Archive for the ‘ disaster relief ’ Category
Tractor for Minamisanriku
Foreign Volunteers Japan member, and regular contributor to the disaster relief efforts in Minamisanriku, Dru Taylor has spotted a great find. He says that he’s “trying to buy this tractor or something similar so we can get people growing their own fruit and veg in and around Minamisanriku with OGA for AID. We can really make a huge difference with a tractor like this. Any offers ? especially for funding .” He said he’s “willing to drive it at a sponsered rate per KM to raise funds to take it to its final destination after purchase.” He said that the tractor will go to be used on “land suitable for farming but not being used at the moment (in Minami-Sanriku) that has been offered for use.”
OGA for AID is a phenomenal project set up in Minami-Sanriku and organized by the Ortiz family who have expanded a wide disaster relief and charity network centered around the Ortiz International School. As the tractor is up for auction, there is a chance that it could sell quickly, so we’ll need to act quickly to raise funds. The tractor is up for auction in Japan for 998,000 yen (Approx $8000 USD or 5000 pounds.) , which should be manageable if enough people are interested in this project. If you are interested in helping to acquire a tractor for the people of Minamisanriku, please contact us at foreignvolunteersjapan (at) gmail.com, and we will get you in touch with Dru and the team at OGA for AID soon after.
Great idea Dru! Hope we can help you pick up the tractor!
Rikuzentakata in mid-May a photo by Foreign Volunteers Japan on Flickr.
Well, it’s been nearly two months since our last trip north and today Andy and I took advantage of the last day of the JR special pass and headed north to Tohoku. It was a long but ultimately rewarding day – up at 4, home at midnight and in the middle we’d managed to drop off 1.5 tons of food to where it was needed. But as ever that doesn’t begin to explain the journey we had.
We’ve been planning this trip for a few weeks but had a number of difficulties in arranging the fresh food that we wanted. Our previous suppliers were unable to provide the size of order that we needed and they introduced us to a wholesalers who were happy to provide what we needed but we were unable to provide the documentation in time. And in the end we spoke to the Amazing Paul Yoo of ‘The Fruit Tree Project’ (http://volunteerakita.org/) and he introduced us to a supplier in Kesennuma who was only too happy to provide us with 250,000 yen’s worth of fresh produce. So Andy and I set off this morning to Ichinoseki on the brilliant JR pass (10,00
0 yen day trip, ends today – why?) where we picked up the truck and headed to Kesennuma.
Our supplier was simply superb and had our entire order ready to be picked up when we turned up at around 11am and had most of his staff ready to load up the truck for us. A short time later we had 250,000 yen’s worth of carrots, potatoes, onions, daikon, leeks, oranges and apples loaded on the truck and we were nearly ready to go. There was a slight delay as the owner then raced around the store to get some supplies for the drivers. After looking at us he decided we had way too much healthy food in the truck so he came back with a bag full of chocolate, crisps and a couple of bottles of water and we were on our way – what a star!
On the drive in to Kesennuma I again realized what I’ve missed over the past 15 years. The area was, and in many places, stunning. Beautiful mountains, beautiful country scenes. Idyllic.
We drove the few extra kilometres into Kesennuma and Andy wondered if there was a race track nearby as there was a smell that was very strong smell in the area. It took us a while to realise that that was actually the smell of the town. The smell of rotting houses, rotting fish, rotting everything.
The last time I was in Kesennuma we skirted around the most devastated areas and this time we had to drive right through it. What was surprising was that although the majority of the ships that had been stranded ashore had been moved, the homes and businesses looked very similar to what we had first season at the end of March. It was as though they’d been forgotten.
The major difference between now and then was the temperature. My first visit to Kesennuma and it was trying to snow. Today it was 30 degrees. Which creates a whole new set of problems.
Our initial plan was to drive from Kesennuma to Rikuzentakata and drop off aid at the temporary housing. However, for whatever reason we were unable to find the temporary houses and ended up in Rikuzentakata.
250,000 yen worth of fruit and vegetables bound for Rikuzentakata.
A bit lost, a bit confused, but also genuinely stunned. On my last visit there was 7-8 km of devastation and I genuinely thought that it would take years to clean up. If you haven’t been there, it’s difficult to explain the current situation but there has been massive progress; There are mountains of wood, steel, rubber. A field with hundreds (thousands?) of cars that have been destroyed but all put together. It’s almost unrecognizable from the fields of devastation from two short months ago. It’s still bad. It’s still very, very bad. But on the surface at least, it is improving. We went looking for shelters/temporary housing where we could deliver our supplies. We dropped off at a couple before heading to the main distribution center who gladly took what we had left. It was unfortunate that we were unable to deliver directly to the temporary housing but due to time constraints this was simply impossible. We did manage to deliver 1.5 tons of food for which the people were very grateful.
As ever, there are many people to thank for making this happen.
IFG for donating some of the money raised from the Futsal tournament. And everyone who attended.
The Black Lion and all of it’s customers who supported the Big Iwate Drive and the Books sales.
Paul Yoo for the introduction and his supplier for making it happen.
Thank you for your support. And please keep helping us and everybody else that is trying to help.
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Lino Harada, a member of Foreign Volunteers Japan, was at the Saitama Super Arena today doing some translation work. She snapped these pictures of posters requesting items. The items needed are:
Instant soup, backpacks, bags, face lotion, paper cups, boxes of tissues, Tiger Balm/medicated compresses (“shippu”), instant congee, intant noodles, coffee, duct tape, canned drinks, belts for men, UNUSED sweat pants, jeans for men, thermoses, heat packs, snacks, soap, toothbrushes, batteries, NEW underwear, tupperware, adult shoes, markers, eco bags, fabreeze, cleaning supplies, sewing kits
As mentioned in the post below, before you rush out and send these items to a donation center, please make sure they are accepting them. For example, not all donation centers are accepting clothing at the moment. Of course, if you live in Saitama and can deliver some of these items directly to the Super Arena, the folks there would be sure to get them.
>Some places in Tokyo accepting material donations:
Second Harvest Japan
Second Harvest Japan Disaster Relief Food Drive
Mizuta bldg 1F Asakusabashi 4-5-1, Taito-ku, Tokyo
111-0053
〒111-0053
東京都台東区浅草橋4－5－1水田ビル１Ｆ
セカンドハーベストジャパン事務所
Phone: 03-3838-3827
Site: http://www.2hj.org/index.php/news/send_us_food_and_supplies/ (English)
http://www.2hj.org/index.php/news_j/disasterrelieffooddonations/ (Japanese)
Tokyo International School
TIS Disaster Relief Supplies 3-4-22 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073
〒108-0073
東京都港区三田3-4-22
TIS緊急物資供給センター宛
Phone: 090 6569-7038
Site: http://www.support.tokyois.com/a-way-you-can-act-now/ (English)
http://www.support.tokyois.com/今、みんなでできる事/ (Japanese)
Peace Boat
Peace Boat Center Tokyo
B1, 3-13-1 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-0075, Japan
〒169-0075
東京都新宿区高田馬場3-13-1-B1
Phone: 03－3362－6307
Site: http://www.peaceboat.org/english/index.php?page=view&nr=19&type=22&menu=62 (English)
http://www.peaceboat.org/info/news/2011/110321.html (Japanese)
**Important
foreignvolunteersjapan 
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