By Miyako Hamasaka | PR Manager
On December 13 2014, the sixth "Handicrafts Market, Hands-on Exhibit in Ishinomaki: Making Handcrafting into Jobs", an event aimed at giving a leg up to women who do handicraft in Ishinomaki, was hosted by JEN at the central office of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives in Ishinomaki, Nakazato Agricultural Cooperative Hall.
JEN’s handicraft support project for 2014 aims at promoting the empowerment of women through handiwork and putting in place a mechanism needed to ensure women’s self-sustaining and lasting business by developing a network of contacts.
It all started with craft workshops held at temporary housing and public meeting places in disaster affected areas. Some female workshop participants wanted to find a market for their products, making their hobbies into jobs.
On November 15-16, they held a craft fair at Sun Park in Aeon Mall Ishinomaki. The “handicraft market committee” composed of female handcrafters arranged the fair in a new and different way that allowed “everyone to sell everyone else’s product”, enhancing cooperation among the handcrafters. During the fair the handcrafters worked together on site management, product inspection, accounting operation and so on. Having diverse customers and selling others’ products seemed to have given them opportunities to learn a great deal.
From this year, the female handcrafters are going to come to host the event by themselves. We hope them to fully demonstrate what they have gained through their experiences so far.
Improving Children’s Park to Restore Their Associations
In the city of Ishinomaki, children have been having difficulty finding outdoor spaces to play because many of the city’s parks were left unrestored after being ravaged by the tsunami and other places like baseball parks and sports ground were used to set up temporary housing for disaster victims.
When JEN distributed questionnaires to children in elementary and middle schools and interviewed their parents this year, many of those questioned voiced the opinion that “the tsunami had taken decent places for children to play.” In response, JEN is now restoring two parks in the Kamikama district of Ishinomaki after carrying out a research at about seventy smaller parks on what kinds of needs for parks communities have, how many children will play in them, and whether there are any play spaces nearby. JEN is also helping the members of the neighborhood association bring the activities of the children’s association back into the district.
The neighborhood associations have held meetings many times among them about park restoration, providing a variety of ideas.
During the summer vacation in August, a total of seventy parents and their children in the district did exercise at the park every morning, just as they used to before the disaster, although the park was yet to be restored [The Japanese students have a custom to gather in a park early in the morning on their summer vacation to do exercise, but the district had been forced to give up keeping the custom due to the disaster.].
The neighborhood association and children’s association are now regaining their energy little by little by working together on restoring their park.
The construction work of the two parks was completed on December 7.
JEN will continue helping communities create a town comfortable for children.
Revitalization of Seaside Communities
On Saturday November the 1st and the 2nd, the second “Hamakon 2014 in the Oshika Peninsula”, a matchmaking event, took place in the Oshika peninsula in the city of Isbinomaki of Miyagi prefecture.
In line with locals’ request and with their cooperation, Hamakon was designed to address the challenges facing Oshika peninsula such as the outflow of population, the declining birth rate and aging population, and the difficulty of finding successors in the fishing industry. The event provides a chance for unmarried men and women to meet their partners.
This year’s event drew nine men from the Oshika peninsula and nine women from across the country. The male participants, who received prior instruction, made a united effort to make the event interesting. Thanks to the cooperation of local residents, the event created an opportunity for the female participants to see many interesting places in the Oshika peninsula and learn about how wonderful the nature of the Oshika peninsula is.
On the first day, the participants had one-on-one encounters, introduced themselves and played games in Meguro, a guest house featuring fine Japanese kappo cuisine in Obuchihama in the Oshika peninsula. The female participants seemed to like locally-hauled fish and seafood for dinner. After the dinner, the participants got along great and were excited to be chatting, smiling faces being seen everywhere.
On the second day, first, the female participants visited Yagawahama to talk with wives of fishermen. They talked about what it’s like to be married to fishermen over barbecued locally-hauled ascidians and scallops. Their next visit was at the “San Juan Park.” Under calm weather, the event went on as scheduled. Participants then had more get-to-know time, during which they played games, had good conversations and had lunch. Finally came the time for the participants to declare their interest for one another. Five couples were formed. Congratulation!
JEN continues to foster social revitalization of seaside communities by conducting activities such as this one. JEN’s goal is to bring more smiles to the people in these communities.
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