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Supporting Each Other

Japan Council on Disability (JD)

1. Support up to now

It is said that disasters affect many people equally, whether they have disabilities or not. However, it has to be said that people with disabilities face even more difficult conditions because of their disabilities, which includes many emergency shelters, a place to provide support immediately after a disaster, not being prepared to handle such people.

The Japan Council on Disability (JD) consists of sixty-one organizations of people with various relationships with disabilities, including those who have a disability or intractable disease, their family members, service providers, professionals, and researchers. Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, each organization promptly started to confirm the safety of their members and collect information and visited the local area when appropriate. They continue to provide appropriate support. Since organizations for each disability, of course, have the greatest understanding of that disability, they take steps to respond to disasters in a manner that is appropriate for the particular disability. The individual support activities undertaken by these organizations are founded on the daily connections they have and are a psychological support to each person with a disability. Furthermore, professional organizations establish teams that make use of their particular work skills and provide support in cooperation with members of different professional organizations.

In addition to activities undertaken on their own, organizations also responded to calls from JDF for direct support through the dispatch of staff to affected areas. Kyosaren formed teams of staff from branch offices throughout Japan to rotate through the disaster area and provided support to local communities, and Zencolo, with its member corporation in Yamagata Prefecture which neighbors the disaster area, provided support for initial response such as transporting gasoline immediately after the disaster. Zencolo also has a welfare workshop in Tokyo that handles products for disaster prevention, and provided required items to the staff they dispatched. There were not a few people who went to the disaster area multiple times to provide support, and these people came from various organization, including Japanese Association for the Study on Issues of Persons with Disabilities.

A total of 6,000 support staff worked in Miyagi, the first prefecture that the JDF support center was opened in, and many of these staff members were supported by the above entities. At first, persons with disabilities, who were to be supported, could not be found, and even though local governments were requested to provide information on where they lived, the requests were refused because it involved personal information. Local governments also sustained damage from the disaster, and there were scenes of exhausted support providers and government workers negotiating with each other, but as time passed, needs changed, and support was provided to meet these needs.

This book also includes reports on the activities of individual JD member organizations, such as Japan Association of Kidney Disease Patients, All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People, the Japan Muscular Dystrophy Association, Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists, Japan Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, Japan Epilepsy Association, Japan Patients Association, Japan Traumatic Brain Injury Association, Japanese Physical Therapy Association, but it is clear that in addition to these activities, numerous activities were undertaken that the Secretariat does not know of.

As for donations collected as one part of the support activities, funds are raised from both organizations and individuals, and the funds are allocated to JDF support activities.

2. Issues and future support

It may be a long path to recovery because of the major nuclear power accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant that occurred along with the earthquake. However, I have heard from people who continue to conduct activities with all those with disabilities in Fukushima that persons with disabilities are moving forward bit by bit, and the presence of supporters is reassuring. Whether people know this or not, it is irritating that two years after the disaster, the area is still referred to as a disaster area. Using its support activities as a JDF member as a foundation, JD wants to continue to pound on the gates of government, which does not even show a desire to conduct a fact-finding survey of persons with disabilities affected by the disaster. We want people with disabilities affected by the disaster to know that we will never forget them and will also be there.

You never know where and when a disaster will hit. It is probably important not to consider this as something that may happen to you and to be aware that someone hidden somewhere is helping - no one can live by themselves every hour, every minute, every instant - and to always possess a warm and helping attitude.