NORTH AMERICAN agricultural communications organisations have raised $9,685 to provide relief to rural Japanese people affected by the earthquake and tsunami disaster.
“Many of us in ag journalism have colleagues in Japan we’ve known for many years, so this tragedy has hit us close to home,” said Den Gardner, executive director of the American Agricultural Editors Association and the Agricultural Relations Council, and co-ordinator of the fundraising effort.
Contributions came mostly from 10 national agri-communications organisations, plus a handful of individual contributions from AAEA members.
The funds raised will be channeled to Japan through the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists.
Following the earthquake and tsunami in March, IFAJ agreed to co-ordinate the collection of donations from national associations of agricultural journalists who wished to contribute financial aid to those who suffered in the disaster. The Japanese Agricultural Journalists Association asked that we make a single donation of all the contributions collected.
IFAJ proposes to make the bank transfer early in August. Any further donations to be handled by IFAJ should be forwarded before July 30, 2011.
Donations should be made through electronic transfers of funds to the bank account of IFAJ, from which the total sum will be transferred to Japan.
Notify the IFAJ treasurer on farmersjournal(at)btinternet.com when you make payments to the account.
