Vikingess Voyages: Minami-Sanriku

Showing posts with label Minami-Sanriku. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Volunteer

My Blogpost on United Earth's Blog

Anette 7:11:00 PM

For those of you out there who can read Japanese, here is a blog post written by me on United Earth's home page!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Youtube

Youtube: Minami-Sanriku's United Earth

Anette 11:08:00 PM

Here is a youtube video from United Earth, the group I volunteered for in Minami-Sanriku. I actually ended up in the video myself, although the only thing I actually contribute with here is by eating their food.. haha.. >_<

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Volunteer

Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: United Earth

Anette 11:29:00 PM

United Earth is a volunteer group that have been contributing to the still ongoing recovery of Minami Sanriku since the area was devastated by tsunamis in March 2011.

The members are almost exclusively Japanese (there was a French freelance journalist here the first couple of days I was here); at the present I'm the only foreigner in the group which right now in the summer holiday counts close to 50 members. Still, if you have a certain level of Japanese knowledge you'll meet a lot of friendly and nice people coming from all over the country.

The volunteer group United Earth has been helping out in the area since the disaster stroke last year, and they are helping out the community through various projects. These projects covers a wide range of sectors including fishery, forestry, removal of weeds, farming, senior citizen's home, a seaweed factory, and their activities varies according to the demand from the community. The recovery of the community takes time, and there is a lack of manpower in the area even with a lot of available jobs.

In order to get to Minami Sanriku there is a bus running three times a day from Sendai at 8:00, 14:10 and 16:20, and registered volunteers has the opportunity to get picked up at Hotel Kanyō (観洋). Staying as a volunteer costs around 3000 yen pr. night depending on the duration of the stay (repeaters pay less than the regular price). This covers most daily life expenses, so you don't have to worry about special equipment or food during your stay.

Working at a factory cutting seaweed

Cleaning an area for trunks

Holding an event at a senior citizen's home

Some other post with activities I participated in:
-Forestry
-Kessennuma's Sea Weed Factory

-United Earth's members are almost exclusively Japanese. If you prefer a more mixed volunteer group, check out for instance It's Not Just Mudd.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Tohoku

Last update from Minami Sanriku: The Voice of a Survivor

Anette 8:46:00 PM

I want to share one of my experiences working as a volunteer in Minami Sanriku with my readers out there. The wife of one of the farmers we have been helping is a woman who always dresses nicely and seems like an energetic and friendly person. The first times seeing her I'd never believe that she had had any personal losses from the tsunamis. However, one day before we were supposed to start our work at the farm she told us about how she had been working in a senior citizen's home at the time of the tsunami and how she and the others had to evacuate to the roof when the tsunami flooded the building.
Here she told us about how she had seen a person being taken by the wave who was screaming out for help. His hand was so close that she could have reached it, but she had been to afraid to do anything. She saw how the guy got drawn into the water until only his reaching hand was visible.
She told us about how bad she feels about not being able to help, and how it still hunts her every day. About how she and the others spent the night sleeping on the roof of the senior citizen's home hoping to wake up finding that it all was a dream. But instead they woke up to a city totally destroyed, and how they had to stay there until helicopters came to their rescue. Who would believe that such a cheerful person would carry such a dark experience..

Here in Minami Sanriku there are a lot of people that despite horrible experiences like these still keeps going on working on the recovery of their communities.
There are a lot of things that can be said about the situation in Minami Sanriku, but these are the words I've heard most frequently from many of the local people while staying here:
"The worst thing for us is to be forgotten. Please tell your friends about your experiences here, and that the recovery still is going to take a lot of time. Please don't forget us."

My stay in Minami Sanriku is coming to an end. But there is still a long way to go for the city to recover, and a need for people who can help. I believe that not only volunteers but also tourists can contribute to make the community bloom once more, so if you have the chance please don't hesitate to pay the fantastic people of Minami Sanriku a visit..!

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Tohoku

Minami-Sanriku: The Story of a Hero

Anette 4:04:00 PM

This building is all that is left of Minami-Sanriku's disaster prevention center. Despite knowing that the tsunamis were heading towards the city 24 year old Miki Endo kept warning the citizens of the danger through the community broadcast system until the very end. Many lives were saved because of her efforts, and the building has been left standing as a memory of her braveness.

RIP.

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Monday, August 6, 2012

Volunteer

Volunteering in Minami Sanriku: Forestry

Anette 5:16:00 PM

One of the hardest volunteer activities I participated in with United Earth was the 林業 (forestry) group. One of the local farmers wants to open up a restaurant by the side of the main road, and as there were a lot of trees on the lot our job has been to cut down the trees and clean up the area.
Carrying the trunks is quite a tough job. In addition to the heavy weight the burning sun also make this quite a demanding activity. But at least by the end of the day you feel you've really earned to hear "お疲れ様です" when you return to the HQ.. ^^
Here are some pictures taken of the forestry group:

The area we are working on

Trunks

In action!

Cooperating with carrying the trunks

Luckily we also have a machine to move the heaviest trunks

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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Volunteer

ユナイテッド・アースからのアルバイト募集！

Anette 10:35:00 PM

震災から1年5ヵ月が経ちます。

宮城県では先日もニュースになりましたが、

大人の人口より仕事の量が上回る状況となり、

人口が減った被災沿岸部では雇用が余るという問題が起きています。

つまり、各企業が採用の募集をしても人が揃わない！という状況です。

すでに多くの企業や復興事業の中で働く人材が足りない！という致命的な課題が出てきています。

もちろん、Uターンで人が戻って来てくれることが理想ですが、それを待っていても何も始まりません。

そこで、「Iターン復興応援ボラバイトPJ」が発足しました。

それは、若い世代を中心に復興の応援になりつつ現地でバイトが出来て、

いわゆるリゾートバイトのイメージに近い、

寮や宿泊地ありでの1ヵ月～半年、希望次第では1年とかの期間限定のバイトになります。

産業活動に対していつまでも無償のボランティアがサポートし続けるということは、

ある一定の時期を過ぎると、いろんな見え方も出てきたり、

自立ある復興の観点からもいずれは無くなっていくことになります。

そこで、ぜひ！過去に現地で活動に参加頂いた皆さんの中で、

「お金を頂ける形でそれが求められているなら、

1～3ヵ月なら私行けます！」とか「ちょうど大学休学しまして…」「ちょうど仕事やめまして…」「そろそろまた長期で行きたいけどなーーーと思ってて…」などという方や、そういった知り合いが友人に親戚にいるわー！という方はぜひ！お声がけ下さい。

本当に求めています。

実は、先にニーズにお応えすべく、少し前から長期ボラメンバーを筆頭に

まずは夜だけですが、ホテルの裏方の仕事に3～4名入っています。

しかし現在、毎日満室のホテル観洋ですので、まだまだ手が回っていません。

また観洋だけでなく、

南三陸町のガレキの処分事業を運営されている清水建設さんと連携して

そちらにも派遣社員としてすでに4名（地元の人も含む）ほど働いてもらっています。

以下、募集内容をお知らせしますので、ご覧いただき、条件が合う方がいましたら是非とも！

ご連絡ください。

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

≪ホテル観洋≫

●仕事:(準社員)フロント、事務、お客様応対、配膳(アルバイト)布団敷き、下膳、プール監視員など

●年齢:18歳以上～

●雇用形態:準社員派遣、アルバイト派遣

●給与:準社員時給1000円～、バイト時給700円～ ※役割や努力によって昇給の可能性もあり

※準社員は社保も検討あり ※22時以降は時給25%UP

●時間帯:早番（早朝から午前中）・昼間（昼食前から夕方）・遅番（夕方から0時前後まで）

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

≪清水建設：戸倉事務所内業務≫

●仕事①:保健師（作業員のケアと保険管理など）

※保健師か看護師の資格者が基本

●年齢:問わず

●雇用形態:派遣社員（社保あり）

●給与:時給1500円～

●期間:3ヵ月～半年以上が理想

●時間:8:30～17:10(実働7時間45分)

：：：：：：：：：：：：

●仕事②:CADオペレーター

※オートCADが使える方

●年齢:問わず

●雇用形態:派遣社員（社保あり）

●給与:1200円～

●期間:3ヵ月～半年以上が理想

●時間:8:30～17:10(実働7時間45分)

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

以上が現在募集している案件です。

少しでも興味のある方は、エイタやふっしーに直接電話でもいいし、

まはunitedearth5@gmail.comにメールでも大丈夫です(´▽｀)/ よろしくお願いします☆

■南三陸町復興応援プロジェクト

HP■ http://united-earth.jp/minamisanriku/

Volunteer

Volunteering in Minami Sanriku and Kesenuma: An Introduction

Anette 10:21:00 PM

Minami Sanriku (南三陸) and Kesennuma (気仙沼) are two cities in the northern part of Japan's main island Honshū, and two of many areas that were stricken by the tsunamis provoked by the Tōhoku earthquake March 11th 2011.

Looking at the beautiful landscape with the trees, mountains and the sea in perfect harmony it is hard to imagine that just a year ago such a horrible disaster actually happened here. But by the woods there is a huge pile of wrecked cars, and when you look at the ground you'll notice that it is covered by houseless foundations, foundations overgrown by weeds. That's when you begin to realize the scale of the damages in the area.

Kesennuma

The foundations of a house used to grow flowers

After the Tōhoku earthquake some newspapers referred to Minami Sanriku as the city that was washed away, and one year after the community both here and in other parts of Tōhoku still struggles with restoring their city back to how it was before the disaster. Some people still live in temporary houses, and a lot of people have left the area for good. There is a lack of manpower in the area, and although there are a large number of available jobs they still struggle with finding enough people who wants to work there. This is where us volunteers comes in, and we help the locals with various types of work in their community.

It is said that it may take as many as ten years for these areas to recover from the disaster last year. Although international media no longer pays a lot of attention to the situation in Tōhoku there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and the local community really appreciate the work done by volunteers.

(My trip to Tōhoku was made possible thanks to support from the Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation!)

A ship next to the road in Kesennuma. And no, it was not placed there on purpose..

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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Volunteer

Volunteer Report from Minami-Sanriku: Day 1

Anette 6:51:00 PM

Today was my first full day as a volunteer for United Earth in Minami-Sanriku. This area was stroken by tsunamis last year provoked by the great Tohoku earthquake, and it is still a long way to go before Minami-Sanriku can reach full recovery. United Earth is working on various projects in the area, and as a volunteer you get the chance to try out a vide range of activities that helps the locals getting their community back to normal.

Although the direct damage of the tsunamis isn't that visible anymore, if you look more closely you can see the foundations indicating where there used to be houses. Some people are still living in the area, but most of them only have temporary housing.

Ready for work! In the background you can see temporary houses.

We are about 30 volunteers here at the moment, and so we all get assigned to smaller groups, and I ended up in the mowing-group. There are a lot of overgrown lots in the area, and our job today was to clean up one of them.

Part of the area we cleaned today. There used to be a house here before the tsunami came..

Getting rid of weed and sunflowers..

Statues that were found in the area after the tsunami

The biggest problem was that there was a lot of gravel on the lot, which made it quite a hard job to clear it all. And as the temperature climbed close to 35 degrees after our lunch brake the progression slowed down as well.

The work progressing slowly..

What we in Norway would call "bonde-brun"..!

Along with the weed there were also a lot of sunflowers growing on the lot.

Finished for the day.!

We managed to clean up most of the area, but there is still a lot of work left to be done on the lot, so we'll go back tomorrow to finish the job! The first day is over, and I'm already exhausted. Haha.. But at the same time it was an awarding day, and I feel that the work we did really was appreciated by the locals too. 明日も頑張りましょう！

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Monday, July 30, 2012

Volunteer

Ready for Volunteer Work in Minami-Sanriku (南三陸)!

Anette 9:24:00 PM

I left Kyoto this Friday heading for Tokyo, and after spending the weekend there with Yuma I continued my travels towards Minami-sanriku (南三陸) where I'll be spending a couple of weeks working as a volunteer. This is my second trip to Tohoku; I went to Ishinomaki-shi in the beginning of November last year, but this time I wanted to stay longer and be able to do more volunteer work in addition to gathering information I can use for my thesis.
After a long night in the night-bus from Shinjuku to Sendai I took a local bus going to Minami-sanriku's Hotel Kaiyo, and there I got picked up by the leader of the volunteer group United Earth, which I will be working for until the 10th of August. After a short stop at the group's headquarters we went to the harbor where I spent the afternoon helping some local fishermen with their work.

In addition to me there were also 9 other new volunteers who joined our group today. In the evening we therefore had a meeting explaining the work of the group, rules etc.