My dear friends,

Yesterday was my birthday but it is hard to celebrate when I think of the sufferings that is going on in my homeland.

Many of you have shown tremendous love and support regarding this tragic event. We might not be able to do much from here but we can do something. We can show that we care and that we want to help. If you could take a few minutes to give any amount you can to support the relief & rescue effort, I know the people of Japan will be extremely grateful.

100% of your donation will go directly to the American Red Cross to help the earthquake and tsunami victims.

Thank you for standing by me and showing your kindness and compassion today.


Updates:
3/15: Thank you for helping me reach $1000! Let's keep working on this to see how much hope we can generate together.

3/14: Thank to you, we met the initial goal of $500! My new goal is to reach $1000. I know we can do it but I need your help to reach $750 first. After that, I'll top it off with additional $250 personally.


Other ways to help:
I understand that times are difficult for everyone. But it doesn't have to cost you anything for you to help. Please help spread the word about this effort and other mechanisms listed here.

Text This: Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to American Red Cross.

Text This: Text the words "Japan" or "Quake" to 80888 to make a $10 donation to The Salvation Army.

Retweet This: Cameron Sinclair from Architecture for Humanity to donate 10% of his salary after 100,000 Retweets of this link. bit.ly/sxsw4JP #sxswcares
More about Cameron's plan to help rebuild the affected area on Fast Company


Share This: Ubershare is donating $1 to Japan relief effort for every person who shares this announcement, up to $10,000. They are also giving away Free SXSW 2012 Conference Pass for sharing and referring the message. Ubershare is one of the first companies at SXSW Interactive to react to the event and redirect their energy to helping out. A small company making a big difference!

"Like" This: The Annenberg Foundation will donate $100,000 to send Search and Rescue Dogs to Japan if Dog Bless You gets 100,000 likes.



Yoko
@yknakano on twitter

At SXSW this year, there's a lot of discussion and debate about influence. Now it's time to stand up and be truly influential as we raise support for tsunami relief.

Japan faces one of its most devastating natural disasters in 100 years. On March 11th, walls of water swept across rice fields, engulfing towns, dragging houses onto highways, tossing cars and boats like toys and consuming lives. The potential human loss is unimaginable, with thousands missing and early reports of hundreds reported dead. Aftershocks and additional earthquakes continue to threaten the region, sending shock waves across the nation and the world.


The CauseVox team will cover the cost of the transaction fees so 100% of your donation goes to the American Red Cross.