一般財団法人　連帯　東北・西南　RENTAI　TOHOKU-SEINAN

We were first introduced to the children at Taiyo Gakuen when we had one of our Tomodachi Curry® events on September 26th, 2015 at the children's home. After the event, we managed to host two marine events for them with generous cooperation from Mr.Murakami, a local fisherman who lives in Otomo Town, Rikuzentakata. Thanks to him, the children could enjoy short cruises on his large fishing boat.

This time, we visited Taiyo Gakuen to bring Christmas gifts for the children. Our board chairman was dressed up as Santa Clause and delivered various gifts.

Although only a small number of children were at the children's home, they had prepared curry and invited us for lunch. We had a great time together.

About forty children aged from two to eighteen live in the home separated from their parents. The building has seven flats with smart kitchens and a small group of children live together in each flat. We visited some of the flats and surprised the kids with Christmas gifts.

There are a great number of children's institutions like Taiyo Gakuen in Japan and approximately 35,000 children live there. It is heart breaking that the number of children who are living in difficult circumstances without being admitted to such institutions are more than 10 times that of those who are admitted.

We met two brothers who live in Taiyo Gakuen together, away from their parents. The brothers seemed happy and carefree. They asked if they could try on the costume of Santa Clause after lunch. Mr. Sata took off the costume and let the boys to dress each other. They were extremely pleased.

After we left the children's home, we visited Mr. Yuichi Murakami, a fisherman in Otomo Town, Rikuzentakata. Mr. Murakami has been a great sympathizer of our activities and helped us in many ways. As we mentioned, he has invited Taiyo Gakuen's children to cruise around the bay on his boat twice, donated fresh seafood for barbecue, offered his boat for the memorial ceremony on the sea and more. He is truly the kindest, most generous man we ever met. When we visited him, he told us that he was ready to help us host yet another event and was looking forward to inviting children to his boat once the weather became warmer and the sea calm in May. We are truly grateful for Mr. Murakami and his family's generosity.

At seven in the evening on July 1, 2017, we had a meeting on the theme of "True Happiness in the Future", inviting our local supporters.

Dr. Hiroyuki Iwamoto, a neurologist who runs a clinic in Senmaya, led the discussion with Seyed Taher of Rentai Tohoku Seinan as the facilitator.

Despite the ambiguous theme, we are grateful for free-spoken comments from the attendees and all the trouble Dr. Iwamoto took to encourage exchange of opinions. Those who attended the meeting for the first time might have been shocked by our board director's direct comment. However, hopefully, his good intentions were understood and taken as a statement from his compassion and sympathy toward Senmaya.

During the after party we were able to exchange various opinions in the relaxed atmosphere. We hope that the people in Senmaya and Iwate are going to be self-reliant and make a true recovery from the calamity.

On Saturday July 1st , 2017, we hosted an event for children who were staying in a children's home in Otomo Town, Rikuzentakata City, Iwate. Like last year, Mr. Yuichi Murakami, a fisherman of Otomo Town, helped us make preparation for the event, from planning, arrangements of both the venue and the boat, food procurement and so on.

Although we had a lot of trouble because of the rain last year, the weather this year was great and all the preparation works went smoothly at the barbecue site. There was no missing charcoal plate this time. All the appliances for barbecue safely arrived.

The first event was held last year to offer an opportunity for children who lived in a local children's home to experience the fun of fishing. Mr. Murakami, who did everything to make it happen last year, was very enthusiastic about this year's event. At ten o'clock in the morning, fifteen children aged from three to eighteen led by six staff members from the children's home arrived at Otomo Harbour and the event started.

Everyone squealed with delight to see ocean-fresh octopuses, scallops and sea squirts landed from Mr. Murakami's fishing boat, Tenyo Maru. The biggest attraction of all was a huge octopus weighing 25kg. Not only the children but also the adults including the children's home's staff all happily exclaimed.

As we had heard that the children had been looking forward to fishing, our fishing-savvy staff members brought along some rigs with them. The tools turned out to be wonderfully useful. This year, the kids were able to catch a lot more fish than last year thanks to those special instruments, and were so completely absorbed that they even almost forgot lunch. (When they caught small fish, the fishermen told the children to release them back to the sea for sustainability.）

While the children had great fun catching fish, some local fishermen and the foundation staff were working to fix lunch.

We had three barbecue tables ready this time so that we could grill meat, vegetables and seafood separately on each table. Mr. Murakami skilfully made scallop sashimi, looking particularly an authentic man of sea.

The barbecue site was soon filled with mouth-watering flavour and the lunch started at last. Little children sat on the ground and ate minding their manners.

After the meal, a young woman volunteered to sing popular songs from anime shows to entertain children. Although they were sitting quietly and simply listening to songs at first, as they felt relaxed, everyone stood up and got perky. We are very grateful for the singer's wonderful hospitality.

At the end of the perfect day, what awaited the children was the bay cruise on Mr. Murakami's boat which they had been so looking forward to. As the capacity of the boat was limited, the children split into two groups and enjoyed the 20-minute cruise. Some kids held on to the must at the bow and pretended to be fishermen hunting for fish.

Although our contributions are small in scale, Rentai Tohoku and Seinan is going to continue various activities with help from our local supporters in order to encourage those who suffered from the earthquake in Tohoku to become self-reliant.

We hosted the symposium near Senmaya International Club, the hub of our volunteer activities, at 17:00 on Saturday March 11, 2017 with almost 50 audiences.

On behalf of the surviving families, Mr. Yuichi Yonezawa, director of Yonezawa Shokai Co., Ltd., Mr. Ikuo Takeyama, partner of a Dutch style hydroponic farm, and Mr. Sakutaro Sugano, an orphan who lost his mother in the previous year after living at a temporary house for 5 years spoke about their thoughts 6 years after the earthquake.

Each of them talked about how they faced and overcame their emotional scars caused by the disaster and how they found the light of hope for the future.

Toward the end of the symposium, various people made speeches including Mr. Miura, who offered a building for us to use as our operating base immediately after the earthquake and Mr. Sugawara, director of a children's institution addressing the issue of child abuse, and provided valuable opportunities for us to reconsider how we should support sufferers of the earthquake from now on. Mr. Sata, board chairman of the Foundation presented certificates of commendation and commemorative gifts to the three main speakers who went through tremendous hardships. The board chairman spoke about the past support activities by the Foundation and his thoughts on what we tried to achieve through our activities. The dignified manner with which young Mr. Sugano, the second-year high school student (17 years old), made his speech made us realize the hidden strength of Tohoku. Wishing that the youth would grow up big and strong, the chairman gave him his favourite US navy jacket (decorated with an embroidered Popeye) which he used to wear when he was young.

During the first half of the symposium, the professional cello-piano duo, Mr. Sergei Srowaczewski and Ms. Tatiana Koresova, who also played at the former Okawa primary school in the morning, played beautiful music once again.

Click the picture below to see the movie.

The event was covered by Iwate Nippo and Iwate Nichinichi newspapers as follows.

The Iwate Nippo issue of March 12th, 2017

The Iwate Nichinichi issue of March 12th, 2017

At ten o'clock in the morning on March 11, 2017 (Sat), the sixth anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, we held a memorial service in front of the statue of Angel donated by the Foundation at the former site of Okawa Primary School in Ishinomaki City. Yasuhiko Sata, board chairman of the Foundation invited a professional cello-piano duo, Mr. Sergei Srowaczewski and Ms. Tatiana Koresova from Russia especially for the service. The duo played beautiful and exquisite music for the sufferers of the disaster and the souls of the dead.

Although many other events to commemorate the earthquake victims coincided with our event, Mr. Ikuo Takeyama, who was extremely supportive when the Foundation donated the Statue of Angel, kindly offered help for the success of our event. When the deadly quake hit Tohoku, Mr. Takeyama was in Shizuoka on a business trip, but sadly he lost his mother, wife and daughter, who lived in the Okawa district.

His late daughter had just celebrated her birthday on the day before the earthquake and was expecting to join Japan Air Self-Defence Force in the coming April. Upon the suggestion of our board chairman, the musicians played her favorite song, "Streamer (Hikouki-gumo)" by Yumin.

Mr. Takeyama bravely overcame the loss and the devastation after the earthquake and set up a Dutch style hydroponic farm in partnership in 2016, trying to move forward. We offer our sincerest prayer for the repose of the victims and wish him every success in his new life.

Click the picture below to see the movie.