SWTJ 11th Activity Week
The Chocolate Caravan!
Chocolate-making workshops in Tohoku
'Please continue to organize community events with the people in temporary housing and in their neighborhood.
People need a reason to come out of their tiny temporary housing units, a topic that makes them smile, a theme that lets them forget the traumatic events of last year even for just a while, and inspiration for starting a new life. '
Many children have lost family, friends and their habitual social environment.
Since last year, thousands of children from the disaster area have made huge efforts to get used to a new way of life in which nothing is the same as before.
Dislocated children in the disaster area need opportunities to make new friends.
Uprooted elderly people find it hard to get newly acquainted with strangers in their new temporary homes. They also need events through which they can build new networks and friendships.
A report of the SWTJ February 14-19 Chocolate Caravan by Chocolate Caravan Project Leader Junpei Yamanaka  | ||
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Only a few weeks before the anniversary of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, evacuees who lost all they had still live in temporary housing without much perspective for the future. Some now live in large temporary housing complexes with more than 100 units, while others live in complexes with 30 units or less. The quality of the housing differs. Many people don't get enough support, both material and emotional. Volunteer groups tend to support larger complexes, and some smaller ones get often forgotten.
Our first stop is the tiny temporary housing site close to the Gouemongahara Tennis Court in the hills of Kesennuma.
This site has been overlooked by many volunteer groups.
The Kyoto Chocolate Caravan Schedule:
Feb 14: Gouemongahara Tennis Court Temporary Housing Site; Arashiro Public Elementary School After-School Care (Kesennuma)
Feb 15: Yasse Kiridoshi Temporary Housing Site; Shishiori Public Elementary School After-School Care (Kesennuma)
Feb 16: Former Tsukidate Elementary School Temporary Housing Site (Kesennuma)
Feb 17: Oshima Kokumin Kyuka-mura Temporary Housing Site (Oshima Island off Kesennuma)
Feb 18: Otomo Yanagizawa Temporary Housing Site and Otomo Zaito Temporary Housing Site in Rikuzen-Takata.
Feb 19: SWTJ helps at the Yasse Mori no Gakko Soba buckwheat noodle event- an ecotourism event.
SWTJ's local branches inform us of how we can support locations where evacuees have gotten little support from volunteer groups so far.
Swiss volunteer Quentin Pache (Kent) joins SWTJ for the Chocolate Caravan. Thanks Kent for bringing delicious Swiss chocolate for the workshops!
We are very grateful to the SWTJ Kesennuma Branch and the SWTJ Rikuzen-Takata Branch for having done all the research for us and for having arranged the time and location for all the activities of the Chocolate Caravan Activity Week!
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| The children at Arashiro after-school care love decorating (Feb 14) |
We toured many sites in the disaster area and used 26kg of chocolate on the way...!
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| At the Kiridoshi Temporary Housing Site in the hills of Kesennuma. Here, there were many elderly people. |
SWTJ prepared materials so that evacuees could take home presents for others.
People were especially excited about the chocolate-fondue fountain in which they could dip banana or mandarine pieces.
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| 'Chocolate Fountain' at Shishiori Elementary School after-school care. This school used to be an evacuation center for the badly damaged Shishiori district in Kesennuma until last summer. These kids have seen so much since March 11 2001. |
The chocolate pudding workshop with the elderly was also very popular.
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| Evacuees on Oshima Island off Kesennuma enjoy making chocolate pudding (Feb 17) |
Kids loved decorating!
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| The kids at the Shishiori Elementary School write down to whom they want to give the chocolates. The head of school is very popular with them! |
But in fact, these workshops are not about chocolate. They are about providing the evacuees and the locals in the vicinity a place to unwind, to make new friends, to gain access to information, and to network with the aim to find the strength and motivation to start a new way of life.
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The chocolate fountain
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On February 16, we organized a chocolate workshop for evacuees from the Former Tsukidate Elementary School Temporary Housing Site. Locals from the vicinity who had offered us the old school's kitchen for the workshop also joined.
Here, we also met KRA (Kesennuma Reconstruction Association), a group established and employed by Kesennuma City.
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Orange is the color of revival of the Kesennuma Reconstruction Association KRA. At the Former Tsukidate School, KRA members joined hands with SWTJ and helped with the Chocolate Caravan (February 16) |
Most KRA members are disaster victims and survivors themselves, and have found a temporary job in the association. Currently, they clean and sort lost photographs, and exhibit them in the Former Tsukidate School so that locals can come and search for photos swept away by the tsunami.
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Takai Shinji founded the photo project "Save our memories'
See his blog here:
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On February 17, we board the ferry to Oshima Island off Kesennuma to visit a temporary housing site on the island
SWTJ made a reservation for the SWTJ mini-bus to be loaded on the ferry.
On the way to Oshima Island, we meet many cargo ships carrying dump cars.
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| Map with indication of evacuation centers on the island |
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| Where will Oshima Island garbage go? |
The slow pace of reconstruction
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View from Oshima Island toward Kesennuma.
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| SWTJ Chocolate Caravan Project Leader Yamanaka (SWTJ Head of Office) with Mr. Komatsu, the leader of the Kokumin Kyukamura temporary housing site on Oshima Island. |
Chocolate workshop at Oshima Island
The Oshima Island Kokumin Kyukamura temporary housing site is well organized! They have a 'coffee and socializing' time for residents twice a day.
The chocolate pudding workshop is a big success! Just chocolate and eggs, milk and sugar. A large percentage of evacuees participated!
A 'Reconstruction Brainstorming Board' set up by a volunteer who had already supported survivors during the Kobe Earthquake back in 1996. Ideas are needed and discussion on reconstruction continues.
We met these kids already during one of our earlier activity weeks. They still live in temporary housing. Will they ever live in a real home again?
At 5pm, we had to take the ferry back to Kesennuma. It sure was hard to leave the warm people on this beautiful island.
We thank SWTJ Kesennuma branch head of office Katsuhiko Yoshida for having arranged all the sites and for guiding us on Oshima Island!
February 18: Chocolate workshops in Rikuzen-Takata in Iwate Prefecture
Workshop at the Yanagizawa Temporary Housing Site:
On Hirota Peninsula in Rikuzen-Takata, there used to be a tiny village called Otomo. Today, we visit the evacuees of this area at the Otomo Yanagizawa and Zaito temporary housing complexes.
It's Saturday- many children have time to join our workshops! Volunteer students from Toyo Univeristy and Waseda University join hands with SWTJ during the workshops. In the photo: Volunteer Chu from Waseda.
We had been told that it was hard to gather evacuees for activities on the island. This can't be said for the chocolate workshop: especially the elderly loved it!
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| and more chocolate... |
While making the chocolate, people discussed their worries and ideas for reconstruction, and expressed their hope that we would be back soon!
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| Gathering |
We will be back soon!
And we have to say good bye to Rikuzen-Takata!
Many thanks to SWTJ Rikuzen-Takata Branch leader Mr. Kanazawa, and to Mr. Murakami and Mr. Toba for arranging our workshop at the sites in their town!
And this is the end of the long long Chocolate Caravan...
Thanks to all who supported the workshops with donations, who participated as volunteers, or who continue to donate their skills for SWTJ on the back stage. Special thanks to the people in the disaster area who welcomed us so warmly!
Yamanaka Junpei
(Edited for the English version by Beatrix Yoshikawa)
