Donating clothes/household stuff to charity

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I'm trying to find a charity such as the Red Cross or similar that will come collect a big donation of clothes and household stuff. It's always been one of those great J-mysteries to me why they are too proud to admit that there are homeless, orphaned, generally destitute people here that can use this stuff.

Then there's the Japanese charities that think they're doing a good deed by dropping off a fucktonne of stuff to us at the Kenyan embassy, but then don't want to pay for us to actually send it to Kenya or realise that we have to pay import duties on it. It's a real headache and just about all the African embassies have the same problem...the 'help' that J-charities offer is really just them wanting to look like they're doing a good deed and not being wasteful. So that is something I have to take into consideration, it's gotta be a charity that is going to collect this stuff for people IN Japan, not try to pawn it off on someone else.

Anyway, if anyone knows of such an agency, please let me know asap. I'd even consider those christian/jehovah's witness/mormon missionary sorts, as long as they use it in Japan.

[TennoChinko]

SANYUKAI? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanyukai

:arrow: http://www.geocities.jp/world_of_510/english.html

Sanyu-Kai
2-32-8 Kiyokawa, Taito-ku, Tokyo 111-0022
Telephone 03-3874-1269
Fax: 03-3874-1332
Email: sanyukai@gol.com

Hours: 10:00-14:00
Service Description: Ministry to street people. Cook at soup kitchen, sort clothes; need licensed medical workers especially. Open 10-2. Walk in volunteers welcome. Preferably people with conversational-level Japanese.
Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/djph7l


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090120ww.html

Missionary devotes lifework to helping Tokyo homeless

By ALEX MARTIN

Staff writer

Jean Le Beau says his decision to pursue a life dedicated to the benefit of others was inspired in high school when he read the story of Father Damien, a 19th-century Roman Catholic missionary from Belgium who spent his life caring for lepers cast out of normal society and quarantined on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.


http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2009/fl20090120wwa.jpg
True friends: Jean Le Beau, director of the NPO Sanyukai, sits in his office in the Sanya district of Tokyo's Taito Ward on Jan. 9, and later in the day gathers with some of the locals in front of the organization's office. ALEX MARTIN PHOTOS
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2009/fl20090120wwb.jpg


"I felt that if you were going to do something for others, you should take it that far," said Le Beau. And the French-Canadian missionary is indeed taking it that far, spending his own life with homeless Japanese ― many of whom feel like social outcasts.

Le Beau is director of Sanyukai, a nonprofit organization that provides food and medical care for the homeless living in the Sanya district in northeastern Tokyo. The group offers a place to sleep for those who otherwise would be living in tents or sleeping under the stars.

His office in Taito Ward, near Asakusa, is crowded with local residents ― many who live on the streets and are kindly referred to as ojisan (middle-aged men) ― hanging around to receive the NPO's services, to offer their assistance with the organization's activities, and to chat with Le Beau and the cheery staff.

"They are my family," said Le Beau, 64, explaining his relationship with his team of volunteers and ojisan. "I feel most content when I am with them. We go on outings. We get drunk together. I plan on spending the rest of my life with them."

Le Beau has been working with the NPO for over 20 years and by now speaks fluent Japanese. It wasn't always so.

Born in Quebec to Catholic parents, Le Beau said he was the only one in the family who decided to pursue a career as a priest, and then a missionary. "I wanted to go to a foreign country," he said, adding that up until his big move to Japan, he never traveled overseas. "Vancouver was about as far as I went," he said.

He jokingly admitted that he'd been known as a rebel during his days at the Catholic seminary preceding his mission. At the time he wanted to pursue a career in medicine. "I wanted to be a doctor, to go to Africa," he said. "But a teacher told me that it was just as important to heal people's minds."

When Le Beau was 27, the Quebec-based missionary association with which he was affiliated granted his request for a foreign mission, and he flew to Japan. That was 38 years ago, and he arrived to find a Tokyo where foreigners were relatively few and a train ticket "only cost \30."

"I spoke no Japanese whatsoever when I first came here," he recalled. Soon after, a member of a local church introduced Le Beau to a cafe in Ginza, where he worked as a waiter during weekdays, attending a Japanese language school and helping out with church activities during his time off.

Le Beau said he learned to speak Japanese relatively quickly, but it took longer for him to learn the written language.

"After two years or so, our teacher asked us what form of written Japanese we would like to learn to read," Le Beau said. "I wanted to be able to read the newspapers, but the rest of the class wanted to read the Bible in Japanese," he said. "So I didn't really attend classes, spent most of the time working in the cafe," he said with a laugh.

Le Beau proceeded to work in a bar in Kawasaki, and then as a used-car dealer. "Back then, most Japanese would look at me as if I had no business in their country," he said. "I figured that to understand Japan, to get to know who the Japanese are, I must work with them, spend time with them."

It was around then that he began volunteering for Sanyukai, Le Beau said, and he hasn't looked back ever since. Eventually taking the post of director of the organization, he has dedicated himself full-time to the organization's activities, literally living with those who have lost their homes. A few at a time, he invites whomever cannot find shelter to his apartment in Asakusa.

"I have a great team of Japanese volunteers," Le Beau said. "They go out and really get to know the people on the streets." He added that although Sanya has traditionally been known as a town of day laborers, the population has aged over the years, and many of the residents are now essentially old and unemployed without sufficient pensions to live on. "We are now concentrating our activities on case-working and welfare for the old and poor," he said.

Regarding the occasional prejudice his ojisan encounter, Le Beau said it is wrong to consider them socially inferior. "We were lucky, they weren't, that's all. One mistake in your life, and you're considered an outcast. You know, that's just too cruel."

Looking back, Le Beau said he probably wouldn't have remained a priest for long if he hadn't become a missionary and come to Japan. "Yeah, it's been tough at times, but I feel I was able to carve out my own path. I wouldn't have been able to get to know the ojisan this well if I had done otherwise," he said.

"Sometimes we joke around, and they tell me how I'm a strange foreigner. I tell them "No, you guys are the strange Japanese."

"This is where I belong," he said, "where my life belongs."
The Japan Times: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009

[Mike Oxlong]

I once left a bunch of stuff in plastic bags right next to a little "homeless" tent village. If they bothered to look, they got old (but clean and in good condition) clothes, blankets, and some assorted kitchen stuff.

[GuyJean]

Tenohasi:
http://www.tenohasi.org/ - J
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tenohasi.org%2F&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 - E (machine translation..)

Salvation Army:
http://www.salvationarmy.or.jp/index_english.html

You might be able to unload stuff in the Tokyo Freecycle Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tokyofreecycle/

GJ

[Cyka UchuuJin]

thanks for the suggestions. i've sent a mail to Sanyu-Kai, they'd be ideal to take this stuff, but I don't really have the resources to afford a takubin up to Tokyo. have also signed up for the freestuffjapan groups.

hopefully someone will want this stuff!

[Greji]

thanks for the suggestions. i've sent a mail to Sanyu-Kai, they'd be ideal to take this stuff, but I don't really have the resources to afford a takubin up to Tokyo. have also signed up for the freestuffjapan groups.

hopefully someone will want this stuff!

Can I have your old knickers?
:drool5:

[Mulboyne]

Filipino groups usually take old clothes if you can find one. A local catholic church would be one of your best way to contact them if you know one in your area.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Filipino groups usually take old clothes if you can find one. A local catholic church would be one of your best way to contact them if you know one in your area.

great, thank you. i'll look online and see if there's any in the area.

[IkemenTommy]

I am so glad you initiated this because I was thinking about asking the same question. I need to clean out my matchbox closet but I am those sentimental people who hate to throw away clothes that I paid good money on. I would rather donate it for someone that can make good use out of them.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I am so glad you initiated this because I was thinking about asking the same question. I need to clean out my matchbox closet but I am those sentimental people who hate to throw away clothes that I paid good money on. I would rather donate it for someone that can make good use out of them.

at the moment, i've got someone on freestuffjapan that has offered to send sagawa to collect it. i've asked what she's planning on using it for, but she's not answered. i've heard that there are people who have a bit of side business looking for donations like this and then take them to the second hand shops to sell, which i'd be ok with, as long as what doesn't get sold doesn't get dumped off at somewhere that will have a problem distributing it (such as an embassy or african NGO like i've posted in my OP).

Greji has also offered to help with a name, but the dirty knicker society doesn't count. there's nothing at all charitable about that. :D

[Greji]

Greji has also offered to help with a name, but the dirty knicker society doesn't count. there's nothing at all charitable about that. :D

Well, I was just elected to the board as the Head Crotch Cricket and was just trying to make an impression with 'em in me new role.....
:cool:

[tidbits]

Besides what others have posted about Salvation Army, Sanyu-kai, Tokyo Freecycle and Tenohashi etc, I thought I would just gather a few more links here for those who prefer to give their stuffs to the NPOs, but there are mostly in Japanese. If you know Japanese or have someone who can help you, do check it out. These NPOs need the contributors to follow certain rules about what they take and do not take, how to go about in doing the donations, and most of them need help in the shipping fees to the end users in overseas, so do check with them before you sent. I found these NPOs in a recent Japanese magazine, and I think these are reliable organization if you wish to donate off your stuffs one day.

http://www.jrcc.or.jp (http://www.jrcc.or.jp/) They send used clothes to the countries that are in need. Check out their collecting dates and venues that they update on their website. (For instance, they are collecting on the 24 Oct Sunday at Lalaport Toyosu, Lalaport Funabashi, Lala Garden Saitama, and Mitsui Outlet Park in Tsurumi Osaka.) You can also sent by mail directly to them, (postage beared by sender) and expect a “furikomi-yoshi” about a month later for the shipping fees that they need you to contribute which is Yen 1500 for up to 10kg. (Take note that they do not take suit jackets, blazer jackets, skirts, dresses, kimono, baby clothes, bedding, ties, belts, hats, gloves, scarves, gloves, shoes, bags accessories, stationery and food.)

http://www.we21japan.org/English/index.htm (http://www.we21japan.org/English/index.htm) (English site) Very convenient for those who live in Kanagawa prefecture as they have 35 shops in all over Kanagawa prefectures. They also take other stuffs other than clothing.

http://familysupplyline.com/index.htm (http://familysupplyline.com/index.htm) GG posted this a few years ago. Charities for the homeless) (English site )

http://fukufuku-project.jp/index.html (http://fukufuku-project.jp/index.html) A joint project by several apparel Japanese companies, bio-recycling the cotton fibers into bioetanol , and making other residues into cork or hydrocarbon oil etc. You can sent you clothes to the stores that take parts in the project during the collection period they posted on the website. However, note that some companies accept only their own products, but some are willing to accept others’ brand (like AEON Retail SELF+SERVICE do accept others companies’ brands and Maker’s Shirt Kamakura accept all cottons clothing)

Other household items
www.gl21.org (http://www.gl21.org/) Pottery and porcelain dishes
www.kifubon.jp (http://www.kifubon.jp/) Books and CDs (you can send by chaku-barai if it is 5 books and above)
http://www.joicfp.or.jp/jp/ (http://www.joicfp.or.jp/jp/) School backpack/ Bicycles etc
http://www.gakudan.or.jp/konna/umi/index.html (http://www.gakudan.or.jp/konna/umi/index.html) Music instruments
www.bs4.jp (http://www.bs4.jp/) (Home for the abused children/ need furniture/ electrical appliances)
http://www.familyhouse.or.jp/ (http://www.familyhouse.or.jp/) (Home for the children w/ cancer & other diseases)
http://www.we21japan.org/ (http://www.we21japan.org/)
http://sky.geocities.jp/recycle12320002000 (http://sky.geocities.jp/recycle12320002000)
http://kobe-haderdashery.com/othriftyrokko (http://kobe-haderdashery.com/othriftyrokko)
May have a lot more organisation similar to the last few if search the internet, so I don’t think I can list all.

And clothing retailers that are collecting and recycling (their own brand only) (please add if you know any)
www.uniqlo.com (http://www.uniqlo.com/)
www.patagonia.com/japan/recycle (http://www.patagonia.com/japan/recycle)