Disaster Recovery Volunteer Project

HOT volunteers continue to support a local farmer – Saito-san -- in Yamamoto-cho. In December, 20 HOT volunteers (including two teenagers who live in a children’s home in the Tokyo area) cleared Saito-san’s asparagus field and winterized three of his greenhouses. In February, 16 HOT volunteers (including one teenager from the children’s home) helped clear paprika plants from two of his greenhouses.  Saito-san and his wife could not have done this without the support of HOT volunteers given the nature of the tasks and the continued labor shortage in certain parts of Tohoku. Going forward, we will organize more volunteer trips to further support Saito-san and others in Tohoku as they work hard to further rebuild their lives.

There are still many people residing in temporary housing in Tohoku. With your generous contributions, HOT has been able to continue organizing cafes and other events at temporary housing sites in Tohoku as a way of supporting the residents who lost their homes in the tsunami while they are waiting to move into new homes. These events encourage people to spend a bit of time outside of their small temporary living quarters and to socialize with others in their temporary community. In December, we held a Christmas themed cafe at which a HOT volunteer played Christmas and other nostalgic songs on the flute and HOT volunteers made and served yakisoba, sausages with tomatoes from Saito-san’s farm, corn soup, French toast, hot drinks and Christmas sweets. After lunch, HOT volunteers folded paper cranes with some of the residents. We delivered 1,000 folded cranes (senbazuru) made by temporary housing residents in Tohoku together with HOT volunteers to the Philippines Embassy in Tokyo to wish the survivors of last year’s devastating typhoon a quick recovery.

The December HOT volunteers also distributed a holiday pillow to each temporary housing unit as part of a collaborative project with some of our partners. One partner donated about 100 pillows which were decorated with Santa appliques by volunteers in Tokyo. Children residing in a children’s home in the Tokyo area wrapped the pillows, made Christmas ornaments and wrote message cards.  From start to finish, this holiday project involved over 100 volunteers.

In February, HOT volunteers helped shovel snow and held a Valentine’s themed cafe. We distributed 100 Valentine’s candy bags made by seven HOT volunteers in Tokyo and made and served yakisoba, sausages, corn soup, French toast and Valentine’s sweets.  A HOT volunteer played nostalgic songs on the keyboard. It was wonderful seeing smiles on the faces of the temporary housing residents and the volunteers on a cold winter Sunday afternoon in Tohoku. Thank you for making this possible with your generous donations. 

Going forward, we will hold more cafes and events at temporary housing sites in Tohoku.  We also will travel to Ogatsu to help maintain the community house (which was built with the help of your generous donations), to clean local beaches so that people from the greater Sendai area will continue to visit the area and thereby support the local economy and to hold special events to encourage those who are still waiting to resume their lives in Ogatsu.

Thank you in advance for your continued support which touches the hearts of so many people in Tohoku.