Updates & News

Today, it has been exactly 5 months after the big Earthquake hit in Japan. Still a lot of help & support are needed, but it has become less and less obvious in the news. Today, I'd like to give an overview of where we stand and what has happened since the last update. 

We received a confirmation from the German School in Yokohama that they will organize a small event for filling the school cones together with their pupils and the parents. Another confirmation was from a high school in Yokohama (next to Tokyo), which will ask their students to create the photo/picture books for the kids in Tohoku (out of the more than 400 drawings and maybe 150 postcards which we have received from all over the world).

Vivian Lie in Chicago has started a small activity at the German School in Chicago. Together with DHL Express US and her company Kinder Cone, she is organizing a special event on 17th of August 2011.

One of our project members, Pierre is running Sydney marathon and hoping to collect some money/ donations by a small bet. Also, we still have some charity parties in Italy and France coming up.

DHL Global Forwarding Japan & Germany have agreed to support the transportation of school cones from Berlin to Tokyo, and we have also received the positive feedback from DHL Supply Chain Japan that they will deliver the filled school cones from the German School in Yokohama to these affected schools in Tohoku.

In addition to all the above, we have received a nice letter from the German Embassy that they would like to include us in the event list of their "150 Years German-Japanese Friendship" Project. We are one of their official partners now. The Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry also listed us on their web page for initiatives and activities for Tohoku, which is a real honor for us.

More than 6000 visitos have visited our homepage, more than 250 friends and follower on our Facebook Page, more than 8,000 EUR collected, over 700 drawings, art works and postcards have arrived.... which is more than we expected when we initiated the project. Thank you.

Now you are probably wondering when the distribution to Tohoku will take place. 

During the last meeting with  NGO/NPO KnK International, Children without Borders in July, they suggested us, if we can postpone the delivery of the school cones to a later date due to the following reasons:

a.) Many children received gifts and toys during last months and schools are concerned about children being too spoiled. They want to encourage children to stand up by themselves.

b.) As mentioned at the beginning of this blog: the consequences of the big earthquake are disappearing from the news. Maybe you hear something about the nuclear fear, but nothing about the situation in the tsunami hit areas. BUT help is of course still needed (for instance we organize a company trip to Tohoku next week and will do cleaning up for three days). 

Their suggestion was to spread the help over a longer period for better sustainability, as psychological help will be needed in long term. Originally we wanted to distribute in September when the school resumes after summer holiday but these two reasons made us think that December might be a better timing and we will comply with the recommendation of our NGO Partner, who is experienced and better informed. It also gives us the opportunity to possibly combine it with a small christmas or year-end party at the schools, and also to extend our deadline for donation and support from schools all over the world. 

We are very happy and thankful to all your support. We still have a long way to go and we do not stop or slow down. We still need your further support! Please help to spread the word even further and promote our web page. Please write to us, we are always open for any suggestions or ideas!

I am sure that the children in Tohoku will have a big smiles on their faces when we deliver your warm support filled in School cones!!

4 months after Disaster

Buddhist monks offer prayers near the ruins of Okawa Elementary School (back R) in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, as Japan marked four months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Some 70 percent of pupils at the school died or went missing in the disaster.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102268.html

People look at an area ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, from an elevated spot on July 11, 2011, four months after the disaster.



http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102189.html

Trip to Ishinomaki - June 2011 (by Stephan Schmidt)

A friend of mine, Stephan, went back to Ishinomaki as he promised in an earlier blog. I read his blog entry on Facebook and want to share it with you.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39919624@N02/sets/72157626958145461/

After three months I return to Ishinomaki. Every day I followed the News about the relief work in Tohoku. Volunteers helping out, companies emphazising theire staff members to volunteer and a Japanese government try to help out with dragging eagerness.   

The french community organizes every two weeks a weekend trip to Ishinomaki and offers volunteers a short-term period working in the affected areas. We stay in the Minato elementary school which still hosts over 250 evacuees. The school character has shifted towards a home for social disadvantaged groups. Up until now the temporary houses situation is insuffiecent. The residents mostly aged people wait, smoke, receive three warm meals a day and take everyday a bath in the ofuro (Japanese public bath) infront of the school building. 

The entrances and windows are covered with close-meshed nets. Flys are everywhere. Copulating they sink down on my sleeping bag. They find the ideal environment. The schoolfloors smell is a mixture of stale food and self-pitti.  

The feeling-well program for the evacuees is completed by a variety of cultural entertainments. It’s comfortable and an easy to obtain living. The people sharing one room becoming closer friends now. To live in a temporary house they need to pay rent or have some savings they could live off. Most of the residents can’t and won’t afford this kind of living. Another problem for the Ishinomaki commune.   

Maruyama-san plays cello and is on tour through Tohoku. For two evenings he stops at Ishinomaki. What else can I do, he says, the people are happy about me playing for them. Accompanied by the piano he plays for two hours in the music classroom which is used by the volunteers as the resting spot for the night. 

The same effort shows the Russian Community in Japan and came to Ishinomaki for a weekend. They brought toys for the children, food and russian folklore. Lech asks me why it seems that he sees more foreign volunteers arround then Japanese. I do not know the answer. The japanese people I spoke to explained me, they would love to volunteer but they do not get vacation or are afraid of loosing theire jobs. And so it won’t have enough volunteers until university ends for this semester. 

Ishinomaki receives a lot of media attention. Alone four media teams have been to the Minato elementary school in one week. Constantly new gifts and commodity contributions reach to the Minato elementary school and therefore the evacuees. Onagawa or Ogatsu city are located 20 km north east of here and they draw a whole different picture. Malnourished evacuees, the sight still covered with heaps of debris and a major lack of future perspective. The natural hazard becomes a logistical challenge. Hindered by a hierarchical society struggle to accept aid from outside the national boundaries.     

What remains are the private initatives. Like the one from the Association des Français du Japon. The group is attended also by Japanese, Russians and Mike from Naumburg/Germany. Finally I am able to talk to somebody in my mother language about the local situation. He concludes after the weekend: I am coming back... There is a lot to do for another five years. He likes to propose further initatives to his company. 

Three more days to go after the weekend. The team is set up new under the leadership of Masumi-san. She coordinates the local enterpreneurs and privates who are asking for concrete help and deliver them with volunter teams. Masumi-san is the boss of Team Kobe. She lost her school in the Kobe earthquake and since then she takes care about the affected people at that time. She knows exactly the problems and sorrows of the people in Tohoku. Everything seems to repeat, she says but this time in another scale. The locals trust her as well as the allocated Peace Boat Team. And so we continue working with a catholic group from Himeji, Kohe-san from Osaka who acts as our team leader assisted by Chun-san from Kyoto. Nearly invisible but diligent Matajoshi-san from Okinawa completes the team. He will stay for another three months.    

The tasks haven’t changed much since my last duty. Removing mud from peoples houses, pile up the washed ashore trash for the dustcarts and cleaning the drains. We are in the middle of the japanese rainy season. The mountains are greened but there is the thread of landslides caused by the tsunami and the daily heavy rain. Every day climbing workers try to brace the slope with cement. My clothes and my cloves hardly dry. On top comes the humidity. Day 5 brings the sun back and Cedric and me the first sun burn.

Slowly more and more digger and debris trucks appear in the city. Most of the inhabitants ask themselves: Shall we rebuild or pull down. Nobody knows if the financial help of the government will reach them and when. Better show self confidence and ask for volunteer help. Like Toiyama-san. All his life he constructed wooden troughs in a variety from a flower pot to a washing trough. With a circular saw he cuts in the ground in the first floor of his house and lifts the floorboards with a chisel. Quickly he crawls to the buildings foundation and removes the mud. Chun-san calls him to have a break. We only hear a muffeld giggeling from under the beams which assure us, he will continue after dusk. He is 87 years old. 

The last day we clean the yard of a weaving mill. The small shrine is moved to the side and the washed ashore trash filled up in bags. Besides we remove old branches from the grapevine. The land lady wasn’t on her property when the tsunami hit. Four of her employees piled up tatami mats to reach the rooftop before the water filled up the workshop. They are all save. The workshop wasn’t affected by floating cars or trucks and so they work in full operation sine half a month. Cedric trys out his first woven planket and squeeze himself behind the weaving loom. We collect our tools and finish work earlier due the humid weather. 

I do have a last duty on this journey. Together with Hiroki-san from Peaceboat we bike in town towards the Sumyoshi school. The Minato elementary school and other from the Tsunami affected institutions relocated their offices temporarily to this facility. We meet Sasaki-san the headteacher of different schools. His team receives 780,000.- YEN approxemately 6,800,- EURO. That is the amount, which was donated to the donation account of my parents from family members, friends, two elementary schools from Saxony and dedicated people from all over germany and the world. Thank you, very very much. From the bottom of my heart I like to thank you all. We never expected this huge willingness to give and therefore we feel more then obliged to use the amount in a meaningfull way. Sasaki-san and his team like to split the money for three school which have lost basically everything like the Minato elementary school. They like to buy projectors, screens, school tables and tool sets as well as a school vacuum cleaners. The new school year will start in fall. Untill then they new equipment will be installed and ready to use for pupils and teachers. 

For the last time I use the public bath before I return to Tokyo by nightbus. It’s evening in Ishinomaki. The Isakayas around the main station are illuminated and laughters get through to the station forecourt. Two skater use the ramp to exercise. I withdraw a green tea from the vending machine. A shimmer of normality. At least in one commune in Tohoku.  

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