Unequal Distribution of Assistance Becomes Visible

On Wednesday, March 23, the AAR JAPAN’s Emergency Relief Team continued its operation in central Miyagi, covering 8 places in Sendai City, and 2 more in a town of Minami-Sanriku, delivering items which included food, clothes, diapers, toilet paper, kerosene and fuel oil.

Some People Get More, Some Less

Asahigaoka Community Center, one of the facilities visited on March 23, is a shelter for approximately 40 people.  Some of them barely survived the Tsunami by holding onto a piece of plank; some were trapped in their own houses when the Tsunami washed them away.  The average age of the survivors is 80 years old.

Survivors at Asahigaoka Community Center survived the horrifying onslaught of Tsunami (left, Ben KATO, Board Member of AAR JAPAN).

When the Team handed a package of sweet-bean cake, a staff member of the Center smilingly said it would make everybody happy.  He also told the Team that the elderly were experiencing difficulty using a makeshift toilet set up outside, especially at night because there were no lights available yet.

At Utazu Junior High School in Minami-Sanriku, where 600 survivors are taking refuge, the Team provided food including rice, instant noodles, canned foods, etc., and some other items such as sanitary items for ladies, underwear, clothes, baby bottles, etc.

People at the school said they did not receive any emergency relief for five days after the Quake, and the supply has not been nearly sufficient.

Unprecedented Tsunami literally swept away the entire town of Minami-Sanriku, where the survivors at Asahigaoka Community Center used to live.

The reality in the wide-spread disaster-hit area is that not all the regions nor the refugee centers are getting the same level of assistance.  One of the important missions of the AAR JAPAN’s operation is to alleviate the inequality of relief distribution as much as possible by spotting the survivors who have scarcely received assistance.

Someone dedicated a bouquet of flowers to the devastated hometown (Ishinomaki City).

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AAR JAPAN Reaches Out to The Helpless

Relief Items Delivered at Six More Locations

On March 22, AAR JAPAN’s Emergency Relief Team visited six locations and facilities in three cities in Miyagi Prefecture, namely Sendai, Ishinomaki and Higashi-Matsushima.  Rice, oranges and canned foods were delivered along with underwear, sanitary items for ladies, etc.  The Team also had a meeting with various organizations to discuss what can be done from now to support persons with disabilities affected by the disaster.

Rice, oranges and milk were distributed to Izumi-no-Sato, a welfare facility for the elderly people in Higashi-Matsushima City (left, Sopana HAGIWARA of AAR JAPAN)

The list of the beneficiaries on March 22 includes:

Sendai City

-Care Plan Center SLL (Welfare organization for the aged, 60 inmates)

Higashi-Matsushima City

-Izumi-no-Sato (Welfare organization for the aged)

-No.2 Kyosei-en Annex (Welfare facility for persons with disabilities)

Ishinomaki City

-Negishi Townhall (Refuge center, 120 survivors)

-Kiwa community (Citizens staying at home, 300 survivors)

-Gymnasium “Big Bang” (Refuge center, 600 survivors)

Responding to Direct Emergency Calls

Care Plan Center SLL in Sendai is a welfare organization assisting the elderly and persons with disabilities who have chosen to live by themselves in a local community.  After the Quake, they have helped out such people as the elderly, persons with disabilities, families with infants, etc., for whom moving to a nearby refuge site was not a possible option.  The Center was at a loss without public support, and co-operations from individuals were not enough to keep their activity going.  Someone picked up a phone and called directly the Headquarters of AAR JAPAN in Tokyo to appeal for our intervention.

AAR JAPAN's Relief Team listens to explanation from a staff member of Care Plan Center SLL in Sendai City.  The Center assists approximately 60 survivors including the aged and persons with disabilities who cannot move to a refuge place (from left, Sopana HAGIWARA, Shuichi ISHIBASHI and Yoshihiko SHIBATA of AAR JAPAN).

The AAR JAPAN Emergency Relief Team was immediately instructed to bring food items to the Center, including rice, canned foods and some seasoning.

AAR JAPAN normally communicates with the Prefectural Emergency Headquarters, a section responsible for welfare services in a municipal office, or local Council for Social Welfare (CSW), to coordinate its relief operations.  However, we sometimes do receive SOS signals directly from survivors themselves, or their family and friends.

These people are often isolated, and filled with despair as their stock of food gets smaller each day.  Despite having lost everything just like other people, there are those who remain out of the coverage of public support and have absolutely nowhere to turn to.

Reacting to these emergency calls, AAR JAPAN’s Relief Team is trying as much as possible to meet the person directly on the spot to confirm the difficulty and urgency of the situation, before actually handing out the relief items.

AAR JAPAN alone cannot save everybody, but we are determined to seek and reach out to people like the aged or persons with disabilities, who are often slow to come into the scope of the disaster relief, and are easily overlooked by big organizations.

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AAR JAPAN’s Relief Cheers Up the Elderly

Welfare Facility without Water Gets What They Need

AAR JAPAN’s Emergency Relief Team continued its delivery operation on Sunday, March 20, visiting two small welfare facilities for elderly people in a town of Okawara, and the municipal office in Iwanuma City, Miyagi.

Relief items for this day included diapers for adults and infants, clothes, futon mattress, etc., in addition to water, milk, milk powder, and sweet-bean cake (yokan).  The Iwanuma Municipal Office is to deliver our items to the evacuees in its vicinity, and one of the welfare facilities ,“Kusunoki (camphor tree)”, is planning to redistribute the goods to approximately 500 survivors living in the neighborhood.

Staff at welfare facility "Kusunoki" showing donated sweet-bean cake. A team of three from Sunmap Co.,Ltd., including Mr. Matsuoka, President (front right) came all the way from Kyushu to help the delivery (left, Sopana Hagiwara, Board Member of AAR JAPAN).

At Kusunoki, all of 30 inmates were fortunately unhurt by the quake, but the electricity resumed running only three days ago, and there was only one propane gas cylinder left.  They did not know what to do with gas after this cylinder empties out.  Their biggest problem was water, which was not running yet.  They were extremely happy to receive a supply of water from the AAR Team.  Sweet-bean cake also made them smile.  “I never thought we could have this here at times like this”, a worker of Kusunoki told the Team.

Helping the Japanese Who Helped Me Out of My Homeland

I am a Japanese citizen now, but I was born in Cambodia.  Helping the survivors of the Big East Japan Earthquake is for me giving back the favors I received as a refugee when I first came to this country.  Their anguishes remind me of my childhood memories of having to put up with a lack of food in war-torn Cambodia.  It is my sincere hope that AAR JAPAN’s operations will be of some encouragement for the survivors.

All at Kusunoki helped moving the items into the facility (center, Sopana Hagiwara)

In many parts of the disaster-hit area, there are still a number of shortages of supplies.  AAR JAPAN will continue to convey the warm support extended from our supporters to the survivors.

It needs to be mentioned here with our heartfelt gratitude that Sunmap Co.,Ltd., based in Fukuoka, and several other enterprises in Kyushu helped AAR JAPAN with procurement and transportation of the items delivered, and Toraya Co.,Ltd., of Tokyo kindly donated 20,000 pieces of sweet-bean cake.

Sopana HAGIWARA

Born in Cambodia.  He came to Japan in 1982 as a refugee.  Graduating from high school in Japan, he now works in the field of software development and network establishment.  AAR JAPAN Board Member since June, 2009.

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Relief Items Distributed at School in Heavily Damaged Area

AAR Team Delivers Items at Elementary School in Onagawa

AAR JAPAN has sent an emergency relief team of seven personnel to support the survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
On March 19, the Team distributed the relief items at No.2 Elementary School in Onagawa, one of the harbor towns in the eastern Miyagi Prefecture heavily damaged by the Tsunami.
>Approximately 1,500 local residents are taking refuge in the school building and its gymnasium. The Team headed east from the Sendai base after receiving information from the Emergency Headquarters of the Miyagi Prefectural Government that the evacuees in this school were having a serious shortage of daily supplies including diapers and underwear.

Japan Self Defense Force helps unload the relief items (Left, Yoshitaka SUGISAWA of AAR JAPAN)

 7,200 Diapers, 200 Pairs of Underwear, etc. Given Out

On arriving at the school, the Team got immediately onto unloading. Local volunteers and servicemen of the Japan Self Defense Force provided helping hands. The inventory of the relief items included 7,200 diapers, 200 pairs of ladies’ underwear, 40 sets of antiseptic alcohol, 1,000 toothbrushes, 50 blankets, 4 cans of milk, etc. The procurement and transportation of these items were made possible with the generous cooperation extended to AAR JAPAN from MontBell, a Japanese outdoor product company.

The evacuees were in need of everything. Mothers with small children were especially in trouble with a lack of diapers. A member of the Emergency Headquarters of Onagawa Municipal Office told the Team that the consistent provision of the consumables was required. Some evacuees also said that blankets were not enough to keep them warm enough, and some of them were beginning to feel sick. A week after the Quake, mountains behind them were thinly covered with snow.

The team listens to the pleas of the officer of the Emergency Headquarters of Onagawa City (Right, Sayako NOGIWA of AAR JAPAN).

 Memories Washed Away, Loved Ones Still Missing

 Passing through the town of Onagawa, what I saw was simply hard to believe. Both sides of the road were filled with all kinds of debris. The horrifying piles stretched out into the distance. Several hundred meters from the coastline, a wreckage of disfigured train lay among the houses stuck upon each other, smashed into smithereens. The remnants of ordinary, happy lives in an otherwise peaceful rural town scattered everywhere.

A man was walking along the road with a piece of cardboard hanged from his neck like a necklace. The cardboard carried a message that he was looking for his missing family members. It was an unbearable sight. The plight of the survivors made me feel powerless; I forced myself to concentrate on what needs to be done from now.

A welfare facility for the elderly shredded to pieces by tsunami (Onagawa, Miyagi)

Speed Is the Key

I have, in the past, engaged myself in several disaster relief activities in Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Indonesia, etc. The Great East Japan Earthquake this time, however, has a different meaning in terms of the magnitude of the damages and the fact that it struck the area close to the place I grew up. What is required at this moment is to bring supplies to the survivors as quickly as possible.
AAR JAPAN will continue to operate in the disaster-hit area, especially in places where little assistance has reached. I call for AAR JAPAN supporters to cooperate in rebuilding the future of the survivors. Your contribution will be highly appreciated.

Your kind support is urgently needed.
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Sayako NOGIWA

Senior Programme Coordinator.  She is mainly responsible for the AAR JAPAN's projects in Asia, including Myanmar.  She was also involved in a number of emergency relief operations in the past, including Myanmar Cyclone in 2008, Sumatra Earthquake in 2009 and Pakistan Flood in 2010.  Born in Tokyo, 34 years old.

Emergency Relief Reaches 50 Persons with Disabilities

AAR Relief Team Enters Southern Miyagi
Association for Aid and Relief, JAPAN (AAR JAPAN) has sent an emergency relief team of six members to the northern part of Japan, paralyzed by the Earthquake.
On March 16, the team delivered emergency relief items to the inmates of Seiwa-en, a welfare facility for the persons with disabilities, located in a town of Yamamoto in the southernmost part of Miyagi Prefecture.
Ryo YAMAURA, an AAR JAPAN staff member from Sendai, Miyagi, reports from the disaster-stricken area.

Hometown in Devastation
“We took highway from Sendai City, where AAR JAPAN operates from, to Yamamoto. The highway runs parallel to the coastline, about 5km inland. On the coastal side of the road, I could still see a huge body of water left by the Tsunami, with the wreckage of vehicles floating here and there. Some parts of water remained even on the mountain side of the highway to attest to the level of damages inflicted by the tidal wave.

Tsunami bulled through this house in a town of Yamamoto.

Even for me, a native of Sendai City, this Tsunami is simply beyond the wildest imagination. All I can do at this moment is to merely pray for the safety of my friends who live along the coastline.

Relief Arrives in the Nick of Time

“When we got to Seiwa-en, they were on the verge of running out of their normal stock of food good for three days. 50 inmates and 7 staff members had no clear idea of what to do next. Seeing their plight, the team immediately unloaded food, water, sanitary goods and hand warmers into the building.

Shuichi ISHIBASHI of AAR JAPAN (in red jacket) greets a member of Seiwa-en.

Ms. Yukiko MONMA, President of Seiwa-en, leads the entire crew even after the quake, despite the fact that her own house was swept away by the Tsunami. She repeatedly expressed her sincere gratitude to all of us.”

Lights of Hope Relit

“It was when we were about to finish moving items into the facility that lights came back on at Seiwa-en for the first time in six days after the tremor. Someone cried “Emergency lights are on!” and the sense of joy quickly spread among the inmates and staff members. Some were hugging each other with tears in their eyes. It is hard to imagine how much inconvenience and anxiety they have had to put up with. They should have many more problems to overcome. Nonetheless they saw us off saying “It was a really good day today. Electricity has returned. People like you came with things we needed. You really saved us all.” Her words renewed my desire to reach those who need help as swiftly as possible.

Seiwa-en crew celebrates the return of electricity.

Fulfilling a Share of Work

“On our way back to Sendai, we came across a number of workers on the road removing the debris. There were number of trucks and many road construction sites working around the clock. Many people are fulfilling their duties, giving more than 100%. We, the AAR JAPAN Emergency Relief Team, will also move on for the people who are still waiting for the helping hands to reach them. Considering the magnitude of the damages, AAR JAPAN still needs much more assistance. All the members of the team would like to appeal strongly for continuous, generous contributions from our supporters.”

Ryo YAMAURA

Representative of AAR JAPAN Kadgli office, Northern Sudan since January 2009. After graduating university, he joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and was assigned to Uganda as an elementary school teacher. After spending a year in Uganda, he joined AAR JAPAN. (born in Miyagi, Japan) .

AAR JAPAN Embarks on Delivering of Emergency Relief Items to the Survivors of the Quake and Tsunami

“We Have Nothing to Eat for Today.”

Sayako Nogiwa of AAR JAPAN deliverying emergency relief items to the earthquake victims (at Nakano Junior High School in Sendai City, on March 14th, 2011)

Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (Shinagawa, Japan, Chairperson: Yukie Osa) has embarked on delivering of emergency relief items to the victims of the earthquake, which occurred on March 11 in the Pacific Ocean offshore of Northern Honshu Island.

The first group of the AAR JAPAN emergency relief team consisting of 3 members left Tokyo early on Sunday, March 13, and arrived in Sendai, the prefectural capital of Miyagi at midnight.

The team got to work from very early in the morning the next day. After checking the latest information on damages and relief activities at the Emergency Headquarters set up at the Sendai City Gubernatorial Office, the team visited Nakano Junior High School in Sendai City. In cooperation with the school PTA, a package of water, green tea, oranges, bananas and some snacks was delivered to 500 evacuees. Many expressed serious concerns facing them at the moment. “We have absolutely nothing to eat even for today” said one evacuee. There are much more people who are waiting desperately for the badly needed assistance.

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 16, the second group is schedule to leave for Sendai with more relief items including diapers, sanitary goods for ladies, disposable hand warmers, etc.

Sendai Interim Office Opened

In the afternoon on Monday, March 14, an interim AAR JAPAN office was set up at Ichibancho, Aoba-ku in Sendai City. Keeping close contact with the Miyagi Prefectural Government, AAR JAPAN is to continue the emergency operation from this base.

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Huge Earthquake Strikes Northern Japan - AAR JAPAN Gets Ready to Send Staff

AAR JAPAN to Dispatch Staff Members for Relief Activities for the Survivors of the Earthquake and Tsunami

TOKYO (March 11, 2011) A massive earthquake hit Japan at 2:46 pm, March 11, immediately followed by repeating waves of devastating tsunami. The Tohoku (north-east) region has been seriously affected. More than 1,000 people have lost their lives and many are still missing.

The disaster was triggered by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake. It is said to be nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which hit Christchurch, New Zealand last month.
AAR JAPAN will dispatch its staff members to the disaster-stricken area and provides support to the afflicted people.

AAR JAPAN is a Japanese NGO established in 1979 to support Indo-Chinese refugees. Since then, AAR JAPAN has been engaged in emergency relief operations to the victims of disasters, including those affected by Kobe Earthquake and Mid-Niigata Prefecture Earthquake which hit Japan in 1995 and in 2004 respectively.