16
Nov 2012

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Event Report: Forum on creating a long-term support and recovery network for the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster areas

On October 17, with the cooperation of NGO/NPOs and corporate partners, Peace Boat hosted an event focused on creating a network to quickly and efficiently provide support after disasters in Japan.
The event was organised by Peace Boat’s Disaster Volunteer Centre, with the help of sponsors including the Civilian Disaster Prevention and Disaster Area Support Network; corporate partner IBM Japan; intermediate support organizations such as Just Giving Japan; and NGO/NPO On the Road.

12
Oct 2012

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Ishinomaki Musical “A COMMON BEAT”

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.

30
Aug 2012

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Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors – Final Performance

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

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Ishinomaki Tea party!

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

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Growing sea squirts

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.

30
Jul 2012

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A day at the Peace Boat Center Ishinomaki

The Peace Boat Center Ishinomaki opened on June 2. The acceptance of the local community has been growing, and there are now around 20 local visitors each day. Including the many large-scale events, the Center has welcomed over 1,000 people in the six weeks since it opened.
This report outlines a day at the Peace Boat Center, including volunteer activities, events, and more.

23
Jul 2012

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A New Project in Ishinomaki – Painting ‘Tairyo-ki’ on Containers!

A new voluntary project has launched since May 2012 in Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki City. As a part of the ongoing fishing support, Peace Boat is assisting to paint Tairyo-ki (large colorful flags that symbolizes the wishes for a good catch and safe fishing) on the side-face of containers that have been used as storage.
As the containers are plain brown, they are not a very appealing sight on the landscape, sitting on bare soil. So, in response to a request from fishermen from Koami-Kurahama, Peace Boat agreed to help make these containers instead into a symbol of recovery.

21
Jul 2012

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Oraho’s Machizukuri Oen (Support to revitalize our town)

The ”Oraho’s Machizukuri Oen” programme held as part of the Ishinomaki volunteering experience offers a rich and intense two-day program to see sides of Ishinomaki which cannot be experienced in other ways.
This programme’s highest priority is the chance to meet with local people. Participants can create their visions of the future together with the local people while listening to their passions and plans to rebuild their community and businesses.
“Please come and visit Ishinomaki to find new attractions of Ishinomaki as a revitalizing town, not only as the disaster-affected Ishinomaki. You will also be able to feel where Japan is going through these two-day programs. We are really looking forward to meeting you all in Ishinomaki.”