Miyagi Support Center News "Link (Yui)" No. 27, July 9, 2011

“Let’s support our fellows in Tohoku with our bonds of friendship and strengths”

Issued by the Miyagi Support Center and the Miyagi Northern Area Support Center of the Japan Disability Forum (JDF) Headquarters for the Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities

Miyagi Support Center
c/o Hagi-no-sato Fukushi-kojo, Taihaku-Ku, Sendai City
Phone: +81-80-4373-6077
Fax: +81-22-244-6965

Miyagi Northern Area Support Center
c/o Wakaba-en, Towa-Machi, Tome City
Phone: +81-90-8349-9403
Fax: +81-220-45-2223

http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/resource/tohoku_earthquake.html

Link up with the local people and Link our support activities to the local people

　Hot days are here, but the good work of our small number of energetic members continues. The 15th team will hand over to the 16th team at the end of June. The needs we are dealing with at JDF’s Miyagi Hagi-no-sato and Northern Area centers are expanding. It demonstrates the increasing trust people in the community have in our work. Meanwhile, we are asked for lasting support activities to recover the affected areas. We have linked up with the local people through our activities. The links are worth a million dollars. Also, our mission is to link the support activities of JDF to the local people.

Photo１：Let’s go hand in hand with the Miyagi’s 15th period team!!

Up to July 7th: 1410 consultations and other support activities for persons with disabilities

Report on visiting the Counseling Support Centers

“In Sendai-city”

　I visited the Counseling Support Centers at Aoba-ku, Wakabayshi-ku and Taihaku-ku. Things seem to have settled down after the initial period of chaos. The time of trying to locate people in spite of disconnected telephone-lines and cars without gasoline are now behind us and some sense of normality has returned. We are now also dealing with such questions as how children can spend their summer holidays! Yet there are still many kinds of needs of affected people they have to deal with carefully, such as about moving, disability-registration, the support for unemployed people and so on. In order to do the best we can, the staffs at the Counseling Support Centers and I shared the thought that we should build links in the community and reinforce the systems of collaboration and cooperation.

■Support from across the nation■

　One may wonder why Sagawa Express (transportation and parcel delivery) relocated its distribution center on July 4th. They needed to relocate because the capacity of the pervious center became filled with goods for support donated from throughout Japan. In anticipation of the hot summer, people were sending particularly water to help the survivors get through. This generosity is accepted with gratitude and it goes to show that one can support the survivors whether one comes to the disaster area or not.

■Linkage support■

　We were contacted by a public health nurse about a person with mental illness whose condition had deteriorated after running out of medicine. The person’s father had contacted the manager of the shelter, who had contacted the public health nurse who contacted us. JDF organized for this person to be seen by a doctor at a hospital, to that person’s great relief. Consequently she was allocated temporary housing and moved in to restart daily life. However, now she lives independently she faces the threat to be left without support. We must ensure that linkages in the community are in place so that the appropriate support remains available.

Number of volunteers: 514 (as of July 7)

　I did volunteer work in Ishinomaki-city and Onagawa-town, the places where the tsunami left few traces of where people lived. What surprised me most was the resilience of the people living in the shelters and temporary housing. There were so many of them who thrived and lived life to its fullest.

Photo 2：Volunteer from Shiga-prefecture

　I reaffirmed the destructive power of the tsunami who had wiped out people’s life, livelihoods and so much build up over long years and through hard effort. Working with the survivors was a valuable experience and I was energized particularly by talking to one candid mother. But still much suffering has to be relieved. Living in tight spaces partitioned off by cardboard, bathing in just 10 minutes in special bath-cars, surviving on diets of onigiri and lunch boxes is certainly tough.

Photo 3：volunteer from Yamagata-prefecture

One of the strongest impressions that will remain with me was someone saying: “here we are all disabled”. I hope to return to help the people there to rebuild their towns and community bonds.

Photo 4：Volunteer from Aichi-prefecture

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for you generous gifts of goods!! Watanabe-sama, All Japan Association of Hard Hearing People, Sendai Welfare Association

◆Again recruiting volunteers！◆

○Activities
Support: Needs assessment (visiting), support services, etc
Administrative: Telephone consultation, administration of needs, accounting, general affairs, public relations, etc
○Where
Miyagi center (Sendai-city) and Miyagi Northern Area Center（Towa-machi）