NEWS LETTER32vol.

Spring 2024

the Great East Jap
sincean Esrea
artynhqeeuatrikehT

3.11
Senryu Contest( Japanese short poem)

andGrrize
PMy grandma,
disaster prevention map,
her everyday walking routeeandGrrize
Pellence
xcwards

Ibuking

Anonymous

There are lives we can saveby becoming a storyteller,
light up the candle of life

Mofumofus

Elementary School,
Middle School, High School,
and University Student Category

We must sharememories of that day
as the last generation Miyagawa

KenchanNever forget the disaster,
never let people forget,
so pass down the story

c Force
ivicial AwardSpCEAellence
xcwards

Everyday greetings
with neighbors,
our lifeline

ResultsEA

General Category

Once again
I want to laughlooking at that ocean
Relishing the happinessthat I can say,“I’m home”

Kaho Okumura

Hina Suzuki

To the next generation
we must share about this day, 3.11
Koushi Ohmura(Johoku Junior High School, Saga City, Saga Prefecture)

The lights shining in Tohoku light up the way for NotoTouri

We Want to Deliver Their Thoughts
Thirteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake
struck on March 11, 2011. Many areas affected by the disaster have beenrebuilt and people are settling in the new normal. But reconstruction isstill underway in difficult-to-return zones damaged from the nuclear
power plant accident. In addition, a major earthquake hit the Noto
Peninsula on New Year’s Day this year, forcing many people to live asevacuees.
We at Civic Force would like to deliver the various thoughts of thoseaffected by the disaster, those who provided support, and those who arethinking about the disaster. Civic Force held a “Senryu (Japanese shortpoem) Contest” with the theme of disaster and disaster prevention /mitigation from February 21 to March 24.
In just one month, 1,361 people sent us a total of 3,155 Senryu
poems. We are pleased to announce that we have selected a totalof 32 works, including one Grand Prize and three Excellence Awards
each in two categories, one Civic Force Special Award, and 23
Honorable Mentions.

Click here to see
other award-winning works.
01

Supporting
Disaster-Affected
Areas1

Supporting
Disaster-Affected
Areas

Thirteen Years Since the Great East Japan EarthquakeFor Passing Down the Lessons of That Day to the Future

2 Noto Peninsula Earthquake 2024

Operating NPO Partner Projects in Five Cities and Towns

NPO PartnerProject

S UZ U

Thirteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
While large disasters continue to occur all over Japan, Civic Force’s “NPO Partner Projects”
IWATE

has been passing down the experiences and the lessons learned of the affected areas in the Tohoku region
to the people in other areas and to future generations.

WA J I M AMore than three months have passed since the Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred.

Civic Force’s unique recoveryand reconstruction support
program, collaborating withmore than 100 organizationsin Japan up to now.

Civic Force has been providing relief supplies to the affected areas such as the Oku-Noto area

N OTO
N A N AO

in Ishikawa Prefecture, collaborating with corporations and other NPOs.
NPO Partner Projects with the following three organizations are also now in progress.

MIYAGINEW
Miyagi Iwate

FUKUSHIMA

Bosai Kizuna Gakuen (Disaster Prevention Team: Kizuna)

High School & University Students Sending out
Messages from Kamaishi City (Miyagi) and Kamakura City (Kanagawa)◀Introduces a disastermanagement card game,Bosai Bozumekuri.

▶A high school studentof Kamaishi City talks about
the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Fukushima“Bosai Kizuna Gakuen” is a team mainly founded by a voluntary group, “Yumedan,” ofKamaishi High School in Iwate Prefecture that was affected by the earthquake in 2011,
and a disaster prevention team, “Genkai,” of Kamakura City in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Although the young members did not live through the disaster and live in different
locations, the team has been working on various initiatives to raise disaster prevention
awareness. At the “Sendai Bosai Mirai Forum 2024,” an annual disaster prevention
event held on March 9 in Miyagi Prefecture, the team introduced an original card game
which is being co-developed and emphasizes the importance of disaster reduction.
The next day, the team held a story-telling event at Unosumai Stadium where a rugby
match was held to support recovery. Many people listened attentively to the highschool student who debuted as a storyteller who was determined to “pass down myfamily’s memories of the disaster even though these memories are not my own.”

Tomioka 3.11 Discussion Group (Second Phase)

Iwate

Riku Café (Second Phase)

Nurturing Storytellers Across
Regions and Generations

Boxed Lunches Prepared withRecipes Developed by High School Students

Tomioka 3.11 Discussion Group (NPO)aims to regenerate new communities
by restoring the connections of people
lost in multiple disasters, namely theearthquake, tsunami, and the nuclear
Ms. Toshiko Aoki, representative of thepower plant accident. Civic Force has
NPO, says, “Youth engagement is the key
to the reconstruction of Fukushima.”been working together as a partner
since 2022, and the second phase projects started in December 2023. In May
2024, we are planning to extend our network across generations and regions
by conducting storyteller training courses at three locations: Hamadori, Aizu,and Nakadori in Fukushima Prefecture focusing on current situations andissues. A festival to pass down memories called Denshosai was implemented
in Tomioka Town last year and we plan to hold this festival at three more
locations this year. We will make efforts to nurture high school students asstorytellers in cooperation with the Fukushima Board of Education.

Riku Café of Rikuzentakata City,
Iwate Prefecture is also an NPO
working to regenerate communities
that were broken up and lost by thedisaster. As part of the activities
supporting healthy lives, this group
Nourishing boxed lunch with protein-richhas been putting much effort tomeat and seasonal vegetables.
fostering the “power to live” toyoung generations bearing the future. The NPO hosted a recipecompetition at Takata High School in February 2024 and held three
sessions selling boxed lunches with the prize-winning recipes. Theselunches were well-received as being filling but healthy. One of thestudents who created the recipe hopes to have a job related to food.

KanazawaSuzuWajima

K A N A Z AWA

Noto

Hokuriku Gakuin University Disaster Area Support Center

Student Volunteers Alleviating Labor Shortage
As labor shortages in the affectedareas have become a major issue,
Hokuriku Gakuin University DisasterArea Support Center in Kanazawa
City, Ishikawa Prefecture, has been
dispatching student volunteers tothe affected areas since March. They
have been conducting a variety of activities including cleaning evacuation
centers and houses of victims and providing salons at temporary housing
as well as for secondary evacuees living in Kanazawa. The center alsofunctions as a hub for dispatching university students from all over Japan.
The Partner Project supports the maintenance costs of activity bases,transportation costs for student dispatch, and costs for materials andequipment needed for volunteer activities.

Nanao

The NGO Collaboration Center

Footbath for Feeling Positive,
even a Little Bit
The NGO Collaboration Center has been
supporting affected areas with theexperiences from the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake. Based at a community
center in the Nakajima District of Nanao
City where more than 50 people
evacuated at some point, the Center has been conducting activities such asadministrative support for evacuation centers, providing relief supplies, andcleaning houses. In February, a Footbath Team was formed in collaboration with
the Hyogo Prefecture Disaster Prevention Association. Team members have
one-on-one conversations with victims while activating their metabolism bysoaking their feet in warm water and massaging their hands.

Kanazawa

Small Cove Project

Creating a Place for Evacuees

The owner of Café Cove and others
affected by the disaster in Suzu
City and evacuated to Kanazawa
City started to create a place forevacuees. This project facilitatesevacuees communicating not onlywith other evacuees but also withpeople living in Kanazawa, enjoying delicious meals, and sharing theanxieties and worries of life in evacuation. At a pre-meeting in February,people expressed comments such as, “I was able to see people smiling forthe first time long after the earthquake” and “I was able to get my daily lifeback.” The owner plans to open Outreach Small Coves at events as well as
permanent Coves to connect with isolated evacuees.

SuzuIshimaki

Online Exchange Session“Meeting to Connect Suzuand Ishinomaki” Held

Scanfor Details

An online exchange session Meeting to Connect Suzu andIshinomaki Vol.1 was held on February 17, a month and a half after
the Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred. About 20 people
participated, including evacuees living in and around Suzu City,
Ishikawa Prefecture, and residents of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi
Prefecture who experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Civic Force staff living in Ishinomaki told their experiences ofsupporting the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Relief Supplies on Display at Good Links
Common Benefit Investment Fund Japan’s
2023 Annual Report Published
Common Benefit Investment Fund Japan (former Tohoku Common Benefit Investment Fund), a generalincorporated association founded in 2011 with funds donated to Civic Force, published its annual report.
The Fund developed the concept of “common benefit investment” in order to support the economic
recovery of disaster-affected areas and, so far, has offered support for 14 projects in the Tohoku region
and 3 in Kumamoto Prefecture. Now, the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture is being assessed.

02

Scan forAnnual Report
2023

Available relief supplies are on display online at Good Links, a matching platform operated
by Civic Force. In March, we provided water bags, children’s boots, boxed tissues, andother items to two organizations working in affected areas of the Noto Peninsula
Earthquake. This platform is utilized by organizations that support people withdisabilities, children who do not attend school, pets, and community development.
* Good Links is available for nonprofit organizations continually working on disaster relief. Request (wish item) Registration, a form for registering
needy items in affected areas, is also available. For more information please contact the secretariat.

We provided three air purifiers andtoothbrushes to Amidayu, a publicbathhouse in Suzu City that resumed
operation and is open to local residents forfree. Civic Force supports organizations thatare helping local people like Amidayu.

Topics 03

We are undertaking various efforts to develop our emergency preparedness
mechanism. This page introduces media coverage of our activities and information
associated with our partner organizations.

Players Fund Thank You Messageand Report

Support Our Activities Easily
General Donations

NEW2023オフシーズン

Yahoo! “Buy and Support Delivery Pack”
Launched!
Civic Force’s page was posted on the “Buy and Support
Delivery Pack” section of Yahoo! Shopping where shoppers
can donate goods purchased on Yahoo! Shopping to support
organizations in need.

# 野球でつなぐ未来

In order to be better prepared for future disasters, we need your support.
Become a monthly supporter and you can donate a fixed amount eachmonth (in 1,000 yen units) and help prepare for future large-scaledisasters.
●Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation :Aoyama Branch Account No. 6953964

Scan here

SNS
Civic ForcePrevious newsletters▼
https://www.civic-force.org/about/publication.html

Subscribe to updates from the disaster areas▼
https://www.civic-force.org/mailmagazine/index.html

translated by ILV of the YWCA of Tokyo

Asahi Newspaper

Noto Peninsula Earthquake: Fundraising Spreads to Aid Victims

04●Japan Post Bank : 00140-6-361805(Account holder’ s name of the above banks is“Civic Force”)●Credit card : Please check the “Donate Now!”
section of the Civic Force website below▶

Sankei Newspaper

Number of home evacuees exceeds 2,600 people Local government
unable to assess conditions due to lack of manpower
Newspaper

Start Your Support
with Only 33 Yen per Day

Head office : Tomigaya Ogawa Bldg.2F,2-41-12 Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 151-0063

You can easily support us in variousways including donating products
or services.

Media Coverage

24.02.05

EC Navi “Smile Project”

Yahoo! Net Donation

Serial : “Preparing for Disaster”

Newspaper

Hondana-Otasuke-Tai “Donation by Selling Second-Hand Books”

Great East Japan Earthquake

Ureshino Municipal Yoshida Junior HighSchool in Saga Prefecture donatedfunds collected for the Noto Peninsula
earthquake relief efforts and on March
15, Civic Force spoke to the junior highschool students about the assistanceactivities in the disaster area.

24.01.29

SUNNAP (sales limited in ASKUL)“Phase-free Certified Paper Cup with Measurement”

Season LLC “Charity Brand BeMee”

Reporting Noto Assistance Activities
at a Junior High School

The theme of the latest article of the "Preparing forDisaster" series on our website is "Mental Health Care in
the Post-Disaster Workplace." Civic Force staff whowere affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in2011 would like to share the importance of mental
health care to those who are working in the aftermathof the Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

Hometown tax payment program

e-mail : info@civic-force.org

On March 21, a distribution event formember organizations of Good Links washeld at the Central Warehouse of Saga
Women's Junior College in Saga Prefecture.
Six organizations that support children's
shelters and single-parent households
participated in the event and distributed
items such as underwear, socks, andportable gas stoves.

Brilliance+ “secret stone”

Publisher : Civic Force

Goods Distribution in Saga Prefecture

Regina Clinic "SDGs Plan”

vol.32The Players Fund, co-organized by Civic Force and Japan Professional
Baseball Players Association, conducted a crowdfunding campaign fromDecember 7, 2023 to January 31, 2024 and raised 2,474,000 JPY. In
addition, more than 6 million JPY was raised through four charity
auctions held from December to January. Your support will be allocatedfor disaster relief activities.

Empower “Donation with Goods at Kaitori Daikichi”

Saga office : Marunaka Bldg. 6F, 1-3-5 Matsubara, Saga City, Saga Prefecture, JAPAN 840-0831

災 害 の 被 災 地 へ 、いち 早く支 援 を届 ける

TEL : +81-3-5790-9366

Value Books: “Charibon”

Spring 2024

第3期ファンドメンバー募集

NEWS LETTER

Creating an Emergency
Preparedness Mechanism