The May Activity Week stood under the sign of deepening our contacts in Tohoku in order to respond to the new needs in each of the communities we work with.
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Kesennuma Karakuwa Isaribi Park: SWTJ co-organizes Aozora Community and Flea Market Event May 3 and 4
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3 SWTJ members spent a very intense week talking to the leaders of our branches in Tohoku, contributing with food stalls, a flea market, kids' events, and a music live performance in local community events for displaced people, discussing opportunities to launch a music project for evacuee children, and checking out a camp house that SWTJ will use during its summer camp for evacuee children that will take place in August 2013.
On May 3 and 4, at Isaribi Park in Karakuwa, Kesennuma, we connected with our local contact Yoshida who is active in organizing community-building events for the displaced people in the area. SWTJ's food stalls with the possibility for kids to make their own cotton candy were very popular, and the flea market was well visited.
In Rikuzentakata, we connected with SWTJ branch leader Kanazawa (left), whose knowledge of new developments in the disaster area is indispensable to the direction of our organization. Thanks to Mr. Kanazawa's introduction we were able to support activities at the community event at Dencho-kan in the hills of Rikuzentakata, where over 1,000 people, many of them evacuees from the nearly entirely swept away former city of Rikuzentakata, gathered for 'Childrens' Day' on May 5.
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| May 5 (Childrens' Day) Hakodateyama-Festival in Rikuzentakata: SWTJ games for displaced kids |
A visit to Tsukidate Community Space in Yasse, Kesennuma,
a space built by SWTJ in 2012 to support exchange and
community-building between displaced people in container
housing and local villagers:
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| Visit at our branch in Yasse, Kesennuma (Photo: Community Space built by SWTJ in 2012) |
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| Emotional re-encounter between Yasse temporary container housing resident S. and SWTJ members. |
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| Shishiori Station in Kesennuma, May 2013: The scenery looks peaceful, but the boat in the back ran over dozens of homes during the tsunami, and the train station was swept away. Not much change here yet. |
Finally, we visited School Director Yamamoto of Kujo Primary
School in Kesennuma. Mr. Yamamoto has advised SWTJ
many times regarding the post-tsunami needs of children.
Many children at his school have been moved here from
Minami Kesennuma Primary School, where they had
been hard hit by the tsunami: after the earthquake they were
evacuated to the roof of the school where they spent
the night in the dark and cold, and where they
witnessed how their homes were swept away, and how fires
started in their hometown.
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| Left: SWTJ Director Y.Yoshikawa. Right: School Director Yamamoto of Kujo Primary School in Kesennuma |
Mr. Yamamoto says: "I would like to use the help of Art so
that these kids can express themselves and find strength
again. Mr. Yoshikawa, I hope to work together with you."
SWTJ will strive to continue working with children who are still
traumatized by the tsunami and the related disasters.
On May 5 we visit 'Minami Koryu Center' in Senmaya, a
community house in a village close to the border between
Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, to check if
the location would be suitable for our summer camp for kids
from the disaster area. The people at the center are very
friendly, and the infrastructure at the center seems perfect for
our camp!
Check our next blog for news on the 2013 SWTJ summer camp for Tohoku disaster area kids!
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