Student Army to help disaster effort in Japan

6:48 pm on 21 April 2011

Leaders of the Canterbury Student Volunteer Army are exporting their talents in cleaning up disaster zones to earthquake and tsunami-stricken Japan.

Thousands of students pitched in after the Christchurch earthquake on 22 February to help clear silt from homes caused by liquefaction.

A 9.0-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami on 11 March which devastated much of northeast Japan.

Organisers Sam Johnson and Jason Pemberton will fly to Japan on Friday to organise students into volunteer groups to clean up mud-filled houses.

Mr Johnson says several students in Japan contacted him after the disaster to ask how the army organised its response to the 6.3-magnitude quake.

He says he has had interest from around the world in the army's social media-based approach to volunteering and they are working on a template to be used by universities and other groups.