22
Oct 2012
Peace Boat is proud to announce the launch in September 2012 of the Disaster Volunteer Training programme, designed to help prepare for future disasters. This is a four-step program composed of both introductory and intermediate-level courses.
By hosting these classes around the country and offering online certification, we hope to provide as many people as possible with the opportunity to learn these skills and knowledge.
12
Oct 2012
Create a musical with 100 people in 100 days!
At the Peace Boat Centre Ishinomaki, people are now talking about rehearsals for a musical which is going to be performed in Miyagi in January next year.
This musical programme was set up by the NPO Common Beat. After the disaster struck last year, the group has been arranging ‘volunteer buses’ to take many of its members to volunteer in Ishinomaki.
The musical which they will perform, COMMON BEAT, was originally started by a non-profit group in the US. As young people from all over the world came together to perform the musical, they learned about each others cultures and lives. It has since come to be used in international-based education.
The next aim of Common Beat, which has thus far carried out programmes onboard Peace Boat and sent volunteers to Ishinomaki, is to carry out the first Tohoku Project on January 19-20, 2013. Since it was difficult to find a suitable venue in Ishinomaki, it will be performed at Taga City’s Culture Centre, also in Miyagi Prefecture. The important thing in starting out with this project was to get local people in Ishinomaki to become interested in joining the cast. Working with the Peace Boat Centre in Ishinomaki, central members of Common Beat have gone to Ishinomaki many times to give trial performances at local events and festivals.
19
Sep 2012
Mr Paul Bilney tells us, “I’m back here in Ishinomaki!”
Paul first came to Ishinomaki all the way from Australia in April last year soon after the disaster struck. A veteran international volunteer, Paul he has now joined Peace Boat’s disaster relief efforts four times, playing an important role in the reconstruction process of Ishinomaki and support of survivors.
01
Sep 2012
Peace Boat provided relief activity for the flooding in northern Kyushu between 15 July – 10 August 2012, in Taketa City, Oita Prefecture. 41 volunteers (with a total of 212 volunteer working days), together with many individual volunteers, visited the local disaster volunteer center run by the Social Welfare Council (hereafter referred to as “SWC”) scooped mud out of the houses and facilities, as well as cleaned the roads and street drains.
Upon completion of the volunteer activities, Peace Boat staff member Suzuki Shoichi who was in charge of the local coordination interviewed Mr Mizuno Masaya, the head of Kujyu branch of the SWC.
31
Aug 2012
Photo gallery from the biggest local festival, the “89th Ishinomaki Kawabiraki (“River Opening”) Festival,” held in Ishinomaki on July 31 and August 1, 2012.
30
Aug 2012
The final performance of Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors was held on August 18 at Tsuda Hall in Tokyo. Approximately 450 people, including family members and other guests of the Fukushima TV Junior Orchestra, people connected to the Venezuelan Embassy, and evacuees from Fukushima who live in the Tokyo area, participated to see the children perform.
10
Aug 2012
Peace Boat has been providing support to residents of temporary housing including publishing a community paper, cultivating vegetable gardens, making benches and planters, and more. Communicating with the residents is one of the most important things in understanding the needs for such projects.
This is a report on “Ocha-kko (tea parties)” which Peace Boat has been organizing as a space for communication more than 600 times throughout the different communities of temporary housing in the city of Ishinomaki.
09
Aug 2012
Miyagi Prefecture and Ishinomaki in particular are famous for producing the delicacy sea squirts. However, the tsunami greatly affected this industry, with none able to be harvested last year. The Peace Boat fishery and coastal support team has conducted activities to support those committed to the coastal recovery, and reviving the fishing industry. This article explains the process to produce sea squirts.
09
Aug 2012
A very special concert to welcome back the youth from Fukushima and to welcome to Japan the Venezual youth participating in the “Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors – Widened Horizons: Opening the World’s Door for Fukushima’s Youth” will be held on Saturday August 18 in Tokyo!
05
Aug 2012
As part of a recreation project for children in Fukushima, Peace Boat planned a mountain climbing trip to Mt Fuji from July 21-23, 2012. This post is based on the diary of Takeda Nobuhiro, a Peace Boat Disaster Volunteer Center Staff member himself from Koriyama, Fukushima.