一般財団法人　連帯　東北・西南　RENTAI　TOHOKU-SEINAN

On July 12^th, we cooked and served "Tomodachi Curry®" and spent some wonderful time with the residents of Simowano Housing Complex, Rikuzentakata, Iwate. 84 households live at the complex.

We had a group of residents help us prepare the ingredients early in the morning. As usual, with the purpose to break the ice among the participants by friendly conversation during preparation, Mr and Mrs Sugawara, who are our constant supporters, encouraged the residents to join in. Mothers and some young daughters seemed to have fun chopping and pealing vegetables together just like in a cooking class.

Once lighting the cooker, our staff members and some junior high school teachers who came to give us a hand took charge of the pot.

We put a large table and chairs in the parking lot so that everyone could join the meal. It was a pleasant surprise that Dr Ishiki, former director of Rikuzentakata Hospital, popped in the party. He is living in a temporary house nearby. Dr Ishiki explained that turmeric in curry was good to reduce the risk of dementia and his mini lecture on the spice attracted everyone's attention. The doctor became even more popular than Tahir, who is usually the centre of attention at curry parties.

We were devastated realising the fact that on top of a number of orphans due to the Earthquake, there are so many lonely children who are victims of domestic violence. We find it appalling that such tragedies still exist in a developed, wealthy country like Japan. To explore a way to remedy the situation, we held a meeting with local people to exchange opinions.

Nine guest participants joined us Rentai Tohoku staff at the meeting, including　Mr and Mrs Hatakeyama, Mr Atsushi Sekiguchi (Uniadex Co., Ltd. His mother is a Pakistani.), Ms Yuka Shimizu, Master Daigo Fujinami (Buddhist monk), Ms Masae Kimura (Junior high school teacher), Mr Akiyoshi Kosaka (Junior high school teacher), Ms Etsuko Nitta (Junior high school teacher) and Kentaro Koyama(Junior high school teacher).

Current situation of Children's Nursing Homes in Japan

Currently, there are 599 children's nursing homes in Japan (59 in Tokyo, 38 in Osaka, 6 in Iwate) and 30,000 children are living there. Age distribution of the children is as follows: 0-3 years (n=1,406), 4-6 years (n=4,082), 7-9 years (n=5,005), 10-12 years (n=5,961), 13-15 years (n=6,852) and 16-18 years (n=4,888). The number of reports of child abuse cases is growing from 1,101 in 1990 to 17,725 in 2000, 56,000 in 2010 and even as many as 73,765 in 2015.

We discussed the situations and problems which may lead to domestic violence and the possible solutions. The lack of communication was the most critical issue pointed out by many of the participants. In order to keep up with the fast-paced society, people cannot afford to care about or communicate with others, eventually falling into the individualism. As a result, the weakest in society, children in this case, often become victims of abuse.

Though it is difficult to transform the current social structure altogether, we found it meaningful to share with the participants our concern about domestic violence. We hope that our attempts will make a small difference in the future.