By: Haruya Nihei

In this my first article, I introduce my Japanese friends’ project, which is implemented this year. They participated in “Looking Beyond Disaster 2: UNESCO Forum” last year and made a project group and action plan called “Share Disaster Memories”, which is available on the Internet (UNESCO Bangkok). In order to proceed with the action plan they started to cooperate with another volunteer group consisted of Japanese members of YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association). This group has the experience of providing a meeting place to the victims in Fukushima, allowing them to communicate freely. Consequently they have shared their ideas in order to plan bigger projects and made up the new action plan which is called “Project: Connect the young voices from the earthquake disaster to the future”.

The other day I met Tsuyoshi Sotoya, who is the core member of the project as well as a participant of the LBD2 and interviewed about this project in detail. He is originally from Kobe, where there was a big earthquake in 1995, and now he is a university student in Tokyo. I will now introduce the overview of this project based on the interview with Tsuyoshi and their proposal paper.

Briefly, they offer the place where young victims and non-victims can meet and share the experiences of the disaster as well as the current situation of affected areas.

Through this project, they aim to accomplish:

1. Building a wide network of young people who would like to share their experiences and impressions of the disaster or the current situation of the affected area

2. Offering the place to let young people think together deeply about themselves and the future of their society

3. Long-term help for the victims and the affected areas

Then, why did Tsuyoshi’s group believe that these three points are needed for the victims and the affected areas? They judged it from the real voices of young people, both who was affected by the disaster and who was not.

There is the fact that people’s interest in the disaster has gradually faded away as time passed. But the affected areas have not been recovered yet and still need long-term help. Therefore, the victims would like to let other people know about the current situation and revive their interest to the state following the great disaster. There is also the fact that there are young people who have never experienced the disaster and want to know the circumstances regarding the tragedy, which they hardly know from media. Also, people who evacuated from Fukushima to other places after the disaster want to be updated about the situation in their hometown. Hearing those voices, the project group thought offering meeting places might satisfy their needs as well as let the victims tell someone what they have on their mind concerning the disaster and release the stored trauma.

Regarding the second point, the project group thought not only sharing their experiences but also thinking what they can do for their community might bring them to find a goal and hope towards their future.

Concerning the third point, time lets people forget what they have experienced and felt from the disaster, hence it is important to write down and record their memories in order to pass them on to the future generations.

The project group believes that this is what people need in Japan today and this project will satisfy those needs. The project group also received sponsorship from a Japanese foundation and will officially start to implement the project this year. The proposed regions to have the meeting spot are: Fukushima, Miyagi, Hyogo, Tokyo and Osaka at the moment.

With these final words from the interview with Tsuyoshi I would like to take the opportunity to wish them good luck and hope that they will achieve their goals.

Me: “Why did you start this kind of reconstruction work?”

Tsuyoshi: “Because I just wanted to be of help to the victims even if only slightly. And I myself have wanted to discuss about the society after the disaster and share the opinions with young people of my generation”

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions to this project. It would help them a lot. And if you want to take part or get involved in the project, please contact us.

Last Dec. 21, 2012, the National Youth Commission and RockEd Philippines conducted relief operations in the municipalities of the Province of Compostela Valley, namely New Bataan and Monkayo. For the municipality of New Bataan, the convoy turned over to the municipality disaster relief command post 120 sacks of relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development XI (DSWD XI). In addition, the group also distributed an estimated five thousand (5,000) pieces of toys to the children in the numerous evacuation centers in the municipality of Monkayo.

The convoy was composed of 13 people. The RockEd Philippines group was lead by Ms. Gand Badoy while the National Youth Commission contingent was lead by two commissioners namely Asec. Gregorio Ramon A. Tingson and Asec. Georgina P. Nava. The group left Waterfront Hotel at around 6:30 in the morning. They then proceeded to the Inter-Agency Relief Operations (IAROC), DPWH Depot, Panacan, Davao City to accept one hundred twenty (120) sacks of relief goods intended for the municipality of New Bataan.

Upon arriving at the province of Compostela Valley, rain started to fall. This became a point of concern since most of my contacts assured me that people proceeding to the area need not worry about mud. Upon arrival at the command post, I immediately approached the officer in-charge and showed them our documents. We asked them about the procedures for donating goods to the areas. They told us that we had two options. The first option was to simply leave the donations to the command post and they will take charge of distributing it to the communities. The second option was for them to guide us in distributing goods to the areas. Due to time constraint, we opted for the first option.

While the truck was unloading its relief goods, some of us went to look for a comfort room as one of us needed to use it. We went around the compound. We stumbled upon what looked like the municipal gymnasium. Some portions of its roof were probably blown by the wind. While inside the gymnasium, I saw a bunch of spoiled bananas. I then remembered the probability of the Typhoon actually affecting the production of bananas. This in turn can drastically affect the livelihood of the people.

After a few minutes of walking, we finally found a small stall that could be used by the women in our group. Describing the stall as “dirty” would truly be an understatement. To my surprise, a man seeking shelter at a municipal building lent his assistance. While waiting for one my female colleagues to finish, Comm Gio started a conversation with the man. I wasn’t near enough to actually hear what they were talking but I noticed the man’s tone. I was expecting him to be sorry and sad. To my surprise, he sounded very casual and if my memory serves me right, he even gave the commissioner a smile.

After we all finished doing our own business, we then proceeded to one of the main roads in the Poblacion. We found a wall that said Babangon Tayo! New Bataan! I was surprised at the resiliency manifested by this message! These people refuse to mourn for their losses and instead want to focus on rebuilding their community.

As we returned to the command post, we had an opportunity to have some light casual conversation with an army officer. He told us that contrary to what the mainstream media reported, the municipality of New Bataan is free from illegal logging and mining in contrast to other areas in the province. Despite the absence of such environmental degradation, this town still suffered the brunt of the typhoon. The officer also narrated how difficult it would be to attempt to evacuate people from the said town. He also reiterated the difficulty of rebuilding the livelihood that people lost from the typhoon.

After the unloading of goods was finished, we then proceeded to the municipality of Monkayo. After an hour or so, we arrived at a public school-turned evacuation center. As we had the children lined up for the distribution of toys, I felt cold winds swept by me. I looked at the sky and it was grey. I feared that it might rain soon. I just ignored my fears and decided to just focus on the task at hand. After a few minutes, my fears became a reality. It rained hard!

I looked back at the trucks and saw our female companions running under the rain. But the instructions given to me were simple and absolute: my only task was to distribute the toys, retrieving them from the truck is not part of my task. In addition, I feared that if I left my post, some of the children might break the line and chaos would ensue.

As the toys distribution commenced, the rain started to get stronger and everyone got wet. The toys were so varied that after a while some of the children became too choosy. Luckily, some of the locales cooperated with us and helped in telling the children to just receive the toys.

After a few minutes, we decided to leave. As I approached the truck, I was surprised to find a lot more boxes of toys that needed to be distributed. Our commissioners’ contact (a TAYO alumnus) volunteered to lead us to some evacuation centers where we could commence toys distribution. We were able to visit two more schools in the town of Monkayo. We then realized we had one more box of toys. We then decided to just turn them over to the provincial government.

When we arrived to the provincial capitol, I was surprised to see some portions of the capitol’s roof to be missing. This just proves how strong the typhoon was; even the provincial capitol was not spared from damage! After turning over the goods, we proceeded to eat our late lunch and proceeded back to Davao City. We stopped by the IAROC to give them the RIS form.

At the IAROC, we were only supposed to drop the RIS form. However, Ms. Lorela Ramos from the DSWD XI introduced yours truly Comm Georg to another Social Worker. The Social Worker conveyed to us her gratitude in our assistance to the IAROC in the relief operations. She also narrated how sad she was to see the pictures of the destruction in New Bataan. After a few minutes, we decided to return to the Waterfront Hotel and decided to call it a night.