at eigoya.com> with
1. your name, 2. the date you deposited the money, 3. the amount you have
deposited, and 4. the following reference: LDSIG Tohoku Fund. If the funds
have been raised through a particular event please include 5. a short
description of the event so that we can include the information in future
updates. If you would prefer your name not to be made public, please add 6.
"Private donation"

Please feel to contribute to developing the discussion by email on this list
or through face-to-face discussions at different LD SIG events and
conferences this year, the first of which is Nakasendo 2011 this Sunday, 19
June (more details at http://nakasendoconference.com/).

Many thanks


Hugh Nicoll (on behalf of the LD SIG committee)


-- 
Hugh Nicoll <http://hughnicoll.org/blog/>
JALT LD-SIG Coordinator <http://ld-sig.org/>
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