By Miyako Hamasaka | PR Manager
Feel the current environment in Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi Prefecture!
In Oshika Peninsula which we introduced in the previous report, we held the event “Let’s Go to the Sea!” 4 times in total from June to August 2014.
It is new style experience-based reconstruction assistance. In Japan, many people have been interested in the current situation and the community recovery there and still finding the way to contribute to assistance there for those affected by the disaster.
We offer good opportunities for them to come to Oshika Peninsula and experience local environment, fishing, participating in a local festival and interacting with local people.
We also vitalize the local economy and to boost reconstruction there by call in many participants from outside the area.
In this report, we would like to introduce the event, the 8th “Let’s Go to the Sea!” held in June this year.
It had been held for 2 days, on June 7 and 8, at Yagawahama and Sasunohama, Oshika Peninsula.
In this event, the participants experienced fishing, listening to the locals talk about the disaster and recovery, visiting a temporary local shopping street which had been reconstructed 8 month later after the natural disaster hit the region and supported the locals, and looking around the city of Ishinomaki to know the present conditions.
Participants were able to learn directly the realities there such as the locals’ actual disaster experience and their positive spirits which they tackle difficult tasks to recover their hometown with, which they could not know through media coverage.
They shared their thoughts on the project with us:
“I was able to hear the situations in Tohoku through the media after the disaster but found out through the experience there that the reality was totally different from what I thought”.
“The event’s great attraction is that we can interact with the locals; they are genuinely kind-hearted, so I come to like Oshika Peninsula very much.”
JEN will keep conducting the event till the completion of reconstruction in the region.
Strengthening family bonds!
We have been conducting assistance for community reconstruction in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture since the earth quake and tsunami hit the city over 3 years ago.
On June 28, we held the event, “Parent-and-Child Hometown-Rediscovery Class” in order to strengthen their family bonds and to refresh their bodies and spirits.
JEN give an opportunity that elementary school students and their parents living in Ishinomaki city participate the out-of-door activity and learn about their home town.
A series of 6 classes are scheduled to be given in the June-December period, and are going to be improved so that they can give participants better opportunities to learn and experience various features of their hometown Ishinomaki.
This event held for the first time this year, was themed on hiking in Mt. Magi and photography class joined by 12 families of 29 parents and their children in total.
Firstly the photography class was conducted at the car park at the foot of the mountain and we distributed disposable cameras to each child.
Nowadays Japanese children only have experience of using digital camera so we taught them how to wind the film and how to take picture with the disposable camera.
At the beginning, children seemed puzzled to use the camera but once they started taking photo, they seemed to relax and we noticed their smiling faces and lively voices everywhere at last.
After that, the parents and children headed towards the Hitsujisaki Shinto Shrine on the top of the mountain which has an altitude of 250 meters.
In the middle of hiking, they listened to local histories and myths of Ishinomaki from a local historian who accompanied them.
Children were so excited about insects and plants living in the mountain which normally they cannot find in the city and the old tales that have been handed down in this area such as “from when human beings started dwelling at Ishinomaki city” and “a myth of Maki clan” whose name was possibly derived to the name of the Magi mountain.
Waking through nature trails, they found an obstacle course for kids, so they dashed towards it right after having lunch. The parents seemed to get more refreshed by seeing their children playing joyfully.
JEN is planning to hold classes such as fishing, camping in a remote island and cooking in the near future.
We are committed to our working on offering opportunities that parents and their children in the disaster-stricken area can strengthen their family bonds while rediscovering their hometown, Ishinomaki.
Promoting the empowerment of women!
On July 12, we held the event, the 5th "Handicraft market, Hands-on exhibit in Ishinomaki: Making Handcrafting into Jobs". The event was one of the women empowerment projects, aimed at giving women a leg up who make handicrafts in the area.
This time, we offered opportunities of making-goods experience such as weaving as well as selling and buying handicrafts such as handmade bags and other handmade items. The hall where this event was held became crowded with a lot of visitors right after its opening.
After that, JEN staffs and the local handicraft-sellers who sold things in the event, had a monthly meeting.
In the meeting, many ideas such as a central theme and layout of the next event in August were thought up by the local participants. They also actively worked on making public announcement about the event such as handing out the leaflets.
JEN is working hard aiming at developing the cooperative system between the local participants through having this kind of meeting in order them to hold the event by themselves.
Links:
By Moeko Nagatsuka | Intern
By Miyako Hamasaka | PR Manager
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