A Note of Thanks, JHELP Christmas Appeal

* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E 'S T A K E * * * * * * *
A note of appreciation from Terrie Lloyd to the
readers of Terrie's Take.
(www.terrie.com and www.japaninc.com)

Special Edition Thursday, December 25, 2008

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+++ INDEX

- Christmas and New Year's Message

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+++ MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Although many of you are already on holiday, we would like
to none-the-less take this opportunity to express our
appreciation of your willingness to receive and read
Terrie's Take. Japan is a place that draws in so much
information but gives out so little, and through Terrie's
Take we are trying to mend that gap and in so doing
encourage more people to do business, invest, marry,
educate, and generally interact with Japan. Indeed, opening
up Japan is our life mission.

So we would like to wish you all, regardless of your
religious beliefs, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year.

Unfortunately, one person who isn't having such a good
Christmas is Ken Joseph, the head of the JHELP
organization, which assists foreigners in Japan with their
legal and personal problems, and is available to lend a
hand to distressed and abandoned people 24 hours a day. Ken
emailed us yesterday and told us that of the tens of
thousands of firings going on at Japanese auto and
electronics makers at present, the brunt of the lay-offs
are being borne by the large non-Japanese migrant worker
community. In the last two days alone, he has had numerous
calls from worried and depressed workers who have lost their
jobs. But for some it is worse. One call was from a lady
turfed out of her home with her baby, and another was from
a man who was fired from his factory job and also told to
leave his company dormitory. Both of them have no money and
nowhere to go.

It is JHELP's job to talk to the embassies, church groups,
and in some cases the police, to try to help such people
find respite and safety.

Ken tells us that his organization, JHELP urgently needs
donations to pay for the increased volume of phone calls
and demands on the premises of his Help Desk operation. He
has asked if Terrie's Take readers might be willing to make
a small gift at his new donation web page (produced for him
by our sister company LINC Media).

We are already subscribed, donating JPY3,000 per month
(the site only takes recurring donations) to do our bit. We
realize that JPY3,000 is a small amount, but if one hundred
people were to do the same thing then the resulting income
would allow JHELP to pay its rent and phone bills, and
instead they could focus more on solving people's problems.

So we do wish you a Merry Christmas, but also respectfully
suggest that you consider helping Ken help those in our
community who are in need -- and certainly with the
deteriorating economy there are going to be a lot more of
them from next year. While most of us think of Japan as a
country that takes care of its citizens, for those who are not
citizens, it is all to easy to fall through the cracks.

If you feel that you can spare JPY3,000 per month, then
please go to:
https://www.lincmedia.co.jp/jhelp/index.html?lang=en
and give what you can. For more information on JHELP,
go to www.jhelp.com.

We'll be back with the next Terrie's Take on January 11th,
2009.

...The information janitors/
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