Today was the first day of operations of our team and we chose to travel to the town of Tagajo, which has been severely affected by both earthquake and tsunami.
The manager of the town’s social service department Kenta Tesaki remembered us from our previous assessment visit last week and he was happy to register us to work in coordination with the governmental relief plan.
We expressed to him our wish to assist the elderly in cleaning up their homes so that they could move back and regain at least some measure of normality in their lives that have been so heavily shaken in the past two weeks.
While waiting for the assignment, we enjoyed the company of many youth who were also volunteering to help cleaning up the town. They were excited to see us there and, winning their hesitation to express themselves in English, they told us how thankful they were for our gesture of real solidarity.
Eventually we got assigned three homes that matched our requirements and the government staff brought us there and introduced us to Ineko Saitou, aged 73, who was battling with her flooded home. She was alone because her husband was sick and remained at the refugee center and after a few moments of expected hesitation from seeing so many foreigners in bright uniforms in her house, she became our obasan, or grandmother, smiling and feeling again optimistic about life.

Namaskar,

AMURT ist jetzt dabei, eine große Hilfsaktion im Nordosten Japans zu starten. Hier die Protokolle der letzten Tage:

18.03.:
The government in the Sendai welcome the offer from AMURT to begin relief work and appreciate the experience that they bring from other disasters in Haiti and Indonesia etc. However they are unable to provide any accommodation, food or fuel for our relief workers.

Our AMURT teams in Japan are dedicated and committed to providing whatever services they can to the refugees lacking basic human needs.

17.03.:
Our AMURT Team in Japan are still waiting for permission from the local government in Sendai to begin relief work. They are unable to make contact with officials in Sendai and are using the time to collect relief materials etc. and prepare for the work ahead. We hope to be there within 24-48 hours. We will post photos of relief work as soon as we receive them.

16.03.:
Right now our team is in Nagano collecting equipment and supplies and arranging vehicles etc. There are no hotels open in or near Sendai. They had to sleep in a car while they were there. They are hoping that they will be provided with a school classroom for accommodation etc. There is also no public transport from Tokyo to Sendai, whilst the radiation threat continues. Fuel, food and electricity are all in short supply and being rationed.