By Charles E. McJilton | CEO
We began our assistance to Okinawa in July 2020, in response to the COVID19 pandemic. A large financial institution made a significant donation in May asking where the greatest need was. We knew Okinawa had the highest poverty rate at 30%. I traveled to Okinawa in June to determine if the support from governed agencies, faith-based groups, and NPOs. Based on that trip we made a 3-month commitment: July, August, and September. But the end of our second trip we could see great the demand was extended this until the end of 2020.
In our first distribution in July 2020, we reached just 800 households over three days. By the end of December we had reached 10,000 through our monthly distributions. In 2021 this total number was pushed to 35,740 households. Moreover, in December 2021, we reached 10,000 over six days. We continued our work through 2022, and in the second half the year focused on deep assistance to a limited number of households. Our final tally at the end of December 2023, was 56,980 households served.
This could only have been accomplished with the assistance and collaboration of many partners, particularly the LDS Church in Okinawa and Food Bank Okinawa.
Will continue our work in Okinawa but in a slightly different approach. We appreciate your support.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
