Childcare Support at Disaster-Stricken Tohoku

Since one goal of Kirarin Kids (KK) is to transmit Tohoku culture to younger generations, on the Lunar New Year Day, it is KK’s custom to make colorful dumpling skewed by dogwood to pray for the productiveness of grains, and mothers and children eat dumpling coated with soy bean powder or sweet soy sauce syrup. Participants take the dogwood home. KK organized this event in January 11 (Thrs.). In January 22, KK also organized “Hallo Baby, Pre-mothers’ Day”, as a monthly activity. Since they have been operating this event only about one year, they are still struggling to find a better way of conducting this event. On that day, only nine pairs of mothers and children and mothers-to-be participated, while the largest number of participants in the past was twenty. Since mid-wives and health nurses also attend, this event is becoming a place where mothers or mothers-to-be to consult specialists over diverse issues, such as developmental disorder, skin rush, etc. Because of this event, some mothers become frequent visitors to KK’s events. On January 27, it was Fathers’ Day, when fathers and grandfathers come to make buckwheat noodle with children or grandchildren. Though not many, three groups of fathers, grandfathers and children participated. Although most of them have never made the noodle, they all enjoyed tasting self-made noodle. This is becoming a regular event held in January for KK, which is hoping to increase the number of participants.

On February 15^th, in collaboration with Rikuzentakata Social Welfare Council, KK organized a session for grandmothers and grandfathers to have physical exercises with grandchildren at the Yonezaki Community Center. All had 30 minutes’ exercises and then had fun time over tea. Grandmothers and grandfathers sitting on chairs danced with grandchildren who danced with a very popular song for children, “Anpanman Song”. The interaction was so fruitful that the event generated amazingly good inter-generational interactions, KK now hopes to have this type of event more frequently. On February 28^th, KK organized a session titled “Story about Tummy Banana (Ochinchin no Hanashi) in order to provide an opportunity for parents to discuss about any boys’ issues with a doctor. Since this event was advertised through Facebook and SNS, twenty groups of parents and children attended, some even coming from Ofunato City, located about 20 km away from Rikuzentakata City.

March was a rough month with many warnings for turbulent winds and waves. KK, thinking of the safety of their clients, decided to temporary close their place, consequently, closing many days of the month. Even the day this interview was conducted was also closed due to strong wind, which was informed to clients through Facebook and SNS. Predicting good weather, KK prepared for an event called, “Pounding Rice Cake (Mochitsuki) and Farewell”, which is for the graduation of some parents and children from KK, since its clients are only for children before entering a grade school. They pounded steamed rice to make cakes and eat them with soy source or mixed with soy bean flour, red bean paste, or sweet soy source syrup. This time, three high school graduates, going to Tokyo for university education, came to help, since they used to work as interns at KK when they were in the high school. Many mothers and children, for the first time in their lives, enjoyed pounding steamed rice and making rice cakes. It was a quite memorable day for them. 

A scheduled event for April is another “Hallo Baby, Pre-mothers’ Day”. By inviting a health nurse from the Oofunato City Public Health Office, KK hoped to raise awareness of mothers-to-be over the type of work the Office does to help mothers-to-be, mothers, and children. KK plays a very important role to introduce what kind of organizations provides what kind of services and resources to support mothers for their birth and childrearing. Additional attraction of this event is a chance to eat healthy food for mothers (Picture 1), since what they eat becomes the source of nourishment and mothers’ milk for babies. One specialist on micro-bio-technology comes all the way from Ichinoseki City to prepare the lunch, and gives recipes and lessons to mothers-to-be so that they can cook by themselves at home. These days, “Sanchoku Hamanasu”, an organization to promote locally produced food, also provides help to KK. On April 27^th (Fri.), KK will organize “Outside Kirarin Activity” at Apasse Takata, a commercial building newly opened last year. In its public space, mothers and children will enjoy throwing rings and creating stamps out of pieces of clothes. KK is participating the first anniversary of Apasse Takata to create a lively environment of the facility.

An increasing number of buildings, including a new Public Library (Picture 2), opened around Apasse Takata (Picture 3). And on April 1st, the JR Rikuzentakata Station moves to a location right next to Apasse Takata, where Rikuzentakata Station of JR Ohfunto Line used to exist. Presently, JR operates a BRT bus, because the railroad between Kesennuma Station and Morioka Station was badly damaged or even partly wiped away. Soon, the new JR Rikuzentadada Station opens as a bus stop, instead of a train one (Picture 4). Although you do not yet see many people in that area, seven years after the disaster, you start seeing some redevelopment of the city center. It looks quite different from the past with elevated land and high walls of dikes, about which diverse opinions are expressed by local people. Anyway, it is quite important to keep eyes on the development of the city, to which a very small organization, KK, is taking a valuable initiative and actively contributing as much as it can. DSIA is pleased to continuously support this tiny, but highly creative and valuable NPO, generating a big impact within their capacity.

Links:

• Kirarin Kids Blogspot
• Kirarin Kids Facebook
• Kirarin Kids at Cabinet Office, Government of Japan