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| Car sank in water |
HARU assists Kibou-no-yu Project in Ishinomaki at an elementary school which is used for an evacuation center. I’d like to introduce situation of the evacuation center, contents of Kibou-no-yu Project.
The situation of the evacuation center (29th April):Minato elementary school is an evacuation center for the people affected by Tsunami. One and a half months have passed since The Great East Japan Earthquake hit, but more than 200 people are still staying there, many of whom lost their houses to return. They are staying in groups that consist of about 10 people, at classrooms of the school.
In Minato elementary school, water supply, sewage line and electricity are restored. So it is more comfortable to live than right after the earthquake. Some people go out for work or cleaning their home. In the morning, afternoon and evening, Japan Self-Defense Forces and volunteer groups prepare meals, and supplies are kept being provided.
The tsunami reached the ceiling of the first floor of the school, and the water stayed more than a month. On the sidewall of stairs from the first floor to the second floor, you can see the trail of the water height. Just after the earthquake, all over the roads and lands were filled with so many broken cars, ships and debris of wrecked houses that any car could not enter the area. At the time of our arrival at Minato Elementary School
Setting Up and Management of Kibou-no-yu (Public bathhouse “hope”)
It took 3 days for setting up in the middle of April, a trial operation on 17th, and opened on 19th. An NGO group, Japan-Iraq Medical Support Network (JIM-NET) takes responsibility for its management. We work for Junko Nishimura, a leader of Kibou-no-yu at the site. Some staffs, at least one, of Green Energy are offering labor for boiler operation, engineering support, and stay for security every night in rotation, taking time out from his busy schedule, . From 8 am to 8 pm, about 10 people in total are working happily. The place of Ishinomaki city Minato elementary school:
- Operation
Kibou-no-yu is open from 8 am to 8 pm. About 130 to 250 people including male and female use Kibou–no-yu everyday. Because it is open until 8 pm, people working or cleaning homes on day time also can take a bath. Not only people at an evacuation center of Minato Elementary School but also people from other evacuation centers and volunteers can use it. Of course, it is free of charge.
In order to start from noon, we ignite boiler at 8:30 a.m. and heat 9 ton water for both male and female bathes for 3 hours. During that time, we clean up and wash bath room.
During operation, we are in charge of a bath attendant by rotation and explain how to take a bath or monitor situations of bath room. For example, we ask people to wash their bodies first before entering a bathtub to keep water clean, to save water, whether the water temperature is good …and so on. It is precious time for talking with people of Ishinomaki.
Every user coming to bath shows sincere appreciation to us. All the people said, “Thank you”. We just support the NGO group. I’d like to tell the thanks directory to engineer of the bath and material provider. Knowing that our project could give powers to Ishinomaaki people, which is enough for us to feel happy.
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| Boiler by Asahi-shokai, heating power of 100,000 kcal/h) |
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| The facility |
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| Bathtub |
- Outline of the facility
Kibou-no-yu is set on the playground of Minato elementary school. In a big tent set up on the ground, 2 child-pools are placed, one for men, another for women. In the tent, space is divided into an entrance, a bathhouse, a washing place, and a bathtub. Four showers are set for men, and 5 showers set for women. We set draining board on blue plastic sheets, which drains very well. A boiler and a heat exchanger are set outside. Hot water is boiled by boiler heat water in bathtub. Lights of control boards and illuminations are supplied from dynamos. We keep hot water clean with flotage disposal by filtration machine and chlorination, changing water once a week, and cleaning on a daily basis. Equipments on this center, including boilers and dynamos, were prepared by companies including Green Energy. Their scrupulousness completely amazed us.
The bath is made with the first consideration to users, so it gained a quite good reputation. For example, users said “Many people can take a bath at one time”, “drain boards are dry and comfortable”, “It’s good to have space for changing clothes.”, “It’s good to use showers. We can wash our hair” and so on. These are nothing special things on usual days, but special things in the affected area. Therefore, everyone thanks for this bath.
- Other
In the affected area, it is difficult to recruit teachers and secure classrooms, and children are not given enough chance to study. So we taught children yesterday and today. Children worked hard on answering questions on study handouts. We hope that they return to everyday life step by step.
When we set laundry machines, affected people living in the elementary school expressed thanks to us. I don’t know whether they are convenient or not because the machines are only three for 200 people. However, they only had clothes they were wearing until then, and worn or dirty clothes were disposed or washed by hands. So small numbers of laundry machine may be better than nothing.
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| Bathhouse "hope" and the leader Nishimura(the 2nd from the left) with students from Tohoku University |
That’s all of reports from Kibou-no-yu (bathhouse of hope) Project in Ishinomaki. We were given a lot of precious things through communication with people in affected area. In order to make my personal quality higher than before, I think again to make effort to spend useful days in our campus life.
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