In tsunami-stricken Rikuzen Takada City, many children lost family members, and exhibit psychological problems and very rough behavior. Especially pronouced is a case of lost mother with unemployed father inexperienced in child rearing. A childcare-support NPO, Kirarin (Shining) Kids needs professional training and skill-level improvement to cope with this unusually difficult situation. DSIA is trying to help financing the training of Kirarin Kids, so that it can serve a wider disaster area.
In the Tohoku Tsunami, many children in Rikuzen Takada City lost their family members, and exhibit psychological problems and rough behavior. They are suffering from a sense of loss and PTSD. Although a childcare NPO tries to provide necessary care to ease children-family-member relations, they are finding themselves inadequately equipped to cope with this unprecedented difficult situation.
DSIA is helping to nurture the capability of Kirarin Kids by (1) providing professional training to understand the reality of child-family-member relations in the post-disaster situation; (2) providing training to improve the practical skills of supporting childcare; (3) developing a mobile library and toy box to cover a wider area of services; and (4) developing a system of consulting and support to clients first within Rikuzen Takada and then to a wider area..
To spread sound childcare practices enables people to recognize the importance of social environments in an area, cherish expectation to children, and become the base of area's reconstruction and development. By nurturing the capability of Kirarin Kids to cope with this difficult situation, the DSIA can contribute to a long-term sound development of this area and also make Rikuzen Takada become the center of childcare support practices in Iwate Prefecture.
