By:  Paul Guilfoile

Date: April 3, 2011

Support Groups:

IACJapan – International Alumni Council of Japan (website being rebuilt)

The IACJapan group supports member alumni associations and their schools including St. Mary’s, the International School of the Sacred Heart, St. Maurs, Nishimachi International School, ASIJ, YIS, Marist Brothers (Kobe), the Canadian Academy (Kobe) and St. Josephs and regularly holds networking events for alumnus in Japan.

On June 18th, the IACJapan group will be holding its annual NATSUMATSURI at Nishimachi International School to help raise funds for the survivors in the Tohoku area.

L&D NPO – (http://twitter.com/LDSendai) An NPO staffed by local Tohoku college students and headquartered within the Sendai Town Hall. This group is directed by a seasoned former business executive with direct contacts to politicians and the shelters and schools throughout the area.

The focus of L&D is to get food and other necessities to the right locations on a daily basis. They ensure that their contributions are appropriate supplements to what the government officials provide to the survivors and they also search for survivors who can’t get to the shelters and have no means of feeding their families.

Current Environment:

After 3 weeks, the roads in the Tsunami area of Ishinomaki have been cleared so that vehicles can move about. People have begun returning to their homes in some areas to sort out belongings. These areas are mostly about 4 to 5 kilometers inland. In the areas closer to where the tsunami came in, there is nothing but destruction. I saw that some people were able to move back into their homes, but these were very few. Within the first kilometer to the water, there is no electricity, gas or running water. The scale of the destruction is hard to describe as it just goes on for miles and miles.

Relief Delivery:

The beginning of this program started with Ted Skillman (former IACJ chairman) organizing an initial trip up with Tim Exley (IT specialist) and Tom Ward (ASIJ parent).  Their initial trip up was supported by the L&D NPO, in which the basic status of the devastation and necessary support measures were evaluated.

On Sunday, April 3rd, 2011, Ted Skillman (ASIJ ’73) and Paul Guilfoile (St. Mary’s ’73) took a load of food provided by the Second Harvest Group http://www.2hj.org/ and left at 6am from Tokyo arriving at 10:30am in Sendai city. The shipment included, bananas, apples, raisins, cup ramen, candy & cookies, adult diapers and bread rolls.

L&D in the meantime went to pick up one pallet of oranges that was delivered to a warehouse in Sendai and contributed by Chuck Olson, the president of the largest citrus importer in Japan, GOLD SPAN.

The initial delivery was to an area with survivors who had no access to the shelters (see photos) After one week, they have managed to settle in and clean up their homes. We dropped off a few boxes of oranges, apples, bananas and a few other items for their neighborhood.

Although we had plans to go to another hinanjo (shelter), this lady directed us to another one with 500 survivors and many kids.

With all of these hinanjo, we need to first go in and ask for permission to distribute product. When they heard we had fresh oranges, they immediately set up a few tables for us; we backed our trucks in and began to hand out oranges and much more to a steady stream of excited survivors.

We let them take as much as they wanted with some people carting away 20 – 30 oranges at once for their families. Many of the elderly thanked us profusely and had big smiles on their faces. The kids kept coming back for more and were curious about the two foreigners handing out the food. There’s a photo with a 13-year-old girl who asked to take some photos with us and her smile was amazing.

After unloading and distributing all of the product we had with us, we took off for a quick tour of the town. The devastation is incredible and extensive. There are some photos showing makeshift graves that number up to 10,000. These graves are rare as the crematoriums cannot operate yet. They have also run out of coffins in which most of the deceased have been buried with simple numbers above each grave.

In Summary:

Ted and I returned home at 3am after another long drive back. The cost of the trip worked out to close to roughly 30,000 yen with gas and tolls and the drive itself took a total of 10 hours round trip.

Next Trip:

After this, we are planning for the delivery of 200 computers which Symantec has offered to donate and set up. We are also planning to take a few 100 bicycles, which are being offered by a company in Nagoya. Tim has informed us that we now have a donation of 40,000 tons of rice and 100,000 bottles of water  and we are in discussions with L&D to deliver it to the survivors.

Separate from this, I am initiating a relief program via the St. Mary’s Alumni Association (SMAA)   http://alum.smis.ac.jp/  for the long term needs of the survivors. We will be delivering 1,000 kotatsu (donated by George Tsai St. Mary’s ’73) and futon (still negotiating with relevant companies) to Sendai and we will be setting up a fund to help keep this going for the Fall as well, so please stay tuned.

This is all for now. To view the photos from our trip, go to IACJapan Disaster Relief PhotoAlbum:

Thanks again to all who have contributed to the people of Tohoku!

 

Paul Guilfoile
SMAA Chairman & IACJapan Soulman

Ted Skillman
Former IACJapan Chairman