Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture
April 8: We have been evacuated at a gymnasium in Inawashiro Town called “Manabiina.” Our house is located in the indoor evacuation zone caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident and we moved here worrying about possible radiation exposure of our 1-year-and-a-month-old baby.
Tohoku Earthquake Relief Mission Report
(March 30, 31) by Giles Murray
On the morning of March 30, six 4-ton trucks left the JOICFP warehouse in Yokohama. Loaded with goods donated by Japanese and multinational companies, they were heading for Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Ibaraki, the four prefectures hardest hit by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11.
Tohoku Earthquake Relief Mission Report
(April 1) by Giles Murray
Today the team drove north from Sendai up to Morioka in Iwate prefecture, a three-hour journey. We had an appointment at 2.00 at the Morioka Women’s Center. The head of the center, Yaeko Tabata, was hosting a meeting on how to best address the needs of local women affected by the disaster.
Tohoku Earthquake Relief Mission Report
(April 2) by Giles Murray
We met up with a team of four midwives led by Yuko Fukushima, a licensed midwife and associate professor at Iwate Prefectural University at 7.30 A.M. at “Tengu no Sato” on the outskirts of Morioka. The plan was for JOICFP and the midwives to jointly reach out to pregnant women and mothers of young babies in the fishing community of Yamada Town.
Picture of all mothers, Karamatsu and JOICFP staff talking together
(April 3) by Giles Murray
This morning we drove from Morioka down to Sendai. At 2.00 in the afternoon we had an appointment with Aiko Kasamatsu, a prominent midwife in Tagajo, a town right next to the Sendai docks. Mrs. Kasamatsu, who had organized the distribution of two truckloads of JOICFP supplies at a local school on March 30, this time had assembled a group of four mothers with children between four months and two years old from the neighborhood.
Tohoku Earthquake Relief Mission Report
(April 4) by Giles Murray
This morning we went to Fukushima city, capital of Fukushima prefecture. Unlike the other three affected prefectures, Fukushima is having to deal with the radiation leak at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in addition to earthquake and tsunami damage.
