Full disclosure: money raised for Japan disaster relief at the 2011 beer challenge

Last year, you good people of Chertsey donated £146 to Japanese disaster relief at the annual Chertsey Beer Challenge. I paid this into JEN, the disaster relief charity recommended to us by our Japanese friend who is working for the UN High Commission for Refugees and is involved in disaster relief in Tohoku. He said JEN were doing by far the best work and that they would spend the money on actually helping people.

Four months after paying the money in here, JEN returned it, saying there was a problem with the payment. I spoke to them and they said the only way to submit cash from overseas is via their website, which, frankly, is crap. I tried again. Four months later, they returned it again. I spoke to them again and resubmitted on assurance that this time there wouldn't be a problem. You'll see a pattern developing here.

The long and the short of it is that I've just sent them the money for the fourth time, plus another £20 as a sort of 'interest accrued'. If I don't have any luck (we should know by June), I'd like to send the money to Shelterbox instead. They work across the world, including Japan, providing shelter and vital supplies to people in acute distress. This is obviously a change to the advertised charity, so if you have an objection, let me know directly or via comments.