As you may already know, we have volunteers from various countries, from various companies.

People joined Nadia, they share their experience and the situation of Ishinomaki with their friends and colleagues once they returned their office after weekend.

And those who heard their story become our next volunteers.

In the second week of April, one guy who works for Société Générale joined us. And after coming back to Tokyo, he immediately took an action. He organized a charity event with his friends and colleagues and they kindly donated collected money to Nadia.

A chain of good heart didn’t finish with it. His Colleagues knew about Nadia and his commitment to Nadia, and 11 of them decided to join us the other day.

They were assigned to clean up a huge car maintenance company.

1st day was too hot, sweaty, thirsty, sleepy, tired… And 2 nd day was non stop rain, few hours of sleep, headache… But there’s work to be done, and they had a great team leader. Under his leadership as well as their teamwork and insight to read what to do next, they have done a great job.

 Good will produces a positive chain reaction. And teamwork produces great efficiency.

Welcome to Nadia, and we hope your story will be a part of  new positive chain.

Today, I would like to share a nice story with all of you, who helped in some way participating with Nadia activities.

I met Mr. Okada (not real name). One month ago, with his wife, in front of their half destroyed house. Both looked quite lost by what had happened to them. At that time, more than two months after the tsunami, they had been living on the second floor of their house, going to the refugee center once a day to receive food. His wife had lost 3 members of her family in the tsunami.

When we started helping them to clean their garden, backyard, and inside of the house., it was not easy: he did not know what to keep and what to throw away, so the volunteer work had to be slow, but we all put our full energy to clean the place at his pace.

His wife mentioned to us that she wanted to leave the nice house they had built in Ishinomaki and move toSendai, where their two daughters were working. The smell of rotting fertilizer from a warehouse behind the house was so strong that it was hard for us to work there, and for them to live there. She could not see herself living in the house in Ishinomaki again. Mr. Okada was planning to follow his wife toSendaiafter gathering some items from their house and garden.

That weekend, we all worked hard but could not finish the work started. The week after I went, other Nadia teams, one per week for 3 weeks in total, took over the hard work in his house and garden and we eventually finished the work.

Last week, I went to visit him to say hello. He was not home, but I had the opportunity to talk with his wife, who expressed her gratitude to Nadia volunteers. She was proud to show me the result of 3 weeks of Nadia volunteer work. Indeed, I had to admit: we all did a great job!

Their daughter incidentally made a phone call to her, and knowing that a Nadia member was there, she insisted to talk to me. With a voice full of emotion, she deeply thanked us to be there to support her parents, something she could not do with her job inSendai. I mentioned we would meet, around a cup of tea, when things will have settled down… in a few months.

Then, on June 27, while I was back toTokyo, Mr. Okada called me: he was sorry he could not meet me during the weekend in Ishinomaki. He took this opportunity to thank Nadia volunteers for the great help and constant support we have been giving for 3 weeks.

He gave me a big news: they are now ready to stay in their house in Ishinomaki (even though they will still have to live on the second floor for quite a while, and will still have to receive their food from the refugee center). The house and garden look good, and make them remember our intensive work, that was always done with smiling faces, positive energy, and enthusiasm. Thanks to Nadia volunteers, they learnt to accept the situation in a more relaxed way, being more laidback. They will repair the house at their own pace, and are looking forward a new future.

My turn now to THANK YOU all! For joining, for participating, for enjoying helping people, for bringing your friends! Our enthusiasm and goodwill makes the difference in Ishinomaki! I think the story here is not rare and am sure all of you who joined Nadia gave hope to all the people you helped.

There is still a lot ahead, we will find ways to help the reconstruction, so that people like Mr. Okada will have a normal life again. Looking forward to working with you again!

NADIA wouldn’t be anything without the strength and vitality of all the volunteers who come along every week and work just as professionals.

The work is visibly progressing in Ishinomaki and this is thanks to everyone’s effort. It is obvious that the uncertainty of future reconstruction plans becomes heavier every day that passes by. But our help definitely brings hope and motivates the community not to give up and imagine the bright nice and green environment coming up.

Lots of houses remain to be cleaned out of mud and debris and we need to assure a constant presence in Ishinomaki. Lots of people now live in houses with open floors and are waiting their turn to get refurbishing help, that might not come before over 6 months at the earliest. NADIA is willing to give hands to accelerate this stagnating situation and is foreseeing the reconstruction steps that will begin soon. We are putting things into place to move further. Stay posted for our coming new plans !

For the time being, we are moving on to offer cosy terrace-apartment lodging in the middle of port town Ishinomaki! Check-out our new PLAN 1 for July !

We may live close, we may have our office near by, we may have friends in common, but three months ago most of us were total strangers.  But today we are here at Ishinomaki for one purpose. To bring  “Hope” to Ishinomaki.

47 crew gathered at our headquarter, some are veterans, some are new.  June 11 was the 3rd month since the tsunami wrecked the lives of hundred of thousands of people. It may not be in the TV news anymore, but people up there still need a lot of help. People are trying to keep their chin up and doing more than their best to go forward. Clocks in Ishinomaki city still point at 3:50, but their clock in heart never stops.

The amount of work to be done may seem hopeless and our small contribution to this may make us feel helpless.

But every week we receive hundreds and hundreds of “Thank you” words from people at Minato school area. We had cleaned a main hall of a temple, and cleaned up a huge graveyard, which may not be directly connected to their daily life, but the chief priest told us that people are actually crying for what we’ve done.

When we visited minato elementary school for the first time, the weather was still cold and entire city seemed gray with debris and muds. But three months after tsunami, a clear blue sky welcomed us, it was clear and shinny enough to keep our head up.

Our help is always needed.

member of 11-12/June

 

There are several groups which have been making great contribution to nadia activity. Tokyo Canadians Hockey Club is one of them. They have been participating in Nadia activity since our very early stage. How many bags of muds were carried out by their leadership from huge Buddist temple last weekend..

The great one, Wayne Gretzky once said,

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. ”

They always know what we should do next…

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

People may think that, at evacuation centers they already got enough supply for their temporal life, and they don’t need any thing anymore.

The answer is No.

Imagine when tsunami hit beautiful Tohoku land, people had to evacuate without carrying anything with them from their house , and it was chilling winter. Soon they have received winter supplies; like sweaters, down jackets, winter blankets, and winter socks.

And now humid and hot summer is arriving at Ishinomaki. And they don’t have any summer supply. They evacuated to Minato elementary school with their hands free. None of them could bring personal belongings out from house.

We heard the needs of 300 summer blankets, and thanks to generous friends and colleagues, we could deliver to them on 22/May.

Your financial support will be delivered directly to people at Ishinomaki by Nadia.

Please keep supporting people at Ishinomaki.

During Golden week, you might have heard through TV that there were too many volunteers at Tohoku, and they didn’t get enough work to do.

I imagine lots of people might have wanted to join volunteer activity but  many hasitated, because they didn’t want to be nuisance.

Is it true that we have enough volunteers? The answer is NO. At least where we are working, at Ishinomaki area, there are so many houses to clean, and the number of needs are increasing.

On 8, may, the last day of golden week, we could only form one team, but all veterans. We were supposed to clean a store house and an office floor in the morning and a house in the afternoon.

Our task seemed to be difficult for small number of volunteers, but fortunately, 4 professional construction workers offered to join our team, and we completed cleaning in 4 hours! As soon as we finished, we hurried to next house to clean.

Before you hesitate, contact us. We always need your hands.

Dear all,

Two months ago at noon. Who could have imagined the scenes we can still see in Ishinomaki today? None of our NADIA members did, and none of us intended to have to take concrete actions. Nonetheless, we all somehow got shocked by the situation and decided to try to help and support them.

Two months have past. TV programmes are not broadcasting tsunami topics as often as before, but this doesn’t mean people there are not suffering anymore. Still many houses are left damaged, many people are still living in schelters.

Many clocks at Ishinomaki still points at 3:50p.m., the time tsunami hit the city. They lost many loving family/friends, houses and precious remories, which may not be returned to them. But we ‘d like to believe they don’t loose their hope and dream if we keep giving our hands and support.

Today, 2 months after the tragedy, please save 10 minutes of your time to think what you can do for them, and let’s pray for them together.

And most importantly, let’s go and give your actual hands to them.