Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Program
2012.06.01 Fri 10:00/Emergency Relief”Restoration of Community FM Radio Stations and Installation of Community Addressing (CA) Systems”
7.0 magnitute earthquake on January 12, 2010 brought huge damages and massive loss of life to Haiti.
In rural Haiti where newspapers and televisions are not widely disseminated, majority of the people rely on
radio broadcasting, including community-based radios, for information, The earthquake that struck Haiti on
Jan. 12, 2010 damaged some of the community radio stations severely limiting the broadcasting hours perday.
On the receiving end, many people lost their radio receivers depriving people of their principle means ofaccess to information.

When BHN visited some of the IDP camps in Leogane, people voiced their needs for news and weather
information, and also social & educational programs. Many expressed their wish to listen to a popularreligious program broadcasted every morning.
A young mother interviewed commented; “Life is very hard here. If only I could listen to some music, I would
be able to mentally escape from this hardship even just for a short while.”
With the funds provided through the Japan Platform (JPF), BHN helped restore 6 community radio stations,provided technical training to their staff on equipment testing and maintenance, and installed 41 Community
Addressing Systems (CA systems) in communities and IDP camps in Leogane, an area that was heavily
damaged by the earthquake.

CA system is comprised of a radio receiver, a microphone, an amplifier, speaker horns, batteries, a solar
panel, and a LED lamp mounted on a 9 meter pole.
This system not only enables people to listen to radio broadcasting on daily basis, but it also provides simple
means for community leaders and aid organizations to address people in the communities and camps to makeannouncements and convey important information such as information on hurricane and cholera, helping
people better manage natural disasters and improve health.

The LED lamp on the system is automatically turned on in the evening providing light in otherwise very
dark communities and camps. People gather under the light in the evening to listen to the radio, to read, orto sell food, In some communities, students are seen studying under the light into the very late evening.
This JPF-funded BHN project has already been completed in 2011, but BHN, together with the City of
Leogane and local cooperating partner SAKS, will continue to monitor and support maintenance of thesystems for the next three years.
Minako AKIBA, Project Officer

e-Health project in Thailand
2012.06.02 Sat 10:00/Development Support”International collaborative activity by APT fund”
This project aims to install and test remote medical systems on TOT network for inhabitants in Thai ruralarea where no medical doctor attended, and is funded by Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT).
BHN Association (BHN) has cooperated for this project from initial planning phase that it has taken a roleof introducing advanced Japan’s medical ICT. This project has four missions which are “chronic disease
database”, “provision of remote prenatal system”, “remote medical consultation” and “improvementof network security”.
The remote prenatal system is one with high potential expectancy by Thai medical doctors and requested tomake trial installation in Phitsanulok province in the central Thailand. This system, sending fetal heart rate
and uterine contraction level detected by ultrasonic sensor tapped on the pregnant woman, allows
obstetrician in the city to diagnose status of pregnant woman in rural.

The project kick-off meeting was held on last August to ensure overall plan to make every system operationalby the end of December. Project activities, however, ceased for a while due to the flood disaster in Thail, buthave restarted on February 2012 by giving demonstration at the target sites in Phitsanulok.
The demonstration was cooperated by actual pregnant woman for diagnosis through internet and presented

obstetricians. Having gained good evaluation, doctors proposed to install the system into two local hospitaland clinic which are 70 km and 130 km away respectively from Phitsanulok city.

The installation is now planned in the middle of May for actual operations for months. BHN is expecting
successful operation to be further deployed in other areas suffering from insufficient medical services.
Hideo BABA, Executive Director

Project for Disaster Risk Reduction in Hatiya, Bangladesh
2012.06.04 Mon 10:00/Development Support”Community Capacity Development Project for Disaster Risk Reduction by Community Radio”
Background
Located in the Bay of Bengal, Hatiya Island is designated as a Cyclone High Risk Area. Every year the island
suffers damages by cyclones and their incidental high-tides, especially in the coastal areas.

However, at the time of imminent disaster, the most important disaster information & warnings are delivered
by Community Preparedness Program (CPP) volunteers running & carrying loud speakers since the days of‘70s.
Being delivered by ”human power”,its distribution areas and information accuracies are limited. Also, evenafter the warnings of approaching cyclone, some part of the islanders won’t move to evacuate due to the lackof confidence on the information or by the concern of their properties and livestock.

With such background, we understood that, in Hatiya Island, it is necessary to establish media to collectaccurate weather & disaster warning information from the Meteorological Agency, as well as the necessity todeliver this information fairly and simultaneously to the inhabitants.
Further, as it is also necessary for the inhabitants to understand such information correctly and move toevacuation , we have concluded to implement this project. We plan to implement this project with Dwip
Unnayan Songstha (DUS) and Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communications(BNNRC).
Project Purpose
To enhance the ability to deal with the disasters with the active use of community radio.
1. To establish the operational & managerial system of the community radio(CR) broadcasting system which
is aimed to become a disaster early warning systems.
2. To establish the weather & disaster protection information broadcasting system specialized in the target
area to minimize the disaster risks.
3. To establish the environmental system that the local inhabitants could actively utilize the disaster early
warning system based upon the CR system.
4. To establish the evacuation system against disasters in the target area.

We have preliminary approval of the above project from Japan International Cooperation (JICA) as JICA
Partnership Program.
With an eye forward the launch of the project in autumn 2012, we have opend BHN Association Bangaldesh
Office and applied for registration as an International NGO in Bangladesh at the NGO Affairs Bureau(NGOAB). After completion of the registration, the 5-year roject will be officially started.
Anna TAMAKI, Project Officer

BHN Human Development Program
2012.06.06 Wed 10:00/Human Resources Dev.
BHN Human Development Program started 1998 and has established as one of BHN’s three Major Missions.

The outline of its activities are as follows:
1. Target of the Programa) To invite young trainees engaging in telecommunication/ICT business from developing or emerging
countries in Asia and to develop and enhance trainees’ capability to be good leaders or management staffs
in their countries by means of providing them with comprehensive curriculum containing study on advanced
technical knowledge of telecom/ICT field as well as study on significant business knowledge.
b) To give them opportunities to communicate each other closely, to learn each other and each country and tobuild up their friendship and relationship between them.
2. Outline of the Programa) This program is yearly basis and composed two Semesters. The First Semester is held at Malaysia
Multimedia University (MMU) for about 5 weeks in Autumn and the Second Semester is held at the Tokyo

Training Center of the Overseas Human Resources and Industry Development Association HIDA) for about
3 weeks in early Summer in the next year.
b) The cost of this entire Program is born by BHN including support from NTT Communications Corporationand HIDA as well as general donation for BHN activity.
c) As of May 2012, the current Program under way is the fourteenth Program and total number of invited
trainees are 105 persons from 13 countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippine, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Kazuhisa Konoma, Director

Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Program
2012.06.06 Wed 10:00/Emergency Relief”Providing Equipment and Engineering Services to FM Broadcasting stations for Disaster Relief”
An FM broadcasting station for supporting disaster victims (a kind of community radio service) is supplying
emergency control programs, life support information and other community related programs to re-bind theminds of people split from their old communities. Also, they are supplying information for foreigners residingin those areas, isolated from vital daily life information, in their own languages.
BHN, a member of World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has so far helped to open
and provided professional engineering support to 21 of such radio stations and other foreign minority groups
in the 3 prefectures devastated by the earthquake and Tsunami.

Specifically;(1) In the towns where there were no broadcasting stations, BHN helped them to start the services, including
the designing, purchase and installation of equipments.
(2) Where there is a broadcasting station, engineers of BHN visited the station to check the system conditions,
including the location of antenna, and drew plans to improve the system quality.
(3) BHN engineers are visiting each local community to check the radio wave strength and prepared plans tosolve each specific condition.

BHN has, for example, re-located broadcasting antenna, built additional radio relay station, built roof-top
antennas and connect radio wave boosters to individual houses. .
These projects are being funded by Global Giving, Japan Platform, donations from private companies andorganizations and individuals, income from Tokiko Kato BHN charity concerts, and are being supported byequipment donations from Symantec Corporation, TEAC Corporation, and NTT Workers Union.
Minako AKIBA, Project Officer

Providing information communication means to the victims
2012.06.11 Mon 17:00/Emergency Relief
Setting up of Internet environment in coastal areas of Iwate prefecture affected by the disasterIn the Great East Japan Disaster much of society’s infrastructure such as communication facilities wasdestroyed. As a consequence, not just the victims but also the relief workers had problems in communicatingwith others.
In response to the cry from the victims wishing to get in touch with necessary information, BHN set up
Internet connections in places such as evacuation camps, medical centers, volunteer centers and NPO centers,in addition to donating radio receivers, wireless transceivers and portable megaphones.

The Internet was used in various ways: victims saw their town washed away by the tsunami for the first timeon the Internet; using the PCs donated together with the Internet connections, it was made possible for the
rescue workers to make documents that had been prepared in hand writing up to then; children surfed theInternet to find study materials or played computer games because there were no other places to play in theevacuation camps; some victims set up an electronic commerce site; other victims were delighted to see items
for everyday life arrive in response to their tweets.
We at BHN also recognized once again the vital role played by communication means. To be able to get intouch with correct information assures security and safety of the victims. BHN will continue to endeavour toassist the victims in enabling them to obtain information as quickly and as correctly as possible, taking into
account the comments received from them.

The system used by BHN is portable so that it may be easily moved from one place to another. Some of theevacuation centers are now closed and the systems that had been placed in those centers are now relocatedto locations currently in need of Internet connections. The initial emergency situation is over now, but theInternet is used in various ways in the disaster-affected areas. BHN provides technical support in addition
to providing equipment. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for any support that we may be able to provide.
Takako YAMAZAKI, Program OfficerSupport people improve their PC skills to enrich life
2012.06.12 Tue 11:00/Emergency Relief
Open computer classes and library in the area of the city of Ishinomaki
After more than one year since the Great East Japan Disaster, priorities in the affected areas as well as theneeds of the victims are changing. Major challenges at the moment are considered to be, 1.) employment ofpeople who have lost jobs as a consequence of the disaster, 2.) fostering of new communities in the temporary
housings and 3.) healthcare of the elderly people.
In order to contribute to solving these problems by using PCs and the Internet, BHN Association has started
computer classes open to everybody in the disaster-stricken areas. BHN also started to run a “PC library”
from where people wishing to study at home can borrow a PC.

Since the start of the first classroom in an area in the city of Ishinomaki where many disaster victims live,
the number of classrooms grew to seven including those in the city of Onagawa, the city of Tome (where
refugees from the city of Minami-sanriku live) and the temporary housing in the city of Higashi-matsushima.
Students who were timidly hitting keys at first are now enjoying “karaoke” or drawing pictures on a PC.
Among the students, there are also people who wish to improve their PC skills so as to be able to get a betterjob.
BHN is happy to have such feedbacks from the students as, “I look forward to learning more because I hope
I will be able to do things I could not do up to now” or, “I cannot wait another week until the next class.”

BHN will continue improving the management of the classes by carefully listening to the needs of thestudents so that the graduates can make use of their skills in such activities as publishing local community
magazines, pursuing their hobbies, and obtaining jobs for teleworking using PCs.

Currently, classes are located in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture which suffered the most damage.
If there are other places where a sufficient number of students can come, it may also be possible to openclasses in such places. Students’ computer skills and their motive to start studying do not matter. Please
don’t hesitate to contact BHN for any help.
Takako YAMAZAKI, Program Officer

Study on e-Disaster communications using advanced ICT in the Kingdom of Tonga
2012.06.28 Thu 10:30/Development Support
First Study Group Meeting taking place in Tonga
BHN Association has started to study e-Disaster communications using advanced ICT in the Kingdom of
Tonga, together with Japan Telecommunications Engineering and Consulting Service (JTEC), Tongan
Government and Japan ICT Overseas Volunteers (ICTOV) Group.
The study is funded by Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT ) J2 scheme and will last 11 months until March
2013. BHN Association will be participating in the study with its expertise in the field of disastercommunication systems such as CA (community addressing) and FM radio stations.
The Kingdom of Tonga is a country located in Polynesia and, due to its geographical location, is known to bea country vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones and earthquakes. Therefore, establishment of aneffective communication means to collect disaster information and to disseminate evacuation orders to its
people is one of its top priorities.

The first meeting of the study group took place in Tonga on 4-8 June. Four Japanese ICT experts comprising
two from JTEC, one from ICTOV and another from BHN visited Tonga to discuss with the Tongan experts
and to visit sites vulnerable to tsunami and other natural disasters.

The scope of the study will cover two areas: disaster information system addressing information sharing
among the organizations responsible for disaster management/information and emergency community
addressing systems to disseminate information to the residents.

The second meeting will take place in July in Japan with four Tongan experts visiting Japan for discussions
and site visits.
There seems to be much expectation on the study among the Tongans such that the visit by the Japanese
team was reported on the Tongan TV and that the Prime Minister of Tonga spared his busy time to meet theJapanese team.
BHN, together with other members of the study group, intends to contribute to the study by utilizing its
expertise in the disaster communication systems.
Makoto Yamashita, Secretary General

“ASAHARA library” has been inaugurated at the head office of BHN Association
2012.08.08 Wed 15:17/Events, Others

A white book shelf and the funds for buying books for “ASAHARA library” have been donated by Mrs. Kuniko
ASAHARA who is the wife of the late Mr. Iwato ASAHARA (1930-2009).
Mr. Asahara was one of the founding members and the first President & Chairman of BHN Association. BHN
Association was founded by Mr. Asahara together with other founding members in 1992, and will celebrateits 20th anniversary this year thanks to the supports and passion of many BHN members and volunteers.
On the top of the shelf, we have put an emblem of an owl symbolizing Mr. Asahara who was a real book worm.
At the donation ceremony on July 19th, Mrs. Asahara handed the list of the donation to Mr. Uehara(President of BHN Association), and in turn for the donation, Mr. Uehara expressed BHN’s appreciation witha thank you letter.
We will buy books using the donation and we intend to utilize the books for promoting activities of BHN
Association.
BHN secretariat : Fumie Fukushima

Ishinomaki Senshu University ICT Open College inaugurated
2012.09.25 Tue 20:42/Emergency Relief
Fostering human resources needed to support reconstruction
Ishinomaki Senshu University ICT Open College was inaugurated on August 21 in the city of Inishomaki,
Miyagi Prefecture, one of the cities severely destroyed by the Great East Japan Disaster in March 2011. This
Open College is jointly organized by BHN Association and Ishinomaki Senshu University, and is aimed at
supporting the recovery of small and medium-sized enterprises in the area as well as enabling the disastervictims improve their computer skills so that they can take advantage of their skills in finding new jobs.
In the opening ceremony, welcome speeches were delivered by Prof. Takashi Sakata, President of Ishinomaki
Senshu University, and Dr. Moriji Kuwabara, Chairman of BHN Association.

Professor Sakata gave a speech with humour introducing hints about how one can enjoy learning without
giving up halfway: ”don’t try to learn more than one thing a day; praise yourself when you acquired it; thenboast it to your family and friends, so that it is imperative for you to remember what you boasted about.” Dr.
Kuwabara talked about the joy of learning how to use PCs by referring to his wife who is now using a PC tofind recipes.
There will be two lectures each week until November 13: two hours each time on Tuesdays and Thursdays
making it a total of 25 lectures. The first three lectures are introductory where the students will familiarize
themselves with tablet PCs by playing piano, etc. on the tablet. Each of the next ten lectures, in a selfcontained manner, is intended to get used to PCs by sending e-mails, Net surfing and drawing pictures. The
next ten lectures are devoted to acquiring PC skills necessary for business, where students, based on
textbooks, will learn how to use Microsoft Word and Excel from the basics.

Since August 2011, BHN Association has been supporting the disaster victims by way of launching PC classes
in the cities such as Ishinomaki, Tome and Onagawa, and has learned that the biggest challenge in thedisaster stricken areas now is the creation of jobs and employment. We will continue to contribute to thereconstruction of the areas by mobilizing our resources and experience through fostering human resources
necessary in the reconstruction work, supporting the recovery of the local industry and creating jobs.
The next Open College will open in February and March 2013.

Creation of this college has become possible thanks to the support of many organizations. The funds havebeen given by Mitsubishi Corporation Disaster Relief Foundation: PC software (Microsoft Office) and the
textbooks are provided by Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.: volunteers from NTT Data Corp. are acting as assisting
lecturers: Ishinomaki-shinkin Bank and Ishinomaki Chamber of Commerce & Industry are also supportingthe college by providing the venue.
Shinji Abe, staff of Miyagi OfficeSupporting people evacuated from IITATE village with health-maintenance programs
2012.10.18 Thu 11:34/Emergency Relief
First Health Consultation held at ICHIBAN-KAN
An assistance program for the villagers of IITATE using Information network (called Madei Kaeru network),
which includes a remote health consultation system, video conference system and computers was launched
in June 2011. Village office and temporary homes located in several different cities were connected to eachother by the network.
The program this time follows the above project and its objective is to assist people evacuated from IITATE
village in keeping and improving their health with an improved remote health consultation system. The
program started on 1st May 2012 with the funds provided through the Japan Platform (JPF), as a program
targeting health-maintenance of “IITATE Zenson Mimamori-tai” (Patrol Group for IITATE village) members
which consists of about 400 people, patrolling in the village.
Health consultation in cooperation with Humanitarian Medical Assistance (HuMA, an NPO) is one of themost important services of this program. HuMA will send medical doctors and nurses to IITATE village for
consultation every two weeks.
Distribution of over 500 pedometers to the members of Mimamori-Tai and the staff of IITATE village isanother important feature of the program. Each pedometer can be used as an ID card for the remote healthconsultation system which was introduced in our previous program. Personal pedometers will assist eachmember in his/her health keeping activity and will also enable the system to proliferate.

There were over 200 applicants for the pedometers after the briefing session held on 29th and 30th of May
at the ICHIBAN-KAN which is the building used as the guard station of Mimamori-Tai. Already, more than
100 pedometers have been handed over to the applicants until end of July.
The first Health consultation was held on 9th and 10th of June at the ICHIBAN-KAN with the cooperation

of a doctor and a nurse sent by HuMA. There were 38 visitors for the consultation and the consultation lasted
for about 20 minutes for each person. The consultation was highly evaluated by the participants, as can beseen by the fact that by the time the consultation ended, everybody, who arrived at the site with a gloomy
face, had a smile on his/her face.

The first workout fitness exercise was held in the afternoon of 10th June at ICHIBAN-KAN with an instructorfrom Sendai. Two sessions were held to accommodate shift work of Mimamori-tai. Participants enjoyed theexercise while shouting “Ouch!” because it was effective for muscles not regularly used in daily life. There
were about 80 participants in total for the two sessions.
Records from pedometers, blood pressure meters and weight scales are stored in the remote healthconsultation system. The system can be used for health consultations scheduled twice a month.
Takashi YOKNO, Counselor

Sarawak Medical Image Transfer system for Orthopaedics
2012.10.24 Wed 11:00/Development Support
History of BHN telemedicine system in Malaysia
Since the installation of a telemedicine system in Sarawak state in Malaysia in 2000, we were aiming to
expand the system to cover the state of Sarawak until 2004. The system was in operation until late 2007
when a new Tele-consultation system was introduced by the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia.
After Sarawak, BHN installed in 2008 a new telemedicine system in Sabah state, connecting Queen Elizabeth
Hospital in Kota Kinabaru and Tawau Hospital in the east cost of Sabah state. But the system had to facesome problems such as troubles with the image scanner at the beginning of the operation. Meanwhile, a Teleconsultation system was installed in Sabah state by MOH in 2009. As a result, utilization of the BHN system
gradually decreased.
Therefore, we decided to relocate the system to the State of Sarawak in order to seek more effective utilization.
Completion of the system relocation to the State of Sarawak
In Sarawak state, there is already an image transfer system (called Tele consultation system) introduced by
the MOH, however, this system is dedicated to brain surgery and heart surgery departments only, so thatorthopaedics in the hospitals could not benefit from the system.
After investigation of medical needs, and discussions with orthopaedics specialists, we decided to relocate
our system in Sabah state to the department of orthopaedics in the hospitals in Sarawak since the systemfitted well with the mode of operation and the good communication exchange between doctors in the central
hospital and rural hospitals.

Installation of the Sarawak Medical Image Transfer system for orthopaedics connecting Miri Hospital andSarawak General Hospital (S.G.H.) in Kuching, the capital city of State of Sarawak Malaysia, was completed
on 25 July 2012.
Uploading speed to the server improved remarkably as compared to the time when the system was installedin Sabah, since the server this time is located in Miri hospital where the client resides. It takes only several

tens of seconds to transfer an image from orthopaedics room to the server located in the server room. It will
improve system usability and reliability dramatically. The result of the image downloading and viewing testfrom S.G.H. was good as expected.
At orthopaedics department of Miri Hospital, we trained physicians (5 persons) on the usage of the system
including scanning of transparent films, DICOM (Standard for Digital Imaging and Communications usedin medical field) image viewer and image transfer to the server. We also gave training on system maintenanceto engineers at the ICT department.

At Sarawak General Hospital, training on how to view or download images from the server was given tophysicians and MAs (medical assistant) at the orthopaedics department. We also held training in thetelemedicine department on the management of the system.
Along with the installation in Miri Hospital and Sarawak General Hospital, client computers were alsodelivered to Bintulu Hospital and Sibu Hospital in Sarawak, but they are used only for viewing images ofMiri Hospital due to license regulation. Therefore, they will be used for the education of doctors. The systems
in these hospitals will be extended and incorporated into the total system when we confirm the success of theMiri system.
Takashi YOKNO, Counselor

Workshop for the disaster radio broadcasting stations in Tohoku area
2012.12.19 Wed 13:45/Emergency Relief
On December 11th, BHN, jointly with the other organizations, held a special workshop for the disaster radio
broadcasting stations in Tohoku area that heavily suffered from the Tsunami of March 11th 2011.
The day of 11th of each month is marked as the Memorial Day to remember the victims of Tsunami and themeeting started with a moment of silence.
The venue of the workshop was chosen in the city of Minami-Souma, which suffered a serious effect from theatomic accident of Fukushima and 1/3 of the city is banned to live and many people are still evacuating fromtheir homes.
In this workshop, more than 25 people joined, many of them are operators of the radio stations and lost theirfamilies and relatives by the Tsunami.

Almost all the staff members of these broadcasting stations are laymen in the job and they exchanged theirexperiences, good or bad, to improve their broadcasting programs.

Also, an engineer from BHN gave alecture on the technical issues for maintenance & operation.
Quite a coincidence, a gigantic after-shock of the earthquake of last year happened (Mag. 7.4, bigger than theearthquake in Haiti, 2010) a few days before the workshop and caused a minor Tsunami and the attendants
were extremely serious in their discussions.
Hirofumi AIZAWA, Counselor

Completion of the first semester of the 15th BHN Human Resource Development Program
2013.03.01 Fri 17:03/Human Resources Dev.
The first semester of the 15th BHN Human Resource Development Program took place from November 15 to
December 21, 2012 at the Multimedia University in Malaysia (MMU) as was the case in previous programs.

There were eight trainees each from Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh,the Philippines and Laos. Five of them were technical people and the rest were administrative.
The first semester lasted five weeks in which MMU professors mainly provided lectures covering a wide areaof subjects ranging from technical to legal matters, based on the curriculum prepared by MMU. There werealso lectures by Japanese experts on the first two days and the last three days of the semester. Outside the
MMU, trainees had a chance to visit a Japanese ICT company doing business in Malaysia.

During the closing ceremony of the first semester, the trainees expressed their satisfaction over the program
whose lectures and observation trips were found to be very fruitful to them. After having received certificatesfrom BHN Association and the MMU for their achievements over the preceding five weeks, the trainees left
for home and workplace which they missed for weeks.
The second semester is planned for June 2013 and will be held in Tokyo, Japan. We will make the best
preparations we can so that the program in Japan is as fruitful as was the one in Malaysia. Their arrival in
Japan is anticipated.
Kazuhisa Konoma, Director