[TOKYO, JAPAN, 6 March 2013]
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| Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Emergency Relief Two-Year Report [7.2MB] » |
Almost two years have passed since UNICEF Headquarters entrusted the Japan Committee for UNICEF (JCU) with overseeing the Great East Japan Earthquake relief campaign. Generous support by donors committed to the protection and wellbeing of children has made JCU's domestic campaign possible, marking the first time UNICEF has provided assistance domestically in Japan in nearly half a century.
Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, JCU worked in cooperation with Japanese UNCIEF staff who temporarily left their posts—providing emergency assistance throughout the world—to come to Japan, as well as countless partner organizations and corporations. In this way, JCU expanded the scope of its assistance activities by launching campaigns to distribute drinking water, clothes and other supplies, establish maternal and child health services, and support the reopening of schools. UNICEF utilized experience and knowledge it had acquired over the past decades to overcome the differences between developed and developing countries in successfully providing assistance to those in need in Japan.
From the outset JCU noticed a lack of assistance in the areas of nursery care, education and after-school care for preschool-age children. Dubbing it the Door-to-Door Project, local staff responded to the situation by visiting preschools and kindergartens to provide blankets, dishes, toys, furniture and other supplies in accordance with the individual needs of institutions, and to offer cleaning assistance for schools that were covered in sludge due to the tsunami. The next step of these efforts was reconstruction assistance for preschool and kindergarten buildings, one of the flagship assistance activities during the second year.
Today, children enjoy a peaceful school life at the preschools and kindergartens reconstructed with the generous assistance of UNCIEF donors. Disaster victims and assistance-providers have found courage and hope in the bright new buildings built by local carpenters using local wood, and when seeing the children happily playing in their new buildings.
Reconstruction work has shifted into full swing thanks to the various efforts of the central and local governments, while civil groups and local residents have long been active on the front lines of the assistance campaign. JCU will continue to implement assistance in the areas of psychosocial care, child protection and child participation-based reconstruction planning. JCU will boost its assistance efforts by supporting local UNICEF committees, municipal governments and local residents.
JCU extends its deepest gratitude to its donors in Japan and throughout the world, and asks for your ongoing support as JCU continues to assist Tohoku children.
The Japan Committee for UNICEF invites you to read the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Emergency Relief Two-year Report, a report of JCU assistance efforts over the past two years in the affected areas of the Tohoku region.
Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Emergency Relief Two-year Report [7.2MB] »
On 11 March 2011, at the Japan Committee for UNICEF we asked ourselves, "What can we do to help?" This report covers the assistance made possible by the good will and generosity of countless donors and partners over the two years since.
Two-year Report Video 
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Two-year Report Video (reconstruction) 
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An event was held today, 6 March to report on JCU's two years of assistance efforts in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake. The event included presentations that offered an overview of the two years of assistance, presentations by architects involved in the preschool and kindergarten reconstruction projects, and presentations by children about the problems that they continue to face and what can be done to address those challenges. Click on the video below to see the event's highlights.