Ashinaga delegation visits Haiti in support of orphans of January 2010 earthquake
Orphans and care staff present donations to local organizations,
conduct emotional care programs for children,
and interview candidates for study in Japanese universities
After the massive earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, Ashinaga conducted emergency street-corner fundraising campaigns in Tokyo and Kobe on Sunday, January 17, in support of children in Haiti who lost parents in the disaster. Ashinaga also collected donations via its Web site, and as of the end of May had received 4,531,375 yen in funds, which were allocated for donation to three local organizations in Haiti.
On June 15, 2010, an Ashinaga delegation?including three orphans from the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and one orphan who had lost a parent to illness?arrived in Haiti to deliver the funds collected in Japan and conduct care activities with children in Haiti who had suffered the loss of parents in the earthquake. Ashinaga staff also conducted interviews with candidates for study at Japanese universities.
The following is a daily summary of activities in Haiti.
Day 1 (June 15)
After arrival, the delegation went straight to the site of a local non-profit organization, ¡ÈFondation Henri Riquet Perpignand,¡É where members were welcomed by some 80 children. Ashinaga students played games and sang songs with the Haitian children, and shared their experiences of loss via interpreters. The delegation also participated in the opening of an art therapy center at the foundation, and held a ceremony to present the funds collected in Japan to three local organizations: the Perpignand foundation mentioned above, the Communaute St. Mary, and the Children of Mary, Mother of Divine Mercy Foundation.
At the end of the first day, Yuri Fukui, 20, a second-year student at Koshien University, said, ¡ÈLooking around at the city, it seems as though very little has been done in terms of recovery and rebuilding, in spite of the fact that it has been five months since the earthquake. I hope I have the opportunity to tell students and others in Japan about what I see here.¡É
Day 2 (June 16)
In the morning, the delegation visited Communaute St. Mary, which provides school classes for the surrounding community, and also has an orphanage and medical clinic on its grounds. Since the earthquake, approximately 5,000 people have taken refuge on the organization¡Çs land. The delegation met with children at an orphanage on site, where 25 of 60 children there had lost parents in the earthquake. Ashinaga students played soccer and drew pictures with the Haitian orphans, and shared their experience and feelings associated with losing parents.
Shota Nakano, 18, a first-year student at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, said, ¡ÈI drew my house before the (Great Hanshin-Awaji) earthquake, in which I lost my mother.¡É Conversely, Haitian student Franz Adrian, 8, said, ¡ÈI lost my mother, brother, sister, and grandmother in the earthquake. I don¡Çt want to think about the earthquake, so I drew a happy picture.¡É Franz also commented, ¡ÈIt was fun playing soccer with the Japanese kids. I hope I can graduate from school one day and visit other countries like Shota.¡É
After visiting with the Haitian orphans, the delegation moved to the Haitian-American Institute in the center of Port-au-Prince, where Toshiyuki Yagi, an Ashinaga ¡ÈRainbow House¡É staff member who conducts programs for Japanese children who lose parents, gave a presentation on Ashinaga¡Çs 15 years of experience in caring for bereaved children. The talk was attended by over 150 people, including university students and NGO staff. During the presentation, attendees listened intently as Ashinaga student Tomoyuki Nagake, 22, a fourth-year student at Konan University, described his experience of feeling supported by the children (orphans of the earthquake) he had met earlier that day.
At the end of the presentation, Ashinaga staff distributed copies of a ¡Ècare manual,¡É describing how the organization works with children who suffer the loss of parents, which had been translated into French for Haitian participants by volunteers in Japan.
Day 3 (June 17)
The delegation broke up into two groups, with one visiting the orphanage run by the Children of Mary, Mother of Divine Mercy Foundation, and the second returning to the Haitian-American Institute to conduct interview with students applying to study at Japanese universities.
Twenty-five children reside at the orphanage, which had been established by a Haitian couple using their personal funds. Ashinaga students introduced themselves and enjoyed various activities with the Haitian children. Orphanage resident Elronzi Jeanty, 12, said, ¡ÈHearing about the earthquake experiences of my Japanese brothers and sisters, I thought that they must have been very sad. I will not forget today, and hope to be friends with them forever.¡É After visiting the orphanage, Japanese student Saki Morimoto, 22, a fourth-year student at Komazawa Women¡Çs University, said, ¡ÈAll of the children listened intently to what we were saying. I was really impressed by how they supported each other.¡É
The Ashinaga staff doing interviews for study in Japan interviewed 24 candidates, and due to the large number of applicants decided to continue interviews the following day, as well. Many of the applicants had lost parents in the earthquake and were still living in tents, but that did not diminish their desire to go on to higher education and contribute to the future development of Haiti. Ashinaga seeks to sponsor students for one-year study-abroad programs, as well as four-year degree programs, at Japanese universities.
Day 4 (June 18)
As with the previous day, the delegation separated into two groups, with Ashinaga students and care staff visiting areas of Port-au-Prince that had been particularly affected by the earthquake, while other staff continued interviewing study-abroad candidates.
After visiting various areas of the city along with a staff member from the Children of Mary, Mother of Divine Mercy Foundation, the Ashinaga students all expressed surprise at the slow pace of cleanup and reconstruction, saying that they could not believe that it had been a full five months since the earthquake. Tomoyuki Nagake said, ¡ÈI remember how both the city of Kobe and its citizens were focused on rebuilding after the earthquake, and I hope that the government of Haiti can move quickly to help its citizens.¡É
For their part, the staff members conducting interviews met with another 44 candidates, for a total of 68 over two days. Ashinaga staff will carefully examine all applications over the next few weeks before selecting candidates for recommendation to universities in Japan.
Day 5 (June 19)
The delegation wound up its activities, and headed back to Japan via New York.
Please click on the following for articles from the Japanese press:
Kyodo News (1),
Kyodo News (2),
Sankei Shimbun (newspaper)
Please note that Ashinaga is continuing to accept donations in support of education for children in Haiti; see below for information on how to make a donation.
Donations via Japan Post Bank:
¡ÈAshinaga kaigai iji kokoro no shienguchi¡É (Please indicate ¡Èfor Haiti campaign.¡É)
Postal account number 00190-9-559337
Donations via the Web (credit card):
In English
In Japanese
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