Report on the 4th Day: Messages
At the talk event held at the Sendai City Civil Activity Support Center on 17 March, we looked into the future of DRR based on network-based DRR case studies with keywords such as “community-based” and “dealing with special needs”, under theme “Comfort and Reassurance in Our Daily Life Through Connecting with Community”. Let us introduce some messages from the participants of the interaction session held after the talk event.
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“Never forget. We will be together forever,” wrote Haruyoshi Osada (56) from Hamamatsu NPO Disaster Relief Collaboration Committee, who participated in the talk event as a guest speaker.
“It is predicted that a huge Nankai Trough Earthquake within 30 Years in Hamamatsu city. We have so much to learn from the people of Miyagi prefecture as we prepare for this disaster,” says Osada.
Every year, we organize experience-based tours for junior high and high school students, visiting disaster- stricken areas in Kesennuma city. We are happy to see the positive change in their mindsets toward DRR after this tour.
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“5 Years Have Passed. Recovery Starts Now!” wrote Hiroyuki Abe (54) from KOT Network Motoyoshi. He is currently the principal of “Koizumi Nature School” which teaches experience-based DRR education in Koizumi region of Motoyoshi-cho, Kesennuma City. He met Osada immediately after the disaster.
Abe believes that, “as time passes by, our recovery activities are starting to deviate to the wrong path. We hope to reflect on this and move back to the core of the problem now.”
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“One Health! One Peace!” wrote Keiko Watanabe from NPO E-Cube. She did an exhibition on “People and Animals Living Together Happily After Disaster”.
The “one” in the title is a pun, which takes on the Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog’s barking sound, “wan”. “Thinking about our pets’ (dogs’) health would eventually lead to us thinking about our own health. Praying for peace for our pets (dogs) would lead to us praying for our own peace. All living things are connected as one,” wrote Watanabe in her message card.
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Tomizawa Bosuko (71) and Tomizawa Yuji (35) from NPO Life Improvement Center.
Starting from the Mother Teresa exhibition this time, they wrote that they hope to team up with staff from the psychological care center, doctors and counselors from Grief Care, to continue this meaningful activity.
Grief Care helps to heal the psychological wounds of those who lost their dear ones in disasters.
Tomizawa said with a smile, “We will do our part and leave the rest to you.” Tomizawa hopes to make people happily, psychologically and spiritually.
Reporter: Citizen Write Yuri Fujinuma
