Installation of Non-Stop radio operation system in the Town of Watari, Miyagi Prefecture
2013.07.10 Wed 17:50/Emergency Relief

By the end of last June, BHN installed a non-stop power system for the broadcasting station in the Town of
Watari.
Until then, once commercial power supply is suspended, it was always necessary to manually start again
which needed some person to rush to the radio station at night.

The system is composed of 6 high-capacity batteries in total for the radio emitter & antenna, automatic power
chargers and other equipment. To minimize the cost to install the system BHN has hand-fabricated the nonstop power circuits(which costs around $10,000 in the market).

With the installation of this non-stop operation system, they are now able to continue broadcasting over 8
hours at the time of blackouts.

This work has been realized with the funds from Global Giving .

Please click here for support and donation to this project. (link to the website of Global Giving)Almost all the radio system in Watari broadcasting station was built by BHN and they are planning totransform from a “temporal radio station” to a normal “community radio station” next year.
BHN is now consulting with Ohtuchi broadcasting station(in Iwate Prefecture) to improve the listening
difficulties in the mountain areas and, after fixing the listening problem, we also intend to install the same
non-stop power system there.

Hirofumi Aizawa, Vice President

Multimedia University students Visited BHN for ICT filed studies
2013.08.06 Tue 17:23/Human Resources Dev.

Engineering Society Overseas Research Program
From 20th to 31st May, BHN Association accepted 11 students (plus one lecturer/trip leader) of Engineering
Society of Multimedia University (MMU) , Malaysia, who visited Japan for the overseas graduation research
program. They came to Japan to study the latest wireless communication technologies in Japan. Their maintechnological interests were in 3.9G LTE (Long Term Evolution) and NFC (Near Field Communication). They
visited many companies, universities and research laboratories which are involved in mobile radio businessand technologies.
The students are sophomore or junior of the university and the planning of the program was made bythemselves, but the detailed program and the arrangements were made by BHN. Their nationality is mainly
Malaysian but there were also students from Nigeria, Jordan, Iran, etc. Therefore, conversation language
among the students was commonly English, but Chinese and Malay were also often heard.
In the first part of the program, they started to study the basic mobile communication technologies and thehistory of Japanese mobile communication services at the University of Electro-Communications, and visited
major manufacturers to observe recent communication equipment to get a hands-on experience.
Moreover, they were each given a SUICA card, — an IC card that enables people to take trains all over Japan
without buying a ticket each time — and actually used it as the typical example of NFC (Near Field
Communication) thereby experiencing its benefits in rush-hour.

In the next phase of the program, they received presentations of the newest technologies in mobile
communication and had precious discussions with the factory engineers, through which they understood thetrends in mobile communication development from 3G to 4G by way of 3.9G.
In the final part of the program, they visited a radio mobile communication base station site, and saw actual
construction and maintenance works. They seemed to be strongly impressed by the large-scale systems andcomplicated networks.
Since the research institutes, factories and station sites that they visited were located in various places in
the Tokyo Metropolitan area, they had to travel every day, but they continued to show vigorous interest in
every matter, from which we knew that they are real elites of their countries.
At the closing session, Mr.UEHARA, President of BHN, commended their precious research program andappreciated their enthusiasm in the program, which in turn was responded by many students with speechesof gratitude to BHN and BHN leaders. They are so polite and intelligent that it is certain that they will
become leaders in their countries in the future.

Here are some last interesting episodes:i)

One student got lost in the morning rush-hour train but was safely rescued by the “BHN special searchteam” within 20 minutes.
ii) Many gimmick goods were introduced by the BHN leader and they were very much surprised to playwith them (Mirage set, 3 dimension transmitter, Dowsing rod, etc.)

iii) Japanese traditional paperwork ORIGAMI was shown and they learned how to fold a paper and make aflower or an animal. Soon they were able to make a lot of ORIGAMI masterpieces to their enjoyment andsouvenirs.
iv) Mr. Lini(trip leader) sent a thanks message as follows:“We wish to say a thousand thanks (Terima kasih
in Malay) to all BHN for arranging such a wonderful trip! We can’t say much except to be very grateful &thankful for everything.”
Yasushi Yoneoka, CounselorSupport activities for disaster victims in Miyagi Prefecture
2013.09.12 Thu 18:25/Emergency Relief― Completion of Internet Set-Up ―● Completion of Internet set-up at meeting halls of temporary housing in the city of Ishinomaki
The works for setting up Internet connections and computers were fully completed in 18 meeting halls of
temporary housing community in the city of Ishinomaki.
Nukazuka temporary housing community, one of the six communities where the work had been completed in
June, is located approximately 15km away from the city center, and is a middle-sized community where 52
families/92 people live.
Just after the works had been completed, BHN carried out a brief hands-on training to the executives so that
PCs can be utilized in the activities of residents’ association by making good use of e-mails andbrowsers. Another IT training is also planned in July targeting at the executives of temporary housing
communities in the vicinity.

●“Do not force anyone, nor allow anyone force others” is the key to smooth management of the community.
On June 27, Mr. Masanori Sato, BHN Chairman, and Mr. Shuji Arima, BHN counselor, visited Ishinomaki
Ohashi temporary housing community.
Since Ohashi Residents’ Association consists of 540 families/1,063 people, which is the biggest in Ishinomaki,
one can easily imagine that association executives should be facing difficulties in managing the community
smoothly.

The following comment by the chairman of the association to Mr. Sato was quite interesting; “our motto,
which is ‘do not force anyone, nor allow anyone force others to do something’ is the key to smoothmanagement.”
The chairman of the association added with gratitude that the Internet environment set up by BHN
contributed much to:1)quickly obtain public information from municipalities and promptly deliver it to the association

members,2)

as well as to easily create and edit leaflets.

● Hands-on Training in June
In June, hands-on training for writing and sending/receiving e-mails, and for making leaflets/activities
schedule etc. were conducted in 11 premises.
BHN visited Momo-o Nakatsuyama temporary housing community close to the border of the city of Tome,which is 30 minutes’ drive along the Sanriku-do (Sanriku route) from BHN Higashimatsuyama Office.
The community with 122 families is located inland and most of the families are evacuees from various
tsunami stricken areas.
According to the chairman of the association, the residents gradually started to socialize with neighbors, andday by day, more and more people started to gather in the meeting hall and enjoy chatting. Nowadays,
sweeping and security patrol around the premise are conducted by residents consisting of senior people
mainly in their sixties and seventies. The chairman himself studies PC operation enthusiastically because
he enjoys creating and editing leaflets.
In the 1st IT training in Aikawa Undoukouen temporary housing community after the Internet was set up,
the training mainly focused on how to send and receive e-mails. As the Internet is used more freely andfrequently by the residents, further efficient management and information sharing in the community are
expected to be achieved.
● IT support for the executives of Higashimatsuyama temporary housing residents’ association
The city of Higashimatsuyama, facing the Pacific Ocean had 2/3 of its area flooded by Tsunami; the city
suffered the most damage in terms of the devastating impact to its main industries such as agriculture andaquaculture.
Recently, the city started to arrange explanatory meetings for the disaster victims who are looking forward
to moving into public housing now under construction; 250 families from 4 districts will actually start moving
into the apartments from April, 2014 as a proof of steady revival.

BHN has been supporting the city by means of providing Internet environment to 10 premises and several
IT trainings since May, 2012.
In June 2013, mobile routers with high-usage in 6 premises were replaced with FTTH, and in addition,
desktop PCs were newly donated for further facilitating the work of the members of the association.
BHN will continue to provide IT trainings and the necessary maintenance supports to the committees andassociations concerned.

Myanmar Life Environment Improvement Project utilizing community addressing systems in the SouthernDelta2013.11.13 Wed 11:20/Emergency Relief
As a result of the evaluation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the above captioned project wasapproved, and a contract for receiving Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Project was concluded on
September 24.

Five years ago, on May 2 and 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis brought catastrophic destruction with over 138,000
fatalities and missing people mainly in the Ayeyarwady area of Myanmar’s southern delta as well as in otherareas including Yangon.
Our organization carried out a local survey immediately after the disaster, and from November 2008 to
January 2011, we supplied and installed Community Addressing systems (“CA system”) to the residents in
91 villages in 4 districts including the Ayeyarmady area. A CA system enables messages and warning signals
to be broadcast to the people through loud speakers so that the local residents can be alerted at the earliest
possible timing. Based on the appreciation of its usefulness, a request for additional supplies to another 70
villages was received from the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Unionof Myanmar (“UMFCCI”).
The project this year was triggered by this request and UMFCCI is now providing full assistance to us as ourprime local partner. The project also includes installation of solar generation systems in the 91 villages
already equipped with CA systems in our previous projects. The expected project duration is as long as 17
months starting on September 24, this year.

In Myanmar, the above Cyclone prompted government-led initiatives for disaster prevention, and thus theestablishment of emergency-alarm structure and set-up of inexpensive alarm systems are regarded as
matters of great urgency. If our project is of any help to the improvement of disaster prevention in Myanmar,
we will be most happy.

Most of villages in the project area are located along main rivers or between mesh-like small rivers, andvillage people usually use boats for their everyday life. Since social infrastructure is rather poor in this area,
no commercial electricity is available at home, and most residents neither have telephones nor radios.
Therefore, means of information delivery to local residents do not exist even at ordinary times.
Such being the case, we heard people say that even though emergency shelters are built, there are no means
for alerting the residents to evacuate to a shelter at the time of disaster. Protection from natural disasters
depends on how fast residents can obtain accurate disaster prevention information.

In addition, at ordinary times, we expect that CA systems will be well utilized and help improve life
environment of area residents by delivering to them weather forecast, sanitation/health-care, publicity ofmunicipality and event information etc. which are indispensable for the everyday life of the local residents.

Kousuke Dobashi, Director

BHN sent a team to the Philippines -Survey team for support of people affected by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda2013.11.27 Wed 15:05/
After Super Typhoon Haiyan (locally called Yolanda) struck the Visayan Region of the Philippines on 8
November, a BHN team consisting of three members was dispatched to the Philippines on 19 November toinvestigate the possible support activities by BHN Association for those affected by the typhoon.
The three spent one day in Manila, having meetings with the members of PLDT (The Philippine LongDistance Telephone Company), PDRF (Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation), certain telecommunication
infrastructure construction company and others in order to collect information about the damages on thetelecommunication networks and the state of their recovery, as well as the activities conducted by various
groups. The team also had a chance to meet a Japanese resident in Tacloban, Leyte, the worst-hit town by
the disaster, who told the team about his escape from his house which was flooded up to the shoulder.
Two of the members later moved to Cebu where they started to investigate possible support activities by
BHN in Leyte, such as setting up Internet connections and/or installing Community Addressing Systems,
while the member remaining in Manila conducted a research on the availability and the price of equipmentthat may become necessary in conducting the possible support activities.
Members in Cebu travelled to Omroc, Leyte, another severely hit town in Leyte, and its neighbouring towns.
They met some local people wanting to communicate with faraway family members and friends about theirsafety, so that BHN members lent them their satellite phones and were very much thanked by the people.
Based on the survey results of the team, BHN will draw support plans for the affected people.

Bangladesh Project No.2: Official Launch of the Project in March 20132014.02.12 Wed 14:30/Development Support
Official Launch of Project
It is almost 11 months since the official launch of the “Community Capacity Development Project for Disaster
Risk Reduction by Community Radio” in Hatiya Island, Bangladesh on 15th March 2013, which is supported
by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
After completing registration of the BHN Association Bangladesh Office (BHN-BD) at the Bangladesh NGO
Affairs Bureau, BHN Tokyo concluded a contract with JICA for the JICA Partnership Program and started
the project together with BHN’s local partner Dwip Unnayan Songstha (DUS).

Hatiya Island is particularly vulnerable to cyclones and is designated as one of the cyclone high risk areas.
People in Hatiya have experienced huge human and asset losses by cyclones for a long time. However, theIsland is still left behind in terms of easy and early access to weather and other necessary information for
their security in the event of natural disasters due to lack of means.
As a new communication medium in Bangladesh, Community Radio (CR) broadcasting by local Hatiya dialect
is expected to contribute to facilitating people’s access to necessary information such as disaster and weather
information, basic knowledge of water & sanitation, health care and so on. We are sure CR has huge
possibilities to make a lot of positive influence on people’s life in Hatiya, not only in an event of disaster but
also in their regular life.
Outline of Project
The project duration is from 15th March 2013 to 31th August 2017. The goal is to enhance the ability of people
in Hatiya to deal with the disasters with the active use of community radio. We expect to realize the goal
through achieving the following outcomes which are the detailed objectives of the project.

1. To establish an operational and managerial system for the community radio (CR) broadcasting system
aimed at serving as a disaster early warning system.
2. To establish a weather and disaster protection information broadcasting system specialized in the target
area to minimize the disaster risks.
3. To establish an environmental system that will enable the local inhabitants to actively utilize the disaster
early warning system based upon the CR system.
4. To establish an evacuation system in case of disasters in the target area.

For protecting human life from cyclones by taking advantage of CR and by enhancing people’s potential
capacity, all members of this project team are working hard every day on activities to achieve the objectivesof the project. These activities will be introduced soon.
Anna Tamaki, Project Coordinator

Bangladesh Project No.3: Joint Kick-off Workshop
2014.02.14 Fri 15:13/Development Support
This project, titled “Community Capacty Development Project for Disaster Risk Reduction by Community
Radio, has been implemented in Hatiya Island, Bangaldesh with a local partner Dwip Unnayan Songstha as
JICA Partnership Program. The project period is from 15th March 2013 to 31st August 2017. For further
information, please click HERE.
● Joint Kick-off Workshop
A “Joint Kick-off Workshop” for the JICA Partnership Program “Community Capacity Development Projectfor Disaster Risk Reduction by Community Radio” was organized in order to nurture a common
understanding of the project concept among the partners.

The workshop was held at DUS Conference Room at Hatiya, from 3rd to 5th April 2013. A total of 15 members
participated from Dwip Unnayan Songstha (DUS), BHN Bangladesh (BHN-BD) and BHN Tokyo.
On the 1st day, the workshop started with the General Session. In order to foster staffs’ deep understandingof the project and its smooth implementation, basic information such as project background, purpose,
implementation structure, and basic concepts of Community Radio was explained and discussed among thestaffs. In the Financial Session, the staffs had lively discussions on JICA’s accounting guidelines, accounting
processes, reporting and so on.

The Implementation Session was conducted on the 2nd and 3rd days. Following a detailed explanation ofactivity reports and project schedule management, participants spent most of their time braking down eachactivity from task level to finer level through intense debate.
Throughout the three-day workshop, the staffs worked hard to achieve the aim of this workshop with theirconcentration and high motivation. At the end of the day, everyone was filled with a feeling of accomplishment.
As project team members, they are expected to work hard together and to contribute actively to the successful
implementation of the project for protecting people in Hatiya from the threat of natural disasters.

A more detailed report of the Joint Kick-off Workshop is available in PDF format.
Joint Kick-off Worshop Rpoert [PDF]>Please click the link below for the previous article of this project.
Bangladesh Project No.2: Official Launch of the Project in March 2013
Anna TAMAKI, Project Coordinator

Installation of Solar Power Systems in Myanmar-Karen State
2014.02.26 Wed 17:01/Development Support
In Myanmar, it is said that there are as many as 135 ethnic minority groups and over 60 years after
independence, many of these groups were in battle, demanding a wider autonomy against the central
government.
In recent years many of them are agreeing ceasefire treaty with the central government and the refugees
and IDPs (Internally Displaced People) are gradually returning to their old home lands.

However, most of these lands were deserted and left without any infrastructure investments.

Since lastsummer BHN have been trying to build solar power systems in one of such villages; Shan Ywar Thit in Karen
State.

To reach the site we have to cross 20 rivers without bridges and during the rainy season from Juneto October the village is not accessible by land.
Last November, BHN started the construction of solar power systems in the high school and the village
community center.

In the middle of January, BHN completed the solar systems and installed room lamps,

a TV receiver, a radio telephone set, etc. and received a letter of appreciation from the state government forthis work.

This project was financially supported by Japan Platform (JPF), an umbrella NGO for NGOs, and BHN isplanning to apply for further funds to expand the benefit of solar energy to other areas without electricity in
the Karen State.
Hirofumi AIZAWA, Project Manager