Shigeru Shimada 

                 General Secretary

The National Council of YMCAs of Japan

Thank you for your great support and prayer for our disaster relief work.

It is almost a year since March 11, 2011, when earthquake and tsunami occurred. The affected areas were so vast; along 500 km on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and the nuclear power plant radiation made thousands of people evacuate from Fukushima to all over Japan. Since then, we, in cooperation with YMCAs in Japan and Y's Men's Clubs, have done various kinds of activities in Miyako city, Iwate prefecture, Minami-sanriku town, Higashi-matsushima city, Ishinomaki city, Yamamoto town, and Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture and for those who evacuated from Fukushima; especially for vulnerable people such as children, youth, elderly, disabled and foreign citizens by utilizing Eastern-Japan Disaster Relief Fund and donations from a lot of entities within and outside Japan. We have focused on being close with victims, fostering children and youth to be breadwinners of relief work in the communities, and running YMCAs' camp programs and other activities. The target of our Relief Fund is 300,000,000 yen (300 million yen); approximately 3 million US dollars. We still need your kind help and generous contributions to continue our relief work, thankfully we almost reached to the targeted amount,. 

Mitsubishi Corporation's enormous amount of donation called "Mitsubishi Corporation YMCA Friendship Camp" is utilized as participation fee of camp programs for the kids from affected areas.

Next fiscal year, we will continue our work at Miyako Volunteer Support Center of Morioka YMCA, Iwate prefecture, Sendai YMCA Volunteer Support Center, and newly opened YMCA Ishinomaki Center within the affected areas. Also we foster youth leadership for rehabilitation and activities like camp programs.

On March 11, 2012, YMCAs in Japan will have ceremonies or events such as kite flying to remember the day of the disaster. Also we will have ecumenical worship in churches in Japan.

We have been continuing our disaster relief work and activities for the victims in Miyako city, Iwate prefecture and cities  of Sendai and the suburbs.

Christmas parties were held at tentative houses and elementary schools. A lot of participants enjoyed our programs. Also, we had "mochi-tsuki" programs several times. We eat "mochi", or rice cake, especially in the New Year. Mochi-tsuki is to make steamed rice into cake, as shown in one of the photos.

The followings are the activities by Morioka and Sendai YMCAs.

Morioka YMCA's activities

Morioka YMCA Miyako Volunteer Center is based at Miyako Church of United Church of Christ in Japan.

It is still very cold in Tohoku area these days. Since we don't wear shoes inside houses, people feel cold because of the coldness from wooden floor at tentative houses. So we decided to put thick polyurethane mats to insulate coldness from the floor. We put those mats where people gather and have activities as well. The idea of putting thick mats is from our hearing and conversation with the people in tentative houses.

Not only polyurethane mats, we also put artificial turf mats at the doors of the tentative houses. It is very slippery around the doors because rain and snow is fallen from the roof and the water freezes. Artificial truf mats can avoid water on the ground from freezing. It is especially hard and dangerous for elderly people to remove snow on the roof or on the road so we help people with getting rid of snow.

We received scarves from kindergarten kids at Yokohama YMCA. A photo and a message were attached to each scarf. The messages said that "I thought it was very cold in Miyako so I decided to make a scarf." The people live in tentative houses were happy to receive scarves and to read messages.

February 3 is called "setsubun"; according to the calendar, it literally means the day before spring comes. On setsubun, we have a traditional custom, which is called "mame-maki", to scatter parched beans to drive out bad luck or devil. We did mame-maki at elementary schools and tentative houses. Then some staff members wore Japanese devil's costume and everyone screamed a phrase "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" that means "Devils out, Good Luck in". 

Sendai YMCA's activities

In January, pupils of Nobiru Elementary School, Higashi-matsushima city received messages from elementary school pupils in Kumamoto. Some were video messages and some were messages on big sheets of paper that had cutting paper works to introduce famous places and things in Kumamoto. The idea of sending messages is from pupils themselves in Kumamoto who listened to a talk by a Kumamoto-born staff member of Sendai YMCA Volunteer Support Center and children decided to cheer the victims up by sending messages. 

One of the highlights of relief work is to support strawberry farms in Yamamoto town. We built greenhouses after cleaning mud on the farm. In Mid-January, strawberries ripened well were sent to Sendai YMCA and Kyoto YMCA. 

Miyagi prefecture is famous for oyster farming so we planned to help Miyagi Co-op Volunteer Team with oyster farming in Minami-sanriku town. Due to heavy snow the activity itself was unfortunately cancelled, but fishers made oyster soup for us. 

                                                          Shigeru Shimada 

                 General Secretary

The National Council of YMCAs of Japan 

　YMCAs of Japan continue supportive activities for the affected, especially those who are vulnerable; children and youths, elderly, disabled people and foreign citizens, by applying Relief Fund and donations from within and outside Japan. Also we, as a community-based organization, operate activities the "cultivate the human and lives" to make youths develop holistically as doers of relief and recovery activities.

We have two categories of East-Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund;

1. Relief Fund for local communities

Support the operation, activities, and supportive projects of Volunteer Support Center in Miyako, Iwate, and Sendai, Miyagi through YMCAs.

2. For affected YMCAs

Sent immediately to YMCAs in affected areas

* More about our Disaster Relief Fund, please refer to the article on April 26.

The following is about activities utilizing the Disaster Relief Fund by Japan YMCAs.

The following communities damaged severely and the strongholds were already fixed. 

1 Iwate Prefecture: Miyako City (activities by Morioka YMCA) 

2 Miyagi Prefecture: Sendai City (activities by Sendai YMCA)  

A. Sendai city's coastal areas, B. Natori City, C. Watari City, D. Yamamoto Town, E. Shiogama City and Shichigahama Town, F. Higashi-matsushima City, G. Ishinomaki City (where Tokyo YMCA is supporting),  H. Minami-sanriku Town 

3 Fukushima Prefecture: No YMCA in the prefecture. 

 *Tochigi YMCA which locates south of Fukushima is supporting people there.

 *Many local YMCAs in Japan are supporting families who have evacuated from Fukushima and had several camp  programs for them.

 *The National Council of YMCAs of Japan offered retreat camps for the families of Fukushima at YMCA Tozanso International Youth Center near Mt. Fuji. Their children were able to play outside in the nature for a week without any fear of radiation.

4 Ibaraki Prefecture: Ibaraki YMCA which locates in Tsukuba City, southern Ibaraki, is opening a stronghold in northern part. 

   

Results of activities (Please see Table 2: Number of directors and volunteers sent to severely affected areas, on upper right)

 *Volunteers include mountaineers, specialists in disaster relief work, and some youths. 

At Morioka YMCA Miyako Volunteer Center:

From March to June;

-Asking needs, offering supplies, support at evacuation centers, setting up a Volunteer Center, and tidying and cleaning houses.

-Sending daily supplies

In and after July;

-Asking needs of affected persons one by one; cleaning houses, looking for things that are precious for the persons, getting rid of the mud in the ditches, accompanying to City Hall, controlling traffic for elementary school kids

-Orientation for High School and University students as volunteers

-Recreation and activities at Elementary Schools

At Sendai YMCA Volunteer Support Center:

From March to June;

-Offering a place for victims to stay, hearing needs, offering supplies, tidying and cleaning houses, 

-Support at evacuation centers, support at city hall's volunteer center, and offering physical activities for affected kids. 

In and after July;

-Food supplies such as rice for those who live in tentative houses

-Asking needs of affected persons one by one; cleaning houses, getting rid of the mud, cleaning greenhouses for strawberry farmers

-Orientation for High School and University students as volunteers

-Recreation and activities at Elementary Schools

-Supporting schools by offering materials and staff

-Taking care of children and seniors

(Please see Table 3: Number of recipients/ those who benefited from YMCAs' activities in severely affected areas, on upper right)

At Tochigi YMCA

-Offering a place for victims to stay, support at evacuation centers in Utsunomiya city, -Collecting and offering supplies

-Support at evacuation centers

-Relief work at Asian Rural Institute

-Support Sendai YMCA and its Volunteer Support Center. 

At Ibaraki YMCA (March)

-Support at evacuation centers managing and offering physical activities for affected kids 

Since July, local YMCAs and the National Council of YMCAs of Japan have executed 20 camp programs for the kids and families affected by the tragedy. Before we accept people from Fukushima, we had some lectures for staff and volunteers to learn what exactly "grief" is about, how to communicate with people who might have lost their family members or their own house and do on. About 850 people (kids and their parents) participated to camps of two-day to eight-day which were sponsored by Mitsubishi Corporation. We appreciate Mitsubishi for their cooperation.

1. Organizing supportive work by other YMCAs at evacuation centers coordinated by Morioka YMCA and Sendai YMCA 

2. Providing information on collecting funds and donations, and fund management 

3. Applying for donations by fundraising entities and management 

4. Providing information and public relations 

5. Planning and coordinating projects

6. Accept evacuees at YMCA Tozanso International Youth Center run by NCY of Japan.

The YMCAs and organizations which area located outside Japan (named below) have sent Japan YMCA Disaster Relief Fund (as of October 5). We really appreciate all the entities' kindness and prayer.

Asia Pacific Alliance of YMCAs, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile - Santiago, China - National Committee, Chengdu, Germany, Hong Kong - NCY, YMCA of Hong Kong, Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong, Y's men TST Club, India, Korea - Seoul, Macau, Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Myanmar - NCY, Mandalay Interfaith Network, New Zealand, Pakistan- Lahore, Philippines - Baguio, Manila, Manila Down Town, Makati, Palestine - Gaza, Singapore - Metropolitan, YMCA of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan - YMCA of Taiwan, Taipei YMCA, Thailand - YMCA Bangkok Association & Y'men Club of Bangkok, SMIT's District of S.E. Asia Region, Uruguay, USA - YMCA of the USA, Honolulu

Y'Care International, Help Age International-EAPRDC (East Asia Pacific Regional Development Centre), JCCCNC(Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California)

God bless all your efforts to support and encourage us in Japan.

Shigeru Shimada

General Secretary 

The National Council of YMCAs of Japan

The Presidents and General Secretaries of YMCAs from all over Japan gathered at the 121st General Assembly held at Tozanso, International Youth Conference Center, on June 18 - 19. Reports by General Secretaries of Sendai and Morioka YMCAs showed everyone about their situation after the disaster. Supportive activities needed from now on were discussed. It was approved that all the YMCAs of Japan to continue supportive work. Also, many pictures and messages by children sent from YMCAs overseas were displayed and participants were encouraged by their support and prayer.

From June to the end of August, directors from Kumamoto YMCA (which is located in Kyushu, the westernmost part of Japan) are sent to Sendai YMCA. Also other YMCAs in Japan are asked to send their directors and volunteers. The activities such as hearing needs of the vast affected areas are continued. In summer, camps for the children in Miyagi Prefecture are now being planned.

*Managing a Volunteer Support Center

Since May, directors and volunteers have been sent from Kagoshima, Nagoya, Matsuyama, Hiroshima, and Kita-kyushu YMCAs as managers of the Volunteer Center in Miyagino-ku, Sendai.

*Magic performance

Sendai YMCA invited magic performers and dogs from Hiroshima to have a series of shows in Miyagi. 23 shows were held at nurseries, evacuation centers, and schools from June 4 to 10. The performers wanted to deliver vigor and dreams to the victims. After the shows, they thought that more supportive work was still needed there.

*Programs for children staying at evacuation centers

Supportive programs called "Ganbaro Nobirukko" for pupils of Nobiru Elementary School, Higashi-matsushima City are being continued on a once-a-month basis since school started on April 21.

In May, kids enjoyed swimming in a pool at Sendai YMCA. Some of the children said that they had lost their favorite bathing suits by tsunami. They looked very happy after they borrowed and put on new swimsuits, and the volunteers were also very happy to see them smiling. They had barbecue and pizzas for lunch prepared by Sendai, Aoba-jo and Hirose-gawa Y's Men's Clubs.

In June, an outdoor activity was held at a park in Tome City (inland area), Miyagi. 13 children participated. In the morning, they played at a stream catching fish and tadpoles. The cooking fire as well as lunch, okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake) and frankfurters, were prepared by themselves. In the afternoon, they enjoyed playground equipments, sharing nature and also played at a stream.

The activity in July is being planned at the moment.

   

The Volunteer Center is closely related to mountaineers and managed by former directors and volunteers from Osaka, Shiga and Yokohama YMCAs. From May to the end of July, a former director of Osaka YMCA is stationed, and from July to the end of March 2012, a Yokohama YMCA director will be stationed at the center.

The goal is to be back to the ordinary daily lives of the affected people, so activities are done in cooperation with them and detailed orientations for university and high school students as volunteers are held. Programs cooperated with the city halls and reactions for new needs are planned now.

The affected people are asking cleaning and tidying their houses after three months since the disaster. They finally might face the aftermath of the disaster.

In July, we got rid of mud in the gutters near the center. It was a hard thing but neighbors and high school students from Kanagawa Prefecture helped the work.