Childcare Support at Disaster-Stricken Tohoku

In April 2018, a new building called Dream Arena Takata (Picture 1), officially called as Rikuzen Takata City Community Exchange Center, opened at a location where the City Gymnasium used to stand. The facility stands in the area of 10,000 square meters, located at 30 meter above the ocean. People can look at beautiful ocean there, but it can be used as a shelter to run away from tidal waves in case of Tsunami disaster. It has multi-purpose halls, an arena, a swimming pool, etc. The Family Festival organized by Kirarin Kids (KK) was held in the biggest area, where many parents and children came to enjoy playing together. Especially, children enjoyed running around this large space. There was also poster exhibits of KK’s events, which several participants stared at (Picture 2).

In this district, the Dream Arena is the biggest event place. At 10 am, as soon as the door opened, one family came in rushing. There, they found wood blocks for children, a large-size slide, a tricycle corner, go-carts, etc., full of equipment, good for children from a baby to a toddler. It is an environment, even brothers and sisters can play with whatever equipment they choose, instead of fighting over their turns. KK planned well, so that parents and children can play from their hearts (Pictures 3 and 4). Surprisingly a large number of fathers joined the event, when it is very rare to find the attendance of fathers in many KK events.

In the past, one staff obtained a city subsidy and operated it. Now, this event is carried out by KK, which successfully obtained helps from many cooperators, such as local companies, the Male Nursery Attendant Association, an NGO to promote children’s playing, etc.

KK, a very small NGO with firm belief for children’s happiness at the time of the disaster grew up to be a significant force even to organize the biggest event in the area. It took eight years to reach the present stage, not because they wished to be, but simply because they wanted to contribute to develop humanly warm parents-children relations. This speed of growth was also helpful, since women not wishing to work full-time managed both their household works and KK’s voluntary works (Picture 5), which facilitated the local awareness of KK’s contributions to the local community. This is an excellent outcome to show how many of small-amount donations, such as GlobalGiving ones, continued to give energy and nourishments to KK, just like intravenous injection, resulting in an unrecognizably big and competent organization. It is clearly a big achievement for KK.

In contrast, the disaster-stricken area is still in the middle of big constructions, now witnessing a big road, a shopping center, and several new houses there (Picture 6). To report about KK to GlobalGiving allows us to look at the rebuilding process from the residents’ perspective. The area is still lacking many human supports to enable people live in a comfortable way. People still needs places to consult with or meet others. In this situation, KK played a vital role in not only providing information, but also acting to help those who are in needs.

However, KK’s activities are remote from covering its costs and sustaining its operations, needless to say about satisfying community needs. Achieving such sustainable operations will still take a long time to come, as the disaster-stricken area indicates still an enormous amount of time to complete construction works. KK is now facing a pressure to look for a new place to move in. Despite such painful situation, they continue to shine as an organization to provide smiles to parents and children in the community.

Links:

• Kirarin Kids Facebook
• Kirarin Kids Homepage