Doing a Blog Class

 

Today we’re doing a course on how to write a blog.

Iinogawa Number One Elementary School Gym, Ishinomaki City

A work by the Tanzanian Tingatinga artist, Yusuf Michael Lehemu, made on the stage of the gym.

Sekimoto-kun Working Hard!

On 3 June (Friday) from 6pm, we prepared for the next salon in the Jonet office. All of us, men and women, laughed a lot while we worked preparing the cotton gloves provided as aid materials.

Research by Fukushi Shimbun

On 2 June (Thursday), Ms Miyake from the Fukushi Shimbun visited us to gather material for a newspaper article. Also in attendance was Jonet member Ms Fukushima, who helps support activities centred in Wakabayshi ward, Sendai.

The Students of Miyagi Advanced Dental Hygienist College

On the morning of the 1^st June, we met some people from the Dental Hygienist College when they came on the support bus.

 

I hadn’t thought about the connection between their specialization and the members of Miyagi Jonet. We sent them off with a cheer, and quickly took these pictures.

by mom.jonet

Support for Women in Large-Scale Disasters

We will be participating in the 14^th National Shelter Symposium 2011 in Sendai. A member of Jonet will be a speaker on one of the subcommittees.

Date: 19^th November 2011 (Saturday)

Theme: Support for Women in Large-Scale Disasters

More details to follow. We look forward to having many of you participate.

In a Disaster-Struck Area, on the Day of a Storm Siren…

On 31 May, there was a siren warning for torrential rain in Miyagi. I was worried about A-san who lives in one of the disaster-struck areas, so I called her. It was 8 in the morning, and she had just come back from driving her husband somewhere. Scared of being in the house, she was listening to the radio in the car with her 2 year-old child.

The ground floor of her home was damaged in the tsunami, and so now she and her family live on the first floor, but as well as the house leaning, the roof is leaking terribly, and she said that in the storm the house itself was shaking so much that it was more frightening than she could bear. She was thinking about going to the shopping centre or the regional children’s centre, but neither was open yet. Her husband was out with their elementary school-age child. She said she was afraid that if she and the 2 year-old were on the first floor of their house and there was a large aftershock then, they might not be able to get out, so she didn’t want to go inside.

They have been unsuccessful on their last three attempts at the lottery to be assigned assisted housing. The people living in shelters have priority, and those who have been able to go back to their homes, even though they may be damaged, are lower in the order of preference.

But there is nothing on the ground floor of her house. No tatami, no furniture, no sliding screens. In the living room, where there should be tatami, there are now three bicycles, because their two cars were washed away, and until they could buy a new one they had to do everything by bicycle. The city has attached a red sign to the house: “Dangerous Structure”

When she asked whether there couldn’t be some work done on the house to reinforce it, she was told that if repair work was done, then they would definitely not receive any financial support in reconstructing their home.

At first, they were in a shelter, but the children cried so much that they then moved to a relative’s place. However, they felt like they were putting a burden on their relatives and didn’t want to stay long, so when the water pulled back they went back to their house. I went there to deliver relief goods before Jo-Net had even started.

I asked her what she needed now.

“If I go to a shop I can buy anything I want, but if I think about the mortgage, the car, and what will happen from now, I can’t buy anything. I heard that in the shelters they have more food than they can fit in the warehouse, and although I was embarrassed, I went and asked if they would share it with me. But people at the shelters said it was no good; they were told if it was shared with one person then there’d be no end to it. Even though I was begging and crying, it was no good.”

Things really were bad, I thought. I asked her what specific things she needed. While insisting “But we’re OK,” she said the following: “Rice, seasonings, groceries, daily necessities, tableware. If we could just get the mud off our tableware we’d be OK, but even using Haita cleaning spray it’s still dirty.

“Having said all that, it seems weird to ask for those things, doesn’t it? (No it doesn’t!) I don’t know how things will turn out, so I can only buy the bare minimum.”

“We applied for a flat but were told that there’s a 300 person waiting list. All the ground floors of the buildings round here were under water, so the people who were on the ground floors are moving to the first floors, and when the ground floors are repaired then new people move in. I think a flat would be impossible.

“But we’re fine, you know? Getting a call like this has made me feel better,” she said, but it was really very tough. She sounded very tearful.

People who are no longer living in the shelters are effectively not getting any groceries and daily necessities given to them.  And how comfortably can they live on only rice, seasonings and instant food? I know that things like meat, fish or vegetables have to be bought close by, but I was wondering if there wasn’t some way that we could help with that.

If you have extra food, or have a campaign to get things like rice, seasonings, instant foods, preserved and canned goods and other foods that don’t go off quickly, then please send them to Jo-Net.

Also needed are daily necessities like underwear, socks, T-shirts, shampoo, conditioner, detergent, cling film, aluminium foil etc.

-Miporin