The NASW Foundation’s Social Work Disaster Assistance Fund seeks donations to give financial aid to social workers affected by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated many areas of Japan in March.

The fund serves as a means to enable social workers in Japan to assist others in need, said Robert Carter Arnold, director of the NASW Foundation. “One hundred percent of the donations to this fund go directly to social workers to assist them in ongoing relief efforts there,” he said.

NASW President James J. Kelly said, “In this complex and developing disaster, our Japanese professional social work colleagues are uniquely suited to assess the needs of disaster victims and to provide leadership in promoting effective disaster relief and recovery.”

The fund has been used in the past to collect donations in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; the Indonesian tsunami in 2004; Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region in 2005; and the Haiti earthquake in 2010.