My boss and colleagues have visited Ishinomaki-city in Miyagi-ken to organize volunteers.
These are the pictures my boss took there.
Ishinomaki is a quite big city on the coast of Miyagi with the population of 160,000 people.
Fishing industry is huge in this area. Ishinomaki had the Eastern Hemisphere's second-largest fish market.
Ishinomaki was hit hard by Tsunami on March 11th. It is said that Tsunami was as high as 10m (about 32 feet). It traveled 600m inland and destroyed the port, the market, houses and commercial buildings. In this area alone, about 2,500 people's death have been confirmed.
My colleague is from Ishinomaki. So for her it was very difficult to see the reality with her own eyes.As you can see in these pictures, there are a lot needs to be done. And many people are eager to help. But there are very few volunteers working there... Why?
The reason is the lack of system and "leaders" who can organize people and allocate jobs. The city officials and workers are also victims. They already have more jobs than they could handle.
My boss went to Ishinomaki today to assume that role. 2 actors from Tokyo (my boss is in theater) were also dispached to Ishinomaki to be a local volunteer staff. My job would be to stay in Yamagata, and organize volunteers, collect donations, etc...
If any of you want to help us with donation, or actually come to Japan and help, you are more than welcomed. Please let me know! Rimiko Murai rimiko@gmail.com
Hi Rimiko-san!
返信削除Thank you for the extensive reporting on your blog.
I am actually looking to help in the affected areas. I have planned to come to Japan from mid-September to December to help.
I am 27 years old, have studied and work in Belgium and speak a little bit of Japanese since my mother is Japanese.
Can you please let me know what are the requirements, how I must organize to make this possible, and whether you can help me?
Many thanks in advance!
Mathilde (Machiludo)
(Please revert to this adress: mathildevancau@gmail.com)