Three Years After, Tomo Keeps Giving

March 11, 2014 marked the three-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Recently the 2013 earnings from sales of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction plus the Stone Bridge Press publisher donation--a total of 50,000 yen--was transferred to the Japan-based NPO Hope for Tomorrow.

Hope for Tomorrow continues to provide meaningful much-needed support to teens in the quake and tsunami affected areas of Tohoku in northern Japan.

Your purchase of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction--An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories really does make a difference to teens in Tohoku. Consider donating a copy of Tomo to your school or town library, suggesting it to book groups, and purchasing copies as gifts.

See Hope for Tomorrow's website to learn about this small NPO with a big heart and their commitment to longterm education-focused aid for young people in Tohoku.

Giving through Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction--2012 Donation to Hope for Tomorrow

Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction--An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories is a benefit anthology of young adult fiction, and it is a pleasure to announce the first donation resulting from the sales of this collection of Japan-related stories. As explained in previous Tomo Blog posts (here and here) the first donations from the sales of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction will go to Hope for Tomorrow (hope-tomorrow.jp), the Japan-based NPO that provides three methods of support (Educational Support Program, the International Exchange Support Program, and the Foreign Language Support Program) to high school students in areas of Tohoku hardest hit by the major tsunami and earthquake of 2011.

A donation of 100,000 yen (at the current exchange rate about 1,200 USD) was made today to Hope for Tomorrow. This money includes royalty earnings for the first half of 2012 (Tomo was published in March 2012) plus Stone Bridge Press publisher donations for that same period (rounded up with an additional 727 yen from the editor for a total of 75,000 yen), as well as editor's advance money (25,000 yen). Note that the editor's advance has otherwise only been used for printing Tomo publicity postcards, and a small amount has been set aside to enable more cards to be printed.

A huge thank you to all the Tomo authors and translators for donating their stories and their time. Also thanks to Peter Goodman at Stone Bridge Press for the generous publisher donations and for making this project possible. And thank you to Hope for Tomorrow, for providing much needed long-term support for teens in Tohoku.

Please continue to support this project--tell your friends about Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction. Tell teachers and librarians about the Tomo Reader's Guide, which is full of discussion questions and writing activities, and remind them about the extensive cache of author, illustrator and translator interviews on the Tomo Blog. And consider purchasing copies of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction as holiday gifts--order through your local bookseller, your favorite online bookseller, or through Stone Bridge Press.

The teens in Tohoku need our long-term encouragement and support. 

Hope for Tomorrow Site in English

In an earlier post, I explained that proceeds from the sales of the Tomo anthology will help support the Japan NPO Hope for Tomorrow.

At that time, this new NPO did not yet have English information on the website, but I'm happy to report that the site is now bilingual, with pages in both Japanese and English. Have a look at the Hope for Tomorrow website, and see what this NPO is doing to help teens in the earthquake and tsunami affected areas of Tohoku, Japan, keep up with their education.

Tomo Support for Japan NPO Hope for Tomorrow

I'm happy to announce that the Japan NPO Hope for Tomorrow will be the first recipient of funds raised through the sales of Tomo (publication date March 10, 2012). Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with Rieko Tanaka, who serves on the board of directors of this new NPO. We discussed Hope for Tomorrow's activities thus far and their goals for the future.

Hope for Tomorrow aims to fill in the gaps of government funding and to ensure that high school students in the affected areas can further their education. The Hope for Tomorrow program has three main areas of support: Educational Support, International Exchange Support, and Foreign Language Support. Hope for Tomorrow will provide funding for the costs of exam fees, transportation and accommodation associated with taking university entrance exams; enable meaningful intercultural exchange opportunities; and encourage and facilitate foreign language learning. Hope for Tomorrow has already provided funding for Tohoku students in the current winter 2012 round of university exams, and international exchanges have taken place via Internet between university students in the U.S. and select high schools in hard-hit areas of Tohoku. In March a group of high school students from the affected areas will travel to a school in New York for home-stay experiences. "Education is essential. And we really believe that ability in language and ability to communicate with people from other cultures is key to their futures. With people from around the world focusing on Tohoku recovery, and people from many countries coming to Tohoku to help, students in the affected areas need these skills more than ever," Tanaka explained.

Hope for Tomorrow endeavors to enable teens in the the earthquake and tsunami affected areas to hold onto their hopes and see a meaningful future full of opportunities.

Currently the Hope for Tomorrow website has only Japanese explanation, but English pages will be added soon!

Holly Thompson