Disaster Recovery Volunteer Project

Hands On Tokyo (HOT) volunteers continue to support a local farmer – Saito-san – in Yamamoto-cho.  In March, 15 HOT volunteers (including two teenagers who live in a children’s home in the Tokyo area) helped Saito-san build two new greenhouses and, in April, 16 HOT volunteers (including one teenager who lives in a children’s home in the Tokyo area) helped Saito-san install plastic siding on several greenhouses. HOT is also supporting Saito-san in the building of the New Rice Center to support rice farmers in the Yamamoto-cho area so they will have a place to store equipment and supplies and to work, gather and share information.  The New Rice Center will also be used to train new farmers. The cost of the materials was funded by Boy Scout Troop #5 at the American School in Japan (ASIJ) and the Tokyo Law Tennis Club.  With your generous donations, 19 HOT volunteers (including high school students from a volunteer club at the American School in Japan) helped build the New Rice Center in May.  The next day, the same 19 HOT volunteers assisted with the Ogatsu Island Farm Project which aims to grow local produce as a new business in Ogatsu.  The volunteers helped launch the Project by helping clear the soil.

Saito-san, his wife and other local rice farmers who will use the New Rice Center and those who are launching the Ogatsu Island Farm Project could not have done all this work 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 the New Rice Center, the Ogatsu Island Farm Project and Saito-san and others in Tohoku as they work hard to further rebuild their lives.

Even though it is more than three years since the triple disaster in Tohoku, there are still many people residing in temporary housing. With your generous contributions, HOT has been able to continue organizing cafés 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 March, we held a spring festival themed café at which a HOT volunteer performed several hula dances and taught the temporary housing residents the meaning of many hula dance moves.  The residents and the HOT volunteers then danced several hula dances together.  HOT volunteers also made and served yakisoba, sausages with tomatoes, soup, French toast, hot drinks, cheesecake and other sweets.  In April, we held another café at which HOT volunteers made lunch for the temporary housing residents and served hot drinks and sweets.  After lunch, one HOT volunteer played several beautiful songs on his keyboard.  At both cafes, it was wonderful seeing the power of music and dance to bring members of the temporary community and HOT volunteers together and to see so many smiling faces.  Thank you for making this possible with your generous donations. 

Going forward and so long as people are still living in temporary housing, we will hold more cafés and events at temporary housing sites in Tohoku.  We also will travel to Ogatsu to help maintain the O-Link 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 and the surrounding communities.

Thank you in advance for your continued support which brings smiles to the faces of so many people in Tohoku.