Disaster Recovery Volunteer Project

Thank you very much for all your continued support so far this year.  You have helped us further assure people in Tohoku that they have not been forgotten as they continue to overcome daily challenges in rebuilding their lives more than seven years after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.  Recovery and rebuilding take years. There are still people living in what was originally intended to be temporary housing and there are still significant housing, infrastructure, labor and other shortages in the region.  In addition, with the passage of time and the occurrence of devastating natural disasters in other parts of Japan, the number of volunteers going to and the amount of charitable donations being made for Tohoku continue to drop. 

 

Over the past three months, we have been very busy preparing to take groups of children and their teachers and caregivers from five different children’s homes in the Greater Tokyo Area to volunteer and to learn about disaster preparedness in Miyagi Prefecture this coming August, September and October. 

 

Late summer and early autumn are very busy times for farmers as it is their primary growing season and when they must prepare for harvesting their crops  Labor shortages continue to make it very hard for local farmers in Tohoku to run their farms and in turn to further rebuild their lives. Many of the local farms are family run with one, two or three family members doing all the work themselves.  Growing rice, vegetables and fruit sufficient enough to earn a modest livelihood and to repay the significant debts they incurred after the earthquake and tsunami is very labor intensive and the local farmers cannot do all the work by themselves.  They need the continued support of volunteers. 

 

With your generous donations, Hands On Tokyo will bring the children and their teachers and caregivers to Miyagi Prefecture to help local farmers, Saito-san and his wife, and the New Rice Center (NRC) in Yamamoto-cho.  The NRC is an agricultural association of local farmers who produce and promote local rice and local produce. 

 

We anticipate helping Saito-san with his paprika plants.  Paprikas are Saito-san’s primary crop so his family’s livelihood depends on the strength of his paprika harvest each year.  We will also help Saito-san with other farming chores like weeding and clearing fields. 

 

The local farmers always ask us to convey to everyone who supports our volunteer activities in Tohoku just how much they appreciate all the support.  What Hands On Tokyo volunteers are able to accomplish in a day would take the local farmers and their families many days to complete. 

We also will take the volunteers from the children’s homes to an elementary school near Sendai which was an evacuation center during the tsunami and is now a museum.  The children, teachers and local residents on the roof of the school survived the tsunami which tragically washed away the surrounding area.  We will take the volunteers there for natural disaster awareness and preparedness training. 

Ogatsu in Miyagi Prefecture was completely devastated by the tsunami and is still far from being ready for reconstruction and redevelopment.  During the next three months, Hands On Tokyo will also bring children and their teachers and caretakers from children’s homes in the Greater Tokyo Area to weed, plant new plants and do other gardening at the Ogatsu Rose Garden Factory.  A local resident founded this garden on the land where her mother perished in the tsunami to calm the souls of those who perished in the tsunami and so that former residents and visitors can once again see beauty when they first enter Ogatsu.  It is also a place where families go to grieve the loss of their loved ones in the tsunami. 

Hands On Tokyo has conducted several of these volunteer trips for children’s homes in the Greater Tokyo Area over the past few years and these volunteer trips have been very impactful on the children and their teachers and caregivers.  For the children who are the beneficiaries of volunteer activities at their children’s homes, these volunteer trips have been an opportunity to experience volunteering themselves, to gain new experiences and life skills and to gain further self confidence.  Thank you very much for your generous support in helping make all this possible.  The children greatly appreciate the opportunity and are still benefiting from all that they learned and experienced.  Many want to volunteer again and they have encouraged others in their children’s homes to volunteer in the future. 

 

There is still so much to be done and there are still many people in need of encouragement and support in Tohoku.  With your generous support, we will continue to organize volunteer trips to help farmers and others in Tohoku as they continue to work very hard to rebuild their lives. 

 

Thank you very much in advance for your continued generosity, for touching the hearts and souls of so many people in Tohoku and for helping provide these life changing volunteer opportunities to so many children living in children’s homes in the Greater Tokyo Area.  Slowly but steadily the road to recovery is being paved.