Three Months Ago

On March 11th 2011 a massive earthquake happened in Japan followed by an destructive tsunami. Until today, not all is recovered and still a lot of clean up work has to be done.
More than 90,000 people are still in shelters 3 months after the massive quake and 40% of clinics and hospitals have still major difficulties to rebuild their facilities. This is the same for the schools & kindergartens. If you look at NHK World News webpage you will see the survey that 77% of the population in Japan is not satisfied with the progress of reconstruction and in my opinion it is connected with the still remaining challenges which we are facing in Japan: political instability, weather conditions (lots of rain), Fukushima is still not under control and the radiation fear did reach an area more in South yesterday: Shizuoka.

This all leads to change the mind set, in my opinion the only way forward: "change yourself"

In Shinjuku one - if not the largest - demonstration ever happened today. More than 20,000 people were on the street and protested against nuclear power. It is already a good way as the government is listening and they stopped all future plans on enlarging the number of nuclear power plants. The prime minister Kan will host a meeting about renewable energies and Japanese companies are exploring more than ever before in that area as well.

But honestly, it is only a small step. The more important is that we start acting more responsible and save more energy by ourselves. Japanese people started with it and I hope that it will continue.
You can see these posters of  "please save energy" everywhere at the train stations. You can hear people talking about it as the government asks to cut 15% of electricity usage during the summer months and companies are looking into new ways for daily work life of their employees (super cool business, less overtime, more shift work, etc.).

I think it is a new consciousness which this crisis has created. I really hope that this is only the start point and a double point for other countries. The picture below shows exactly, what is important to understand: "Radioactivity has no Borders"

11 June 2011 - Demonstration at Shinjuku (taken by Stephan Schmidt)

It does not work if only Japan and Germany are changing their policy about nuclear power, and other countries build more nuclear power plants. We all have to change and we all have to start with ourselves: Save the Energy!

It is a long way to go - Help is still needed

Today you can read on the internet page of the news agency Kyodo the following:

"Three months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and with a nuclear power plant disaster still unfolding, a great many survivors are still living in shelters as construction of temporary housing for them has made slow progress.

In the worst-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima in northeastern Japan, only half of the needed 52,000 temporary homes have been completed.

Even after all evacuees have found temporary abode, however, there will remain the extremely testing issue of how to reconstruct permanent residential areas."

Source: KYODO NEWS (You can see pictures on before/ after at this internet address)

This demonstrates that still a lot of help is needed and many people are still living in shelters. Many schools will only be renovated later this year.

I heard from several Japanese companies that they allow their employees to go to Tohoku to help with the clean up, etc. A friend of mine wrote me this week: "And nicely enough my company sent a mail, asking if employees would be interested to go to Touhoku for volunteering. I'll be going this week Thu-Sat, mostly to shovel mud and to carry broken furniture... Smooth option for company employee, as company is organizing the transportation & accommodation."

It is nice to hear this because "it is a long way to go - Help is still needed"

Support from all over the World

During the last two weeks we have received a many emails from schools and private persons who like to help, and we just like to give a short update about it.

Let us start with the Community Dinner Group in Shanghai. Dominik Villaret and Nora Sun have contacted us, and together with the help of Britta Lemke they organized a charity dinner in Shanghai. Britta was in Tokyo during the Earthquake and she could report about her experiences and of course our project. Thanks to all of you, we have received 220,- EUR. Arigato Gozaimasu.

Then there was Odette Vella, who lives in Malta and was as well with the student organization AIESEC. She heard about our project and immediately contacted her local school, Kullegg Maria Regina Primery School in Mellieha. Together with the headmistress Mrs. M.R. Leone and the two teachers Mrs. Emilia Fenech and Mr. S. Chetcuti they have organized a drawing activity with their pupils and collected around 100 pictures.

Charles Schiavone of DHL supported the transportation to Japan. This shows heart and a great caring attitude of Malta! Arigato Gozaimasu!

In France, we have Cathrine Pichot who liked our project idea very much as well and she contacted schools in France, Arc-en-ciel St. Sauveur de Pandemont & École Sainte Jeanne d'Arc - Nord Sur Erdr. At the end she wrote to us: “It is a real pleasure to join your wonderful idea and to ask French school kids to draw these pictures. It was a way for teachers to explain what happened in Japan and I have seen that kids were very touched as you told in your below message. My son, Axel, who is 4 years old, was very touched when he understood that many Japanese kids have lost their house, their toys, etc... and he was very happy to send these pictures from his school to give some smiles!”

At the end they collected more than 200 drawings, which are on the way to Japan now – thanks to her and DHL in France, who subsidized this activity. Merci & Arigato to France!

Vivian Lie lives in Chicago and Carlie Nelson stays in Arizona. Both of them heard about our school cones project and started to talk to schools.

Carlie already collected many drawings at her own school and they will send these soon. See below the nice pictures of the school kids in Carden Traditional School, Surprise in Arizona. You can see the joy and caring spirit in their eyes. 

Vivian opened an online shop in USA a few years ago, which is called “Kindercone”. Because of this, she has many contacts at schools. She is discussing with the schools at the moment and will send us children journals for our cones. Thanks a lot! Arigato Gozaimasu to both of you!

A very big compliment goes to Jana Heibrok. She is a teacher at the Gesamtschule in Porta Westfalica (Germany) and together with Lars Backhaus she organized a presentation at the school, organized drawing sessions and collected more than 100 pictures. On top of that she motivated a colleague of her at the Städtisches Gymnasium Sedanstraße Wuppertal, Tobias Westermann, who also organized drawings of his pupils. You can see on the photo that many students were engaged and were happy to do something nice to the kids in Japan. The Freiherr-von-Vincke-Realschule in Minden followed the example of Jana as well and also contributed postcards and angel paintings. A big thank you goes to Jana, Lars & Tobias. Dankeschoen!

Of course we cannot forget the Heinrich Boell Schule in Goettingen. They were the first school, which joined. They are the school which inspired us and kicked off this entire project. 

The Class 9 organized the "Cafe Heinrich" and collected more than 400 EUR - thank you so much for your support and especially to Andrea Boesch, who is a teacher at the school and Lucas. He is the young student on our webpage. He is the one who pushed Andrea and now many more people.

This is already a lot of support, but many more schools are involved and more schools in Germany, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and Egypt also showed their intention of organizing activities. We will collect drawings, donations and postcards until the end of July - please help us to spread even more the word.

For us it is nice to see that children all over the world are engaged to help. At the same time they learn something about Japan and about social responsibility. This motivates us to do even more here and at the moment we try to find one or two schools in Tokyo, which can put together all the pictures, drawings and postcards to colorful photo books.  

We thank everyone for their support and we can only repeat that we do not have words which could show our appreciation enough. Just a big ARIGATO!

Disaster victims angry at power struggles in Tokyo

Survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami expressed their anger Thursday at politicians they said were wasting their time in a power struggle over a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet.

''If politicians have time to get in each other's way, they should come to Fukushima and help settle the accidents'' at the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a 25-year-old corporate employee in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, said.

The man also said he does not expect anything from such politicians but that Kan should stay in power until the nuclear crisis is resolved.

Source: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/94888.html

Tokyo is ok - Japan not (yet)

This morning we experienced a small earthquake again nearby Tokyo (5.7 magnitude). It was only a very soft shaking in our office. Many colleagues only looked up shortly and then continued with their discussions or work.

Life in Tokyo and the metropolitan area of Tokyo is back to normal since a few weeks ago already. It was very surprising for me how fast the Japanese people went back to their normal life style.

Of course we had the fear of radiation in tap water and many bought water, or all necessary other items like bread, milk products, etc. But this situation is stable and completely back to normal now. I talked to my friend Oskari a few days ago and he mentioned “it is normal, but still you have this strange feeling that it is not the same as before”. I can agree to this, as we all know that the affected areas of the earthquake still need much more time for recovery and we also know that the nuclear power plant is not fully under control yet. Many people (including myself) have the opinion, that the nuclear situation is not getting worse or better, it needs much more time to be completely solved.

  

But what do you want to do? Worry the entire day? Leave?

There is no increased radiation level in Tokyo and nothing detected in the tap water anymore (source) – therefore we do what we can do best: continue with our life and help Japan and the entire world with it.

Kaori on her way to Tohoku to help

On Tuesday evening we met Kaori Doi, who is volunteering for the NGO “日本ユニバ震災対策チーム” (NUC - Nihon Univa Counter Crisis Team). She was already active as a supporter in an evacuation center during the big Kobe Earthquake (16 years ago) and now she is engaged again, “but the situation is completely different”.

I personally have the feeling (like Stephan explained in his last blog entry) that many people do not fully understand the reality and underestimate the need of support. 

Kaori explained during our discussion that “the tsunami washed away many kilometers of houses and cities, where people lived. This area will be difficult to re-construct in a short time and therefore many people need to continue to live in the evacuation camps with very limited privacy and difficult circumstances. This will be much longer than 16 years ago (in Kobe, there was neither Tsunami nor Nuclear catastrophe)”.

Just imagine that you have to live in a gym or school with many other people for more than 2 months and you do not know how much longer…

There is a high emotional stress level in these evacuations camps now.

Kaori explained to us based on her experience in Kobe that during the first 2 weeks many people just want to survive and try to contact family members, etc. But then they start to live in the camps and you need more privacy. People “discover” behaviors on others (with whom they live together in the camp or even sleep next to them night by night) which are “annoying” to them. Therefore Kaori and other volunteers tried 16 years ago in Kobe to create separations. They organized mats for more comfort, etc.  All this is needed in order to calm people down and to let them “relax” a little bit.

I also read in some articles on the internet that NGOs started to give foot massages to these “refugees”, as these moments of relaxations are very important (especially if you still feel the aftershocks). It is important to work on the mental balance.

And all this will take much longer this time, because a tsunami hit and destroyed their houses and lands. The radiation problem is an additional problem which worsens the situation even more and makes it impossible for some people to come back to their houses (maybe ever).

Some people tell me sometimes in emails or discussion forums:

“Japan is a rich country and we better donate & help countries in Africa or somewhere else”

Well, yes. Japan is a rich country, but many people died and left sad people behind. Many people lost everything and cannot even return to the area where they spent their entire life. Many people are and will suffer from the mental stress and traumatic experiences for months. It is a long dragging process, but the willingness of help is decreasing.

In my opinion, Japan is in need for help. It is a different help. It is called (International) Solidarity and Caring. The longer the situation is continuing, the more of this kind of support is needed... especially for children!

(Pictures are taken from other Internet Pages: CTV, Kyodo News)

...experience as a volunteer in Japan...

A few days ago, I wrote already about a friend of mine, Stephan, who went together with an organization called Peaceboat to Ishinomaki. He helped to clean up the streets, talked to the kids and supported the locals. He is very much involved in helping the community here and I asked him to write a short article about his view on the things now.

Please read below and share with us your opinion or experience. What do you think about his view? Did you experience something similar or do you have a complete different opinion about the situation?

Now, we ask Stephan to speak up and share his experience:

"After five weeks going to Ishinomaki and coming back, live and work shifts into a blurry zone of meaningless considering the relief effort in need caused by the devastated tsunami from mid march. Speaking with a lot of volunteers, they seem to have difficulties to concentrate in the first week after the returned to their "normal" work. Useless, minor, narrowed down to be back in their offices.

What we experienced in terms of solidarity and teamwork seems to be unrepeatable in the daily labor. So the all over tone of everybody is. "I wanna go back, I felt so useful in this week, they need more help then my boss." Are we caught in chains, why is it so easy to evolve mutual international respect and togetherness in a situation where are you sticking to basic of living? Is it maybe the common sense to help those in need with the necessary supplies of food and human motivation saying, you are not alone, we think of you?

This is not an empiric study; I only encounter what I experienced. Though I get in line with these volunteers. At the end of June, I will go again to Ishinomaki and will definitely release my second promise.

Soon after the quake my parents in Germany set up a donation account for my family and friends. The account will be closed at the end of May. My mother called me this week and said that about 3.500, Euros already has been raised. I didn't expect this. I was amazed. The money will go towards the Minato Elementary School in Ishinomaki to keep up running the daily school duties and may provide pupils with materials. So I will go again to Ishinomaki, I will do the regular volunteer work and visit the Elementary School to supply the donation by myself.

It's probably trust what makes the difference. There are people in Germany, knowing that I do live in Japan and will find an appropriate occasion to donate the collected money. No question, the bigger organizations like Red Cross as well as Peaceboat do an amazing job and help the people where they can. Though a lot of people who would love to donate searching for a private initiative and somebody they can trust.

Therefore I emphasize everybody who wants to contribute to find a person of trust and then provide donations directly to a local school, private person or cooperate. And build up trust over a longer period then just couple of months.

What is obvious now is that the catastrophe from two months ago is more and more out of the media and only the reactor is worth some news. The amount of volunteers at Peaceboat decreased after the Golden Week. This is a long term project. And it may take two or three times to provide your duty in this exceptional situation.

I was also curious about the Japanese behaviors. Yesterday I witnessed a scene with a French guy who nearly screamed at two Japanese that they shall go to Tohoku and help. The two Japanese bowed fast and whispered “hai hai” as an acknowledgment that they heard what was said without agreeing. Then they said they would love to go but they do not get free from work and if they do on their own, they might lose their job.

So maybe it would be a good thing to doctrine the Japanese people, in an authority society like the Japanese one, from above. Emphasize management's to form teams for volunteer work and take this as an act of corporate social responsibility. It pushes the morality of employees and gives the company a good reputation. And it might help in an authoritarian society.

The volunteers already went can act as a multiplier, as facilitators and presenters about the experienced work in Tohouku hat everybody who goes is highly appreciated and act in the name of humanity and understanding among nations for Japan. This can be a chance."

Small Ideas with Big Impact

At the moment I am on my vacations in Germany, but met many people and schools which wants to help and exactly this is what we want to achieve: children worldwide helping children in Japan.

I just like to give some examples of the great help which we are receiving for the school kids in Japan:

• Elementary School in Lohe (Germany) organized a flea market
• A colleague of us in Italy is planning to host a charity party
• The Heinrich Boell School in Goettingen (Germany) organized a charity cafe
• The Elementary School in Benkhausen (Germany) did hold a church service and collected a donation for our project
• A French DJ is planning to organize a charity event
• Gesamtschule Porta Westfalica (Germany) is planning to coordinate picture paintings and a small concert or party
• Schuetzenverein Nettelstedt (Shooting Club) - Germany - organized a ballon competition, sold flower chains and collected donations four our cause
• Janika sold private toys and things at a local flea market in Germany
• Schools in Egypt, Vietnam, US, Germany, France, Singapore, ... are painting pictures for the kids in Japan
• Herlitz is donating 1000 School Cones
• DHL is coordinating the logistics
• ...and many more private donators

We like to thank you to all of you for your courage, motivation and support. AND we promise that we will deliver all of your help to the kids personally.

Please have a look at some of the activities below.