Help Students, Families and Schools Recover

The Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund started working with the Asahigaoka Gakuen Children's Home in Kessenuma with the help of Michael Maher King of Smiles and Dreams: Tohoku Kids Project www.smilekidsjapan.org/lang/en/2011/03/30/smiles-dreams-the-tohoku-kids-project/  and Living Dreams (www.livingdreams.jp) soon after the disaster in 2011 with the goal of providing long term support to orphans.

Initial support was started by  Smile Kids with a delivery of toys, Wii’s, educational materials paid for by Taylor's fund.  The Anderson family visited A-G with Michael Maher King in Septermber, 2011 and enjoyed having dinner and playing with the children.   Three groups of the children have had a very successful English Adventure summer camp experience in August, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Taylor’s fund also sponsored a Christmas Wish program in 2011, 2012 and 2013 which provided gifts tailored to each child and a Christmas party where the children performed on stage with different songs and dance.   Living Dreams provided a copy of “Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story” to Asahigaoka Gakuen in the summer of 2013 so they could experience the message of the film.

Please see the reports and photos we've attached to see the messages from the Asahigaoka Gakuen children about their experiences with these programs.

Also with the help of Minami Ishikawa and Paul Yoo of VolunteerAkita Taylor's fund provided a Christmas Wish Program to St. Francis Children's home in Sendai for Christmas, 2011.  We received a gracious note from the facility director and met her in Sendai in March, 2013.  We hope to be successful in our fundraising so we can work with them again in the future to give opportunities to these children to live their dreams as Taylor lived hers.

• English Adventure Camp Thank You Notes (PDF)
  
• Notes from Children about "Live Your Dream" (PDF)
  
• Asahigaoka Gakuen Christmas Wish 2013 Thank You (PDF)
  

Today, we'd like to share a story out of many lives you have changed - through supporting our project.

This is Mihoko Terada. Mihoko is a volunteer for the Taylor Anderson Memorial Gift Fund. She is the mother of 2 sons and loves to watch her sons’ soccer games. While born in Nagoya, she has been living with her family in Sendai, Miyagi for over 10 years. When the earthquake happened Mihoko and her family were very frightened, but fortunately no one was injured. As soon as the train lines were working, they went back to her hometown of Nagoya to stay with family. When they went back to Sendai her sister worried about the radiation and sent her vegetables from Nagoya. Mihoko still worries about the radiation. She also worries a great deal about the people in Miyagi who lost their homes and family. As part of her volunteer work with the Taylor Anderson Memorial Gift Fund, Mihoko helps a variety of local non-profit groups and schools. For example, she assists in coordinating the building of English book reading corners at schools in Ishinomaki, she guided American students around the disaster zone, and she assisted as a translator in numerous meetings. Mihoko also wrote a great book about Miyagi people’s experiences during 3/11, which was edited by Keith Goldstein of IsraAid, an NGO that also works closely with the Taylor Anderson Memorial Gift Fund with PTSD workshops and a video archive. She very much looks forward to people reading this book, of which half the proceeds will be given as a donation: http://www.amazon.com/The-Disaster-Miyagi-Japan-Earthquake-ebook/dp/B00GEZ0FZA/

Comment: I am thankful for everyone who will read my book about Miyagi.

In honor of the 3rd anniversary of East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, GlobalGiving is hosting a matching campaign for projects that work for recovery in Tohoku area.  Starting March 10th, 2014 at 11am EST, your donations will be matched 100% by GlobalGiving until matchign funds last.  To donate, click on "give now" button below.  

Thank you for your support for this project, and thank you for tranforming the lives like Hitoshi!