Supporting the Typhoon Hagibis Survivors in Japan

   Since the Typhoon Hagibis hit Ohsato town, JISP has been working with the community to provide different forms of support to strengthen affected community's resilience from within, whilst facing challenges admist covid-19 crisis. 

   In Ohsato town, many disaster victims of younger generation have left their hometown as they continue to rebuild their lives.  This has resulted in acceleration of population aging of the community, and the impact of the covid-19 have left the elderly in a particularly vulnerable position. As a result, some elderly people are unable to adapt to changes in their living environment, tend to withdraw from the community, and have no one with whom they can interact or seek advice, which affects their physical and mental health. On the other hand, lack of interaction among local residents makes it difficult to identify their needs and provide them with support.

   In cooperation with the Social Welfare Council of Ohsato and other local supporters, we are trying to create a system of support to promote interaction using a Kitchen Car, and to reach people who have difficulty going out or are hard to reach for assistance.

    We ordered a tailor-made Kitchen Car, and it has finally been delivered to us! On December 1, the Kitchen Car "Under the Sky Cafe" was unveiled in front of the meeting room of temporary housing in Ohsato. Despite the cold weather, a total of 42 people attended the lively event. Participants cooked local delicacy such as rice cake, stickey potato soup, seaweed dishes, using the ingredients provided by local farmers and fishermen. The event provided an opportunity for the local residents to meet again after a long absence, eat together, and exchange information about their recent activities, which was very much appreciated by the participants. 

   The unveiling event filled our stomach, but it also filled our hearts with warmth, promising a good start of the Kitchen Car project. We will continue our support activities so that the Kitchen Car can gradually fulfill its role as a place for community interaction in the town of Ohsato!

Since the Typhoon Hagibis hit Ohsato town (Miyagi Prefecture), we have been working with the community to provide different forms of support to strengthen affected community's resilience from within, whilst facing challenges admist covid-19 crisis! In this report, we are so happy to announce that we are starting a new initiative, a Mobile Kitchen Car Outreach Program. 

In the Ohsato towm, many younger generations of disaster victims have left the community as they continue to rebuild their lives, whilst accelerated aging of the local population, and the impact of the covid-19 have left the elderly in a particularly vulnerable position. As a result, some elderly people, in particular, are unable to adapt to changes in their living environment, tend to withdraw from the community, and have no one with whom they can interact or seek advice, which affects their physical and mental health. On the other hand, the lack of interaction among local residents makes it difficult to identify their needs and provide them with support.

To address above challenges, we will promote community interaction through the operation of Mobile Kitchen Car which will go arond different location of the community, and at the same time, we will identify the needs of those in need of support and refer them to necessary support. We believe that the best conversation will take place over a cup of nice tea and delicious snacks, as well!

We have now ordered a Kitchen Car, and started planning vrious ways to access as many local people as possible. We are also hoping that we can provide a fun place for the locals to hang out and enjoy day-to-day interactions with the local community and its' supporters. We look forward to providing further updates when the operation starts. 

Warmest regards from the JISP Team

      Since the Typhoon Hagibis hit Ohsato town (Miyagi Prefecture), we have been working with the community to provide different forms of support to strengthen affected community's resilience from within, whilst facing challenges admist corona crisis. One of our most favourite activities is  "Iki Iki 100 Years Old Exercise (Iki 100")" which was developed by a Physical Therapist in Southern part of Japan, in order to help elderly people to live a healthy and lively life without a need of receiving nusing care.

      As of end of March 2022, JISP handed over the initiative we started a year ago to the Social Welfare Committee of the town . To express our gratitude to the participants who have continued to make efforts to improve their well-being by actively engaging in Iki 100, as well as to express our hope that the initiative will continue in future, a "Joint Iki 100 Community Event" and a bus tour was held in March 2022. 19 elderly beneficiaries participated this event.

      At the joint excercise event, a Physical Therapist led the participants in exercises, and we were completely impressed to see all the participants come together in one place and show their full of energy and vitality. Afterwards, the participants took a bus to Matsushima (Miyagi), where they enjoyed lunch and a boat ride, and sipped matcha green tea. Everyone was delighted with the experiences.

      Seeing the participants walking along the coastal streets of Matsushima, going up and down the stairs, we could see that Iki 100 was actually effective in strengthening their legs and backs. We hope that the initiative will continue even after our intervention ends. We are very happy to hear that Ohsato town is planning to spread this initiative to a wider area of town during this year! 

      In the meanwhile, JISP intends to continue providing sustainable support to the community by initiating a new activity. We would like to thank you for taking interest and reading our report, and for your continued support. 

      Warmest regards from the JISP Team

  Firstly, the entire JISP team would like to wish everyone around the globe a happy and health New Year ahead.

  We have a very cold winter here in Ohsato town, however, we contiue to work with the survivors of Ohsato town to keep the survivors strong, both physically and spiritually, so that they can live their live to the fullest. Whilst taking the best possible measures against virus spread, we continue to provide opportunities to the survivors to socialize, exercise, strengthen community support network. 

  As of April 2021, we introduced  "Iki Iki 100 Years Old Exercise (Iki 100")" which was developed by a Physical Therapist in Southern part of Japan, in order to help elderly people to live a healthy and lively life without a need of receiving nusing care. At the beginning, we faced some challenges to encourage elderly people to gather in one place and exercise together in the current circumstances,  however, we now have arond 30 regular participants who regularly and willingly join the weekly session. 

  We'd like to introduce some very positive and encouraging comments from our beneficiaries: 

"After I participating Iki 100 session, it becomes so easy to raise my arms, so it greatly helps with my housekeeping work"

"I rarely go out unless I come here to do the Iki 100 exercise with everyone. Each week, I look forward to coming to the session"

"It is quite amazing that I have not gotten sick since last year, and I think tbat it's because I regularly participate the Iki 100 session. I want to continue for the rest of my life!"

  We would like to thank you for taking interest and reading our report, and for your continued support. 

Warmest regards from the JISP Team

    We hope that that this finds you well and healthy in this very challenging time when every single one of us in the world is being challenged with many difficulties in lives due to the impact of corona crisis. 

    Since Oct 2019, JISP has been supporting the communities of Ohsato Town, Miyagi prefecture (located in North-Eestern part of Japan), which was severely affected by Typhoon Hagibis, one of the most powerful tropical storms to have hit the area in several decades. Like everywhere else in the world, the survivors's day-to-day life is being severely affected by the emergence of COVID-19 since early last year. 

    As a humanitarian organization, finding the right way to support the disaster survivors in the right way has been a challenge to JISP. Ultimately, we believe that it is our own immunity that can keep us strong, both physically and spiritually, allowing us to live our lives to the fullest. So, whist taking the best possible measures against virus spread, we continue to provide opportunities to the survivors to socialize, exercise, strengthen community support network. 

    As reported in our previous activity report, we have recently introduced  "Iki Iki 100 Years Old Exercise (Iki 100")" which was developed by a Physical Therapist in Kochi Prefecture of Japan, to prevent elderly people to live a healthy and lively life without a need of receiving nusing care (please refer to the previous report for more details). Despite our initial concern that attracting elderly people to gather in one place and exercise together in the current circumstances could be a great challenge, we now have over 20 regular participants who are experiencing positive changes in their physical and mental health! 

    We also try to provide the survivors with opportunities to enjoy traditional and cultural events. One of the community events was held on the 13th September, on which an indigo dying experience event was held for the community residents. The indigo was grown by the survivors themselves in the agricultural land near the temporary housing complex. Blessed with a summer-like sunlight and fresh autumn breeze, the participants enjoyed an opportunty to gather in small groups, and deepen the unity of the community! 

We would like to thank you for taking interest and reading our report, and for your continued support. 

JISP Team