Tohoku Disaster Relief NGO Center

We apologies for not reporting since April 27^th. The Tohoku Disaster NGO Center secretariat, IVY was facing the busy period for handling two tasks of disaster relief activities and preparing for IVY’s annual general assembly.

1. Updates of the center

・ The first phase of job creation project for disaster victim “Cash for Work" which started on April 12 ended on May 31. Lack of funding issues made you all to worry about the sustainability of the project; however, we had secured three more months of funding to continue the project until end of August. Thank you very much for your warm support!

・ We also revised our project operation plan and budget for until next March. (*Please refer to section 2 of this report).

・ During the long holiday of end of April to beginning of May, we have seen the peak of move of the residents from primary shelter to secondary shelter and temporary housing. As a result, deliveries of the relief supplies from our center were expected to slow down. However after the holiday, some residents had moved back to primary shelters and the result, no shelters we have been supporting were closed down. We have also seen that after the holidays, there are significant decrease of relief supplies were available in the region thus, our center had received additional request for assistance from two places in Minami-Sanriku-cho and Onagawa-cho. We are continuing our relief supplies after the holiday in May. (Seven in Onagawa, two in Minami Sanriku-cho, one in Okachi area in Ishinomaki. Total 10 places 270 people)

・ On Saturday May 28, the first activity presentation on the disaster assistance was held in Yamagata City. Volunteers involved in the relief supply delivery activities and four coordinators from Kesennuma and Ishinomaki who are involved in "Cash for Work Project" reported their activities to the supporters.

・ As of June 9, IVY is now an authorized NPO by National Tax Agency for accepting disaster specified donation. (* Please refer to section 7-2 of this report for detail)

・ We moved Ishinomaki office from Hebita to Ookaidonishi.

・ NGO "Chikyunoki" began to support the soup kitchen at the shelter from June 4^th in Kesennuma.

2. Cash For Work Project

1) Phase 1 evaluation

・ In 50 days from April 12 to May 31, we employed 56 people (Ishinomaki 25, Kesennuma 31) who lost jobs due to this disaster. Although there was a wide range in age of people we employed, from fresh graduate from high school to the late 50s, majority of employees were in 20s to 40s. This concludes that the project is suitable for target people in these age range.

・ The sex ratio of the employees was 11 to 3, this shows the need for future job creation for women.

・ The wages paid were 3,000 yen (US$35) to 4,000 yen per (US$47) day in Ishinomaki, 6,000 yen ($71) in Kesennuma. After deducting taxes at the income source, take-home pay is 2,700 yen to 5,400 yen and the amount is not high. In the beginning, four-hour work in Ishinomaki’s take-home pay was only 2700 yen. Responding to the employees request for higher earning, we have raised the hourly pay to 800 yen (US$9.5) and extended working hour to 5 hours a day from April 29^th.

・ "Pay cash at the end of the day" system is very popular, it has been continued in June.

・ Employees said that;

"It’s better to work outside than staying at the shelter all-day and not doing anything"
"I am glad to earn bridging money for my daily life"

"I am happy to help the reconstruction of our town"

"House owners who we worked says 'thank you' and it gives me a rewarding feeling,"

"I lost everything, but by starting this work, I could change my mind set to go on to next step of my life"

"Nice to make companions" such comments shows that they are taking this opportunity positively and having rewarding feeling besides receiving income.

・ The number of actual work completed is 55 in Ishinomaki, 27 in Kesennuma, a total of 82 works.

・ In the beginning, all of them were inexperienced in this field of work. Some employees are working for more than 50 days in this field and their skill level is now as close to professional level. Both teams received hands-on guidance from a Construction company and professional builders at the start of the work seem to be the key to improving their skills.

・ Removing floor boards, digging out of sludge, cleaning and disinfection work is done in a stream-lined work in a team. Careful finish has earned a good reputation from house owners. The house owners tells us that "There are no immediate family members who can lend hands to us in my neighbor, so young people from our community came to work is very much appreciated!" and so on.

From the above results, we conclude that this project is meaningful in the disaster affected area to both who lost jobs and to elderly people who suffer from house damage from the disasters. We also secured three-month funds from various donations, and decided to extend the project until the end of August.

From May 6, we decided to let Ishinomaki team lead the delivery of relief supplies to the shelters on a trial basis.
Two women are in charge, first we asked them to handle only perishable foods delivery, but now receiving orders, procurement, and delivery of other items such as daily materials and clothing is also under their task.
On June 15, Mr. H, a coordinator who worked in this project from the beginning has resigned from our project to resume his original work at orthopedic clinic which reopened. Team members agreed to select the assistant coordinator Mr. S as a coordinator. He first resisted the position for lack of confidence, but after a week as a coordinator role, he has gradually adapting to a new role.

■ Team Kesennuma
・ One full-time coordinator and one accountant were recruited to handle complicated task. This made four member management team with two existing part-time coordinators.

・ On June 13-14, there was a "Happy Share Reporting session” at the Shinagawa Office of “Rush Japan Ltd” The four Kesennuma team member held a booth to report our activity as well as selling specialty products from Kesennuma and Ishinomaki.

・ Responding to the team member’s idea, delivering a lunch boxes to elderly who live in temporary housing started from June 1.

7) Other

・ "Cash for Work Project," article was on the Asahi Shimbun on May 16 morning edition. The article was also streamed over the internet in the English article, about 30 million yen worth of funding support were made not only within Japan but also from Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore. We are all very moved with the size of the response it had made. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105240125.html

・ We have continuously receive and arrange donors’ field visit including foreign donors, as securing funding is the top priority issue. We put into a lot of energy and time for this task.

3. Others

Total of support fund collected as of June 20^th: 32,060,048 Yen (US$381,667)

We request you for continued support.

You can make donation to Cash for Work with your credit card through the website below (in Japanese)

http://justgiving.jp/npo/440

A.M. (Thanks to Ms.Aya for translation support.)

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NGO Center's Cash for Work was featured on asahi.com

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105240125.html

Asahi newspaper is one of the major newspapers in Japan and since the article appeared on the paper, many people have been giving us kindly support to continue the project.

Thank you very much.

(A)

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RIght now we are witnessing relief effort is facing the next stage. The aid is shifting from emergency relief to recovery, and the main actor of the activities is also shifting from the aid agencies from outside of the area to the local people (sometimes the victims themselves).

1. General situation
   

In Higashimatsushima-City and Ishinomaki-City, many shops and shopping centers start operating and have enough products supply. People in the area rushed to them to buy whatever they couldn't buy for the last 1 month. In Kesennuma-City, however, most of the shops still close early around 5pm. Running water is recovered in most of the area, however, the big aftershock on April 11^th caused some area to lose running water again. Some areas along Sanriku coast still haven't have running water yet and some small evacuation centers still request drinking water and temporary toilet. Sanriku coast area is also slow for electricity recovery. We provided solar lanterns which were donated by Kopernik to the people in the area and they were very happy to receive them.

2. Tohoku Disaster NGO Center
   

We have moved the base camp from an elementary school in Higashimatsushima to Ishinomaki. On April 12^th, we have launched "Cash for Work" project in Ishinomaki and later in Kesenuma. The new project represents the shift from emergency relief to rehabilitation.

3. Cash for Work Project
   

The Center hires people in who applied for the job of dig-out-sludge service for flooded houses. We hired 3 coordinators for both Ishinomaki and Kesenuma, all of them reside locally.

In Ishinomaki, on April 12^th and 13^th, Mukai Corporation in Sendai-CIty sent their engineer staff as volunteers to supervise the work. Until April 27^th, they have cleaned 20 houses and the Center hired from 6-13 people per day, which makes 132 people in the total accumulation. The houses are selected from the elderlies because they do not have labor to do the work and the work is much appreciated by them. The workers are also happy to help the elderlies.

In Kesenuma, up to April 27^th, they have cleaned 6 houses and the Center hired from 4-12 people per day, 56 people in the total accumulation. In Kesenuma, sludge is not only under the floor, but around the houses too, so the workers also to take out debris and sludge around the houses, and sometimes wash and clean the furniture too. A mini truck was provided for rent by an individual for the project.

When we put add for job, we receive many inquires outside of the above two areas. There are some inquiries from Higashimatsushima, one of the tsunami affected area, but the shortage of the fund has been stopping from the Center to start the same project in Higashimatsushima.

4. Relief supply
   

Because we moved our base camp to Ishinomaki, where we assessed to have higher needs, we decided to finish delivery of supply in Higashimatsushima.

Our partner NGO Parcic joined the delivery program and that accelerated its mobility. Our delivery points increased to 80 at its peak with 4 courses of delivery at the coast of north of Miyagi prefecture.

5. Others
   

Donation of machinery: 4 mini trucks, 4 mini cars

Donation: 16,390,627 Yen (US$190,000)

All amount of the donation we received so far is expected to be spent by the end of May for our current projects. Please continue your support in order for us to continue the relief effort.

(Original Japanese report by Adachi. Translated and edited by Ayumi.)

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