August 2009

Donated Blankets Shipped to Africa

The executive committee of the Campaign for Sharing Blankets with People in Africa announced on August 30 that this year's first consignment of 5,000 blankets had been shipped to Djibouti from Yokohama, Japan.

The campaign collected 78,830 blankets donated throughout Japan from April 1 to May 3. The executive committee will ship a total of 81,036 blankets to Africa, including ones stored for emergencies last year. The first consignment will reach Djibouti in early October for distribution to victims of natural disasters and conflicts as well as other needy people with the cooperation of the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO).

As of August 29 the campaign had also collected 55,432,738 Japanese yen to pay for shipment of the blankets.

The rest of the blankets are to be shipped to Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, and Uganda by December. In each of these countries the blankets will be handed over to local NGOs for distribution. In Ethiopia, the Relief Society of Tigray will distribute 21,672; in Malawi, the Malawi Red Cross Society will distribute 13,003; in Mozambique, the Associaÿão Cristã para o Desenvolvimento Comunitário in association with KULIMA will distribute 6,720 and 10,080 respectively. The African Development and Emergency Organization (ADEO) will distribute 4,561 blankets in Somalia and 20,000 in Uganda. As a member organization, Rissho Kosei-kai has been supporting the campaign since its start in 1984.

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