By Yusuke Ohno | Project Member
My name is Yusuke Ohno, a staff of Kodomo Wakamono Matching (NPO).
On March 11th, when I turned on the TV for information about the earthquake, I heard a broadcaster's voice, almost screaming out "Evacuate immediately!" Being a student back then, the only thing I could do for the next few weeks was to follow the news of the areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake, as if my mind had stopped.
In the end of April 2011, I visited Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture for the first time, as a volunteer staff to support activities for recovery and reconstruction. There were twisted steel columns, pieces of shattered grass, foundations of houses which once belonged to a town full of people and houses, and a nasty odor was drifting all around.
Despite their great loss, people there were trying hard to live every moment to the full extent. A person who had lost a child consoled another person who was grieving the loss of his wife.
Youth volunteers were trying to provide emotional support to children suffering from extreme stress.
There was a woman who welcomed us with a smile, although her husband was missing.People lived desperately in the post-disaster situation.
In July, I visited a shelter located in Oshika Peninsula, far from the city center. It was a one-story building and had only one room. Several families lived in there, although, it had been damaged from the tsunami.
They tried fixing the place, but there were still rubble stuck in parts of the building. The families said to us "Thank you" over again and again, and the beauty of the people trying so hard to live there in Tohoku and our helplessness broke our hearts. The volunteers, including myself were eager to make any little progress. We wanted to use every moment improve event a little bit of the sad situation of the people before us are confronted with.
“There’s a funeral every day” a high school student I met in town told me.
In 2011, children attended funerals for classmates and relatives almost every week.
The much needed care and support for children were left behind.
Although the material recovery was also necessary, many children endured and tried to stand up to their pain for their families.
So much pain was on their tiny shoulders and tiny heart. They didn’t even know how to express their pain which hurt them so much. The care and support for children was necessary. They needed to recover to power to heal themselves and make themselves stronger.
“Ishinomaki Kids Town”, an event for children to experience how to run a town through learning about various kinds of jobs, was held by a collaboration of 20 groups of NPOs and residents, was held in the areas near a shopping district which was actually affected by the Tsunami.
The children assembled through public invitation had taken part in meeting since five months prior to the event to learn and think about the jobs they would be doing. Adults supported children in the process. It was important for the children to have grand dreams, having hope and planning the future, because they are in a difficult situation at the present.
Grown-ups came together to make these dreams come true. “Ishinomaki Kids Town”, a step towards the children’s dream, has been held every year and in 2015, it has been held for the 4th time. Over 1200 children and parents join the event every year. Here is a story I especially remember.
In 2013, a girl who had a dream to be a veterinarian met a dog that would be euthanized in a week when she visited an animal center during her prior training. She wanted to help the dog’s life, so she searched for a foster family to take the dog during the 2 days of the event and succeeded in finding one. Because she learned about the situation of stray animals, she made a vigorous speech to grown-ups that she would make Ishinomaki City a city of “zero dispose”. It was a moment when a child’s dream made a step forward, through the event.
Elementary or Junior High school students who participated in the first event have grown to become Senior High School or University students. They come to the event every year as supporters of the event. Young people from all over Japan come every year to support the children. Young people who work in Tokyo come back to support the secretariat with the skill they have gained through working. The circle of connections of people supporting children in Ishinomaki keeps on growing.
Even now, after 5 years, the children’s environment is still unstable and keeps on changing in the affected areas. I hope that their experience of struggling will become the seed to opening the way to a rich future. Therefore, I will continue the activities for children.
At that time in 2011, I saw ruined towns and vibrant lives. People support each other, provide something for each other, and said thank you to each other. I leaned such encounters and connections give us the reason to live and hope for the future.
Last year, I met a mother with her children at an open lecture about 3.11 held in Kanagawa prefecture, and she told me that she will convey what was happened in 3.11 to her children who were born after the disaster.
I will never forget the lives lost, and would like to build a society with where children living now and in the future could like together with 3.11.
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