Help disabled and elderly disaster survivors

Social Welfare Facility’s Bread Factory Expanded

In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, AAR JAPAN has been providing equipment and supporting the repair and maintenance of approximately 50 social welfare facilities in the disaster-affected areas. One of the facilities we support is Huck’s House, a vocational center for persons with disabilities in Tanohata Village, Iwate Prefecture.

Before the earthquake, the facility’s users made calamari in a seafood processing plant, bread in a bread factory, and Japanese pickles in an agricultural processing plant, all of which were run by Huck’s House. The seafood processing plant brought in a significant income, but the seaside plant was totally destroyed by the March 11^th tsunami. To compensate, the facility decided to expand the bread factory and agricultural processing plant, which fortunately escaped damage from the tsunami. The new buildings of the bread factory and agricultural processing plant were completed at the end of December 2011.

Baking Class at the New Factory

The users of Huck’s House were very happy with the new bread factory. While full production will commence once all of the new equipment is installed in May 2012, partial production has already begun using the existing baking equipment.

On January 31^st, 10 elementary and 5 junior high school students from the neighboring special needs school attended baking classes led by the baking supervisors at Huck’s House. This was the students’ first time to bake bread. All of them were excited to put on white caps, aprons and face masks, and they listened carefully to the instructions of Mr. Hideki TAKESHITA, the factory manager. “Bread dough breathes,” he told them—and for a moment everyone was afraid to touch the dough with their hands. When facility manager Atsuko TAKESHITA told them that they could make their favorite shapes with the dough, the students smiled and quickly started to make their own original designs.

When the students were done, the tray was lined with shapes of bread that were unique in the world. One boy made his bread in the image of his favorite teacher’s face, planning to give it to him when it was done. Another boy made a rainbow of 7 different types of jam along a 30-cm length of bread, hoping to surprise his friends. One girl simply crammed the dough with as much jam as she could.

The 3 bakers at Huck’s House supported the elementary school students. Like dependable elder brothers, they carried heavy trays, spread the students’ requested jams, and helped students who couldn’t close their dough around their jam. The dough was placed in the oven, and the bread was ready a short time later. The students were happy first with the pleasant smells, and then to see their own unique designs.

A Place for Interaction in the Community

Mr. Kiichi SOJIGAMI used to work at the seafood processing plant. “I was worried because I didn’t know when we could start working again,” he told us. “And we couldn’t see our colleagues because we needed to stay at home for a while after the earthquake.” Now he has started working at the newly-expanded bread factory. He told us enthusiastically, “I am learning now, but I want to be better. I’ll practice every day.”

Huck’s House has been selected to make bread for school lunch in the village, which is anticipated to offer a stable revenue stream. The neighbors both in the nearby temporary housing complex and in the local community are looking forward to having bread from Huck’s House, and the venue is expected to be a place for interaction in the community.

This project has been made possible thanks to many individual donations and through a grant from Japan Platform.

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For the past year I’ve been communicating with the great staff at the Association of Aid and Relief (AAR) in Japan, but last Sunday I was able to meet them in person and see firsthand the fabulous work that AAR is doing in the earthquake and tsunami affected areas in Tohoku that you have helped to support.

Our day started early as we made our way up to Sendai – about two hours north of Tokyo on the bullet train – where we were met by the AAR team.  They took us to visit three of the projects GlobalGiving donors are helping to support in the area around Ishinomaki.

On our first stop I met Sao Abe.  Mr. Abe was an Oyster fisherman on an island in Miyagi Prefecture before the earthquake and tsunami destroyed his home and livelihood on March 11 last year.  With his home gone, he was moved into a temporary shelter closer inland with his elderly mother.  Mr. Abe is a jokester with a natural smile and was part of a group that Mari, GlobalGiving’s President, and I met with during a site visit   He lives in a temporary shelter reserved for elderly or handicapped people with 35 other families.  The community center where we met is a small room that serves as a meeting place where the residents can talk, drink tea, read books, and start to reform the communities they lost in the disaster.  AAR provides services to help the people living in the temporary shelters to cope with the disaster and start to build a new community.   We joined the group in stretching exercises led by a physical therapist AAR brings in to help support the residents in the shelter.  They spoke highly of AAR’s involvement in the temporary shelter and with the people who live there.  During our visit, GlobalGiving's president, Mari Kuraishi, delivered cards with messages from GlobalGiving donors.

Next we visited a “container mall” that was built by AAR.  Before the tsunami hit Tohoku, many residents had small businesses that they had built their entire lives.  When their businesses, and the buildings they were housed in, were lost in the disaster, many families felt hopeless.  AAR supported the construction of a temporary mini-mall built from containers that currently house eight small businesses.  The best part for us was not just seeing the construction of the building and the operation of the shops, but also to see the cooperation among the various non-profit groups as well.  AAR built the main structure, but two other organizations had worked with them to improve the construction and support the businesses.

Finally, we visited a newly built fish market that was helping fishing families and small business owners rebuild their livelihoods.  In this case AAR hadn’t built the structure, but had supplied the refrigerator that was necessary in order to run a fish shop.  Without the refrigerator, the owners wouldn’t have been able to sell the fish before they go bad. Nicolette, our AAR host, explained to us that some of what AAR does is to provide the small – but necessary - things that people need to start to rebuild their lives.   Because of this, even small donations go a long way toward positive change for people in the Tohoku region.  Thanks for supporting these efforts!