Baseball Project for Natural Disaster Survivors

Thank you so much for your generous donations so far this year.  All your donations are helping us prepare to bring more junior high school baseball players from Tohoku and Kumamoto to Tokyo for the 2018 Baseball Project for Natural Disaster Survivors.

 This Project will be held in Tokyo next summer, which means we must complete all of the preparations over the next seven months.

 With your generous support, we will bring together junior high school baseball players from Kumamoto, Ishinomaki and Tokyo, their coaches and some of their parents.  We will provide these junior high school baseball players with baseball, leadership and disaster preparedness training and have them participate in a volunteer activity. 

 Kumamoto experienced several earthquakes in April 2016 including a 6.2 magnitude (on the Japanese scale) earthquake on April 15th and a 7.0 magnitude earthquake (on the Japanese scale) in April 16th.  More than 50,000 people were evacuated from their homes and more than a year later, 48,000 Kumamoto residents are still living in temporary housing.  Many of the buildings, including schools and the iconic Kumamoto Castle, were severely damaged.  Kumamoto is still very much a city undergoing long-term reconstruction.

 Ishinomaki in Tohoku was one of the areas most severely impacted by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.  A 33 foot wall of water traveled more than three miles inland leveling 80% of the homes and destroying many other buildings.  Nearly seven years later Ishinomaki is still rebuilding and many are still living in temporary housing.

 In both cities, school buildings and sports training facilities were impacted.  For example, sports fields have been used as locations for temporary housing. 

 The Tokyo-based junior high school baseball players have not yet experienced a natural disaster but at some point in their lives they are very likely to.  Therefore, it is important for them to learn about resilience and disaster preparedness from their peers.

 Since our last report, we have been very busy preparing for this Project.  There is still a great deal to be done by next summer!  We are meeting regularly with Major League Baseball representatives to organize the baseball training workshops.  In addition, we are meeting with sponsors and potential sponsors to arrange for in-kind and other donations.  And we are in regular communication with the local high schools and junior high school baseball coaches.

 Thank you once again for your generous donations and for making it possible for us to provide baseball, leadership and disaster preparedness training to all these promising young kids who are -- and will continue to be -- leaders and role models in their local communities. 

 We wish all of you a joyful holiday season and a peaceful New Year. 

 Yours truly

Naho Hozumi

Baseball Project Coordinator