Hello, I’m a member of the HARU’s head office and participating in volunteer activities at Yamamoto-chou.
On this occasion I’d like to introduce volunteer activities in an evacuation center which I had been participated in.
We had helped management of the evacuation center (sorting supplies, moving temporary toilets etc…), counseling services to affected people, recreation for children, and helping of an elementary school used as an evacuation center (cleaning, moving of desks, study supports etc…).
First of all, I’d like to introduce how we spent the days in the evacuation center. We started the day with a morning exercise. After the exercise, the staff of the evacuation center explained events and meals of the day. After the explanation, everyone set out for work or cleaning of each house. Some people stayed at the evacuation center for shared works such as collecting water for toilets, and preparing for dinners.
In this evacuation center, a lot of events have been held for affected people. Last week, a small concert by musicians was held for them. On another occasion, a professional baseball player, a previous pupil of this elementary school visited here. Or some group of people like ramen shops often came to provide hot meals.
We heard a lot from affected people, such as, how they ran away from the Tsunami, how they felt when they met a missing friend again, painful memories, joyful scenes, and so on. By hearing directly how they are really thinking which we could not know through mass media, we were given opportunities to think over things deeply. We also heard a voice that people wanted to eat fresh vegetables. After that, we could provide vegetables through vegetables support group.
Children in the evacuation center looked to be full of vigor. But some of them told us that they dreamed the tsunami disaster again and again. They didn’t show their pain, but they were suffered.
I’d like to introduce the speech of a leader of a line troop:
“It is my desire that the children, bearers of the future of this town, love this town. For the time when they remember this earthquake disaster someday, I would like to make not only painful memories but also happy memories for them.”
What we can do for them now is to make them happy. For this purpose, we have done a lot of things: playing, studying, and cleaning the school together. I’d like to introduce some games which we did with children.
In this activity, I used a Nintendo-DS for the first time. I tried “Taiko-no-Tatsujin” (Dram Master), but I got completely beaten by children. I want to practice more, and try again. We played outdoors a lot, too, playing “Kei-Doro” (police and robber) and dodge ball. It was so exhausting that I lost 3 kg. However, we were happy and got powers when they smiled, which made me run away again from [police]. Some affected people also said that they felt relaxed when they saw children smile.
They have had incomparably difficult experiences with ordinary children. They will become good adults who can see, think, and feel things from different aspects from other people. I believe such children will thrive and recover this town by themselves.
Yamamoto-Chou has rarely been focused by the media. But the situation is very hard: A lot of people in the town had died, and many people are still missing. Local strawberry farms were catastrophically damaged by Tsunami. Fields were also damaged with salty water, so it will take a long time and a lot of work before they can use them again.
One of the affected persons with whom I talked several times in this evacuation center said that “I cannot think if I want to continue living in this town.” and left the town. Because of great deal of damage and lack of labor, despite we struggle to recover from the earthquake, Yamamoto-chou has not yet stand even at the start line to recover.
Under these circumstances, elementary schools in this town started a new school year yesterday. Today is the day of entrance ceremonies. In this elementary school where the evacuation center has been set up, the new start of children is a hopeful sign for people in the center, even if they cannot see the future.
I hope that a day when the town is filled with children’s smiling faces and revive will come.
Hi, Everyone(→children),
Congratulations on your entrance and grade promotion!!
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