[IWATE, Japan, 9 May 2011]
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto |
The Japan Committee for UNICEF (JCU) held UNICEF Children’s Bus Fieldtrips during Golden Week (3-5 and 7-8 May ) for children living in the coastal regions of Iwate Prefecture, which were severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Over the five-day period, more than 900 people, including parents, participated in the fieldtrips. Participants from 10 coastal areas in Iwate Prefecture (Rikuzentakata, Kamaishi, Ofunato, Otsuchi, Miyako, Yamada, Fudai and Tanohata, Iwaizumi, Noda and Kuji) hopped aboard the UNICEF Children’s Bus and were taken to enjoy one of five fieldtrips: Tono Furusato Mura, Morioka Zoological Park, a Yasugasawa violet garden walk, Iwate Children’s Forest, and Miyazawa Kenji Fairytale Village.
With the complete cooperation of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), JCU continues to implement comprehensive assistance focusing on the children in coastal municipalities in Iwate Prefecture, including in the areas of psychological care, protection, health and education. As part of efforts to extend psychological care for children, the UNICEF Children’s Bus fieldtrips were carried out in order to provide children with a place to play and have fun in peace.
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF /2011/K.Goto |
| UNICEF children’s supporter training. |
JCU acquired the cooperation of Iwate Kenpoku Kanko and Iwate Kenpoku Bus in ensuring the UNICEF Children’s Bus was safely operated. Moreover, we received vigorous support from many university students and other volunteers that joined from places throughout Japan in securing a safe environment for the children to play in during their fieldtrips. Moreover, volunteers underwent UNICEF children’s support training before the event. This training was given by experts in psychological care that were invited by JCU. In the training the volunteers learned how to interact with the children as well as important things to look out for concerning their psychological welfare.
The UNICEF Children’s Bus provided children the opportunity to have fun reconnecting with old friends, run and play, interact with nature, enjoy new experiences, and spend time as they like.
[Tono Furusato Mura]
The Tono Furusato Mura allows visitors a peak of old mountain village culture and lifestyle. Here children were able to make mochi rice cakes, stick helicopter toys, bamboo chopsticks, wooden ema plaques and other items. Some children listened to old stories from the Tono area while others ran around the spacious green grounds and played along with the ponies and horses. One father that constructed a wooden stick helicopter toy with his son, said, “I am very happy because before it wasn’t really possible to take my kids outside.” The children that made the wooden ema plaques used a variety of colorful paints and crayons to paint pictures or write their own thoughts on the plaques.
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | |||
| A father teaching his son how to fly a stick helicopter. | A girl showing an ema plaque where she wrote, “I pray that Miyako recovers soon.” |
[Morioka Zoological Park]
At the Morioka Zoological Park, the park’s director personally taught the children how to hold the rabbits. Children spoke happily about their time spent playing with the animals, remarking that, “It was fun feeding the monkeys!” and “The lion was cool!” One child even said, “The volunteers were really nice.”
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011/K.Goto | ||
| A girl holding a guinea pig. | A child and volunteer looking at the monkeys. |
[Yasugasawa violet garden walk]
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011 |
The children that visited the Yasugasawa violet garden in Nishiwaga Town enjoyed strolling through the gardens and picking wild herbs. After that, they went to a cooking classroom at a nearby primary school where local volunteers prepared mountain vegetable tempura using butterbur sprouts and thistles, as well tempura made using biscuits that are a local specialty in Nishiwaga. The children also played hide-and-go-seek and had a snowball fight with the students from Yuda Primary School using the leftover snow in the school’s swimming pool. They children were heard saying, “The tempura was delicious!” and “The flowers were so pretty!”
Photo to right: A child making tempura.
[Iwate Children’s Forest]
At the Iwate Children’s Forest the children played on the indoor slide, took baths in a sento bath house packed with toys and read picture books. One child said, “The long slide was really fun!” Hearing this, his mother told us, “I’m so happy my son finally got to play like this today.”
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| © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011 | © Japan Committee for UNICEF/2011 |
[Miyazawa Kenji Fairytale Village]
Volunteers and friends from UNICEF Hanamaki Friendship Association welcomed the children by singing the famous Japanese children’s song Aka Tombo (Red Dragon Fly) as they arrived at the Miyazawa Kenji Fairytale Village. The facility is a play area where children can enjoy playing in a unique atmosphere filled with characters like Giovanni, Matasaburo, and wildcats, all characters from Miyazawa’s fairytales. In this fairytale world, the children had a lot of fun as they played together with volunteers from local high schools and blew bubbles. One girl’s mother commented that, “My daughter’s preschool cancelled their fieldtrip, so I was really happy that she could join today.”
JCU will continue to work together with local organizations and volunteers in promoting activities that provide children with an environment where they can play and learn freely.
On 4 May, a soccer exchange with J League Kashima Antlers’ Mitsuo Ogasawara was held.
| Receiving Prefecture |
Type of Emergency Supplies |
Arrival Date |
Quantity | Donating Company |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miyagi | Water | 19 Mar. | 12,288 bottles |
VanaH Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Fukushima | Water | 22 Mar. | 12,672 bottles |
VanaH Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Miyagi | Underwear for boys and girls | 22 Mar. | 200,000 | ||
| Iwate | Underwear for boys and girls | 23 Mar. | 30,000 | ||
| Fukushima | Water | 23 Mar. | 4,680 bottles |
KIRIN MC DANONE WATERS Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Miyagi | Children’s shoes | 23 Mar. | 10,000 pairs |
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| Miyagi | Children’s diapers | 24 Mar. | 80 packs | P&G Japan | |
| Iwate | Children’s underwear | 24 Mar. | 9,700 | ||
| Fukushima | Water | 24 Mar. | 12,288 bottles |
VanaH Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Iwate | Shoes | 26 Mar | 1,404 pairs | Achilles Corporation | |
| Iwate | Underwear for boys and girls | 27 Mar. | 28,266 | ||
| Iwate | Boots | 27 Mar. | 7,462 pairs | ||
| Iwate | Wipes | 28 Mar. | 1,200 | P&G Japan | For babies |
| Miyagi | Recreation kits Early Childhood Development kits |
2 Apr. | 50 of each | Procured from the UNICEF Supply Division | |
| Iwate | Recreation kits Early Childhood Development kits |
2 Apr. | 50 of each | Procured from the UNICEF Supply Division | |
| Miyagi | Book bags | 6 Apr. | 70 | Nihon New Bag Chain | |
| Iwate | Book bags | 6-7 Apr. | 340 | Seiban | |
| Miyagi | Schoolbags | 8 Apr. | 18,000 | Procured from the UNICEF Supply Division | |
| Iwate | Schoolbags | 8 Apr. | 18,000 | Procured from the UNICEF Supply Division | |
| Miyagi | Personal security buzzers (for crime prevention purposes) | 8 Apr. | 5,000 | ||
| Iwate | Personal security buzzers (for crime prevention purposes) | 8 Apr. | 5,000 | ||
| Miyagi | Minicar | 8 Apr. | 3 cars | ||
| Fukushima | Water | 11 Apr. | 1,536 bottles | VanaH Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Miyagi | Replenishments for recreation kits | 12 Apr. | 60 sets | ||
| Miyagi | Miniature toy cars | 12 Apr. | Approx. 1,200 | TAKARA TOMY | |
| Sagamihara* | Water | 12 Apr. | 12,288 bottles | VanaH Co., Ltd. | Two-liter plastic bottles |
| Miyagi | Play mats | 13 Apr. | Two types; 80 of each type | IKEA | |
| Miyagi | Drawing sets | 13 Apr. | 60 sets | IKEA | |
| Iwate | Preschool-size chairs, tables and low tables | 14 Apr. | 75 chairs; 11 tables; 9 low tables | Donated to preschools, primary schools, junior high schools and high schools in the disaster area as well as their new locations | |
| Miyagi | Mopeds | 15 Apr. | 5 | ||
| Iwate | Notebooks and stationery sets for primary and junior high school students | 15. Apr. | 16,700 sets | ||
| Miyagi | 183 computers; 57 copiers and fax machines; 61 printers | 18-21 Apr. | Distributed to preschools, primary schools, junior high schools and high schools in the disaster area as well as their new locations | ||
| Fukushima | Movable blackboards | 21 Apr. | 10 | ||
| Fukushima | Temporary toilets | 21 Apr. | 20 |
Number of UNICEF Children’s Mini Libraries distributed: Approximately 250 (as of 28 April 2011)
*Areas receiving disaster victims.
*In certain cases some supplies may be taken from prefectural supply storage warehouses and distributed to shelters and disaster sites in other prefectures.
As of 9:00 a.m. on 28 April 2011 (compiled by the Information and Public Affairs Division).