Hundreds of jobs completed.  Thousands of people assisted.  Tens of thousands of hours donated.

All Hands Volunteers (not to be confused with our own HandsOn Network) is a volunteer-driven, US-based nonprofit that provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact.

Founded in 2005 in response to the Southeast Asian Tsunami to bring direct assistance to those in need, All Hands Volunteers has coordinated more than 5,000 volunteers from over 30 countries to assist thousands of families around the world affected by disaster.

This year, All Hands Volunteers has been making an impact in Japan following the March 11 earthquake in addition to other national and international work and is committed to the long-term recovery of Japan into 2012 and beyond.

In over five months on the ground, the organization has witnessed incredible progress and recovery in northeast Japan. The government has moved emergency shelter residents into approximately 50,000 newly constructed temporary homes in less than six-months, and fleets of heavy machinery have cleared and sorted more than 11 million tons of debris. Construction crews are repairing and rebuilding homes, and basic services are mostly restored. The response has been truly impressive.

Within this well coordinated recovery effort, All Hands Volunteers have applied their characteristic flexible approach to identify gaps and rapidly deploy volunteers to meet those needs. Thanks to the generous support of donors, the cooperation of city and supporters, and of course the efforts of over 800 enthusiastic volunteers from Japan and 30 other countries around the world, All Hands Volunteers has provided direct assistance to more than 4000 citizens through 48,000 hours of volunteer labor.

Volunteers have gutted and repaired homes, rehabilitated business sites, mucked out municipal drainage canals and restored treasured family photos. In the near future, All Hands Volunteers will engage a smaller group of volunteers and roll out a long-term recovery strategy, particularly designed to meet the needs of affected local businesses. They will focus on applying generous donor contributions to public parks rehabilitation, school library restocking, supporting infrastructure projects such as those needed to raise the docks of hundreds of ports on the coast that sank up to a meter in the earthquake, and other economic revitalization efforts, such as creation of new industry.

No doubt the words of the All Hands Volunteers nominator ring true:

“They are making incredible progress in recovering disaster-impacted areas and restoring the lives of so many around the world.”