We're proud to report that we have more stories of progress to share from our partners helping the people of Tohoku recover and rebuild after 2011's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Your generosity continues to impact the affected communities in myriad ways, from medical training to economic development to habitat restoration.
Since 2011, the percentage of residents in quake-damaged Ishinomaki City needing long-term care has increased by 30 percent. Japan Emergency NGO (JEN) has partnered with a local volunteer organization to provide nursing care classes to men in the city who are caring for their spouses, but often have limited experience in housework and are frequently isolated socially. The monthly classes focus on nursing topics for long-term caregivers, like preventing bedsores and caring for people with dementia, as well as alleviating stress for caregivers and practical skills like cooking for their spouses.
This spring, Ippan Shadan Hojin DSIA completed six years of work assisting the community of Isatomae, which was heavily damaged by the tsunami, rebuild its shopping arcade. The arcade, which houses eight shops and two restaurants, represents a first step in the redevelopment of Isatomae, allowing residents to not have to travel to neighboring communities for essential items and providing a new source of jobs in the community.
Hands on Tokyo has been organizing volunteers to support family farmers in Yamamoto-cho in Miyagi Prefecture who have been struggling with long-term labor shortages in the region resulting from the earthquake and tsunami. On a recent trip, volunteers from Tokyo helped a small farm by tending to paprika plants and weeding a field of leeks. Their volunteers have also helped clear brush and overgrown fields in and around temporary housing complexes for families still not permitted to return to their homes in Fukushima prefecture.
OISCA International continues to make progress toward their goal of restoring 100 hectares of coastal forest in Miyagi prefecture that were destroyed by the tsunami. This year their teams of volunteers from Japan, Thailand, and the United States have replanted 16 hectares of the coast with more than 70,000 black pine seedlings, and on return visits have seen that more than 99 percent of the seedlings have survived.
Thanks for your commitment to supporting the people and organizations who have worked for more than six years to rebuild and restore the communities of the Tohoku region. We are now closing this fund, but if you’d like to continue supporting disaster relief efforts around the world, you can find more communities that need your help at https://www.globalgiving.org/disasters.
Warmly,
Britt Lake + the GlobalGiving Team
The immediate recovery efforts following the March 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami started with building temporary shelters, distributing food and necessities, and providing urgent and life-saving medical support. Six years later, the progress that GlobalGiving nonprofit partners in the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fund have made is an inspiring reminder of your generosity and ever-present support.
Yet even with this progress, those impacted by the earthquake and tsunami are still grappling with how to move forward. Today, we want to celebrate the progress that has been made to build that way forward.
Ippan Shadan Hojin DSIA began their recovery efforts building tents to serve all purposes for anyone needing relief. In addition to building permanent shelters and housing for those displaced, last month they reported on the construction of highways and shopping arcades. Your donations paved a way for their success!
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR Japan) started the recovery process by creating mobile health clinics and implemented sanitation systems. Today the organization is providing proactive health check-ups, therapeutic massages, and hosting community events in Iwaki City for those who are still displaced after their homes were destroyed. AAR Japan are committed to making sure your donations go straight to the communities who need it.
OISCA International spent the past several years equipping earthquake and tsunami survivors with new forestry techniques. At the end of this past year, they reported that their project has created 1,400 employment opportunities for people who would have otherwise be dependent on the government after a natural disaster. Your donations gave them financial independence!
Children, Youth & Community Matching first saw a need to provide the children whose homes, schools, and playgrounds had been destroyed a place to be kids and play together. Thanks to your donations, in their latest project report they shared the success of their street festival where young students who lived through the disaster were able to set up booths and interacted with the community.
Hands On Tokyo hit the ground running and because of your donations quickly built a community center for a community that watched their lives wash away. Today, they are still working tirelessly to make sure local farmers have the resources to rebuild their lives. In their latest report, they thanked you for not forgetting them.
We also want to thank you for your consistent support of Japan and GlobalGiving’s nonprofit partners continuing to rebuild the impacted communities and find a way forward. Thank you!
Since the historically devastating 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami changed the course of many Japanese communities, you have stood by them. Thanks to your donations, GlobalGiving nonprofits are better equipped to support those impacted by natural disaster. Your generosity has funded many projects, but there are still more working in Japan who are determined to fulfill their mission of providing relief to people who lost homes, loved ones, and livelihoods. Below is a summary of the most recent impacts your donations have made!
Hands on Tokyo volunteers helped families finally return to their homes after five years of rebuilding.
Japan Emergency NGO (JEN) is partnering with local organizations to empower women in their relief efforts.
Children, Youth & Community Matching created safe spaces for children to play in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that changed the course of their childhood.
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR Japan)continues to provide psychological support for those who suffered losses in the earthquake and tsunami.
OISCA International planted a total of 56,000 seedlings with the constant goal of restoring 1,000 hectares of the Coast Forest in Miyagi Prefecture.
Ippan Shadan Hojin DSIAis redeveloping the Tohoku communityby focusing on childcare and providing professional training.
Peace Winds America is recreating life in Japan and recently started working on the first phases of building a dog park, children's playground, and community gardens.
We are so grateful to have such loyal and compassionate donors. It is because of you that communities in Japan have a hope for the future. Thank you for your constant generosity!
On August 15th, 2016, Japan braved another earthquake- this time of 5.6 magnitude. Although no damage has been reported, it serves as a reminder of the lives changed in past earthquakes. Beginning with donations right after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami to the present, your donations to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund have supported those impacted every step of the way. Donors like you have provided more than $9 million worth of healing in the region!
As one community therapist said in a report written by Japan IsraAID Support Program, "Just yesterday, she [a patient] finally started to talk about that day - after almost 5 years." Today, we want to share the important work of four nonprofits committed to mental healing. Thank you for standing by them!
Japan IsraAID Support Program’s mission is to build a capacity for trauma-care, PTSD prevention, coping and resilience in Japan by using foreign and local knowledge and methods. Their most recent report shared that, “in the past 4 years, more than 3,500 Japanese survivors, disaster supporters, and mental health professional have participated in HJ trainings.” Just between March and June 2016, Healing Japan worked with 72 clients and survivors.
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR Japan)’s project aims to encourage the evacuees to take new steps forward, foster community bonds and develop social networks through activities that can help improve their physical and psychological conditions. This past March they visited a community still in temporary housing in Ofunato City to give them muscle relieving massages!
This year Japan Emergency NGO focused one of their programs on the mental recovery of survivors. In a recent project report they said, “psycho-social of the recovery tends to be missed compared with the infrastructure because of its difficulty to be found out.” Today they are partnering with communities to support them as they live through hope.
On the Road, an organization with the goal to promote to exchange people all over Japan by offering lodging facilities and community space in Long Beach House that we has built- is focusing on mental care of an earthquake victims. Throughout the past few months they have improved their beach house and held many community events.
Japan continues to recover after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and most recent earthquakes, and mental healing remains a large need. Your donations not only go to support psychological healing but also to our nonprofit partners supporting education, rebuilding infrastructure, and restoring farming lands. Thank you for your generosity and steadfast support!
When the country of Nepal suffered not one, but two devastating earthquakes in April and May of 2015, the world responded. Immediately, relief efforts began and people across the world mobilized to support organizations on the ground. One group quick to respond was a handful of teens from Tohoku, Japan.
Following the tsunami that devastated Japan in March of 2011, these teens have been working to rebuild their communities in the Tohoku region. As a part of the Japan IsraAID Support Program (JISP), they have been participating in a youth leadership program focused on building their skills in community engagement and directing social projects as well as equipping them with the tools they will need to be successful community leaders. In understanding what recovering from disaster feels like, these youth leaders were motivated to share their skills with their peers in Nepal.
By the end of May 2015, just weeks after the earthquakes struck in Nepal, the group of JISP youth had begun collecting funds to be used for disaster relief. After raising just over $1,000 to be sent to a partner high school in Nepal, JISP's teens felt compelled to do more. Soon a Pen Pal program was started that enabled the Tohoku youth to correspond with their Nepali peers. But they didn’t stop there.
In the months since the Nepal Earthquakes, the Youth Leadership Project has developed and launched an exchange program with Nepali high school students. JISP’s Country Director, Mayumi Yoshida, pointed out that the idea of creating an exchange program originated from the teens themselves; “the concept of exchange program with the Nepalese students arose from one of our Tohoku youth, after joining our shelter building volunteer activities in Nepal and meeting one of the most inspirational female high school students.”
After arriving in Japan on December 23, 2015, the students from Nepal and Tohoku were able to learn, in-person, from each other’s experiences. With the support from JISP’s staff, the youth were able to connect through their shared experiences and discuss their plans to rebuild their respective communities.
“The 10 Tohoku/Nepalese youths spent time together whole through the 8 days program, and built such a strong bond that they now consider themselves, "a family.” They discussed potential projects to support the community in their respective situations, and confirmed the importance of education and training to cope with future disasters that repeatedly assaulted both countries over history.” - Mayumi Yoshida, Country Director JISP
Thanks to donors like you, GlobalGiving has been able to support programs working on long-term disaster recovery projects through the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. With your support, project’s like JISP’s Rebuilding 10000 lives in Japan - youth leadership can continue to develop initiatives that shape community leaders and recovery efforts, even years after a disaster.
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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