Three creative ways people are bringing hope and healing to Sendai

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Three creative ways people are bringing hope and healing to Sendai

Ode Magazine Yobo Member
January 25th, 2012

Credit: Jaime Olmo

By Anne Thomas

Even though the initial intensity of the March 11 disaster has subsided, many people still feel a deep tugging to help Japanese disaster victims. Since that subtle pull is strong and persistent, people are finding very creative ways to bring hope and healing to this part of the world.

Three efforts in particular have found their way to me. The first is an offer by a caring individual and his family. The second is an Australian concern called Wishes on Wings. And the third is an American project named 500 Frogs.

Here is the beautiful offer given by a very sensitive, loving family:

“Years ago we spent some time in Sendai, and the coastal villages to the north, as I work as a marine biologist. Our team had tracked a sea turtle from Baja California, Mexico to Sendai (7,000 miles in 368 days), the first animal ever tracked swimming across an ocean.

“While in Sendai, we experienced such wonderful hospitality and kindness from strangers. In our work we walked a long stretch of coast to the north of Sendai until we reached Adelita’s (the turtle) final location. All along the way we were greeted and taken care of.

“Our family and my work has been connected to Sendai ever since.

“Our daughters, Grayce (9) and Julia (6), were thinking about how they could help people in Sendai and decided that they’d like to offer their room to a girl from Sendai who may want to take a break in the redwoods of California…sort of a reverse sea turtle migration.

“They’d like to host a Japanese family to come stay with us, to help a girl their age to feel less stress. They remember what it was like when our home was nearly lost to a massive forest fire.”

Truly this manifests the beauty of empathy and compassion at work, individual to individual.

The second of these, Wishes on Wings, began almost immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami obliterated most of the Pacific coastline settlements of this area. This organization has two main projects. One is on an emotional and spiritual dimension, the other very practical. The first was addressed by volunteers who made thousands of origami cranes, uniting them into long garlands called Senbazuru. For centuries these winged messengers have been symbols of hope and good wishes for those in difficulty. The other level of the work of Wishes on Wings was very down to earth. They did fundraising, not to give cash donations, but rather to offer very practical items, such as a kitchen in a community center, or equipment for a daycare center and a school. The Senbazuru and fund raising activities are drawing to a close. So the next part is to find the best place for the equipment they wish to offer. To get a clearer idea of the work, here are the exact words of Cate Juno, one of the main organizers of this project.

“Actually, Wishes on Wings has been set up specifically to rally support for the survivors of the Japan disaster. We are doing this in two ways:

“Firstly, we are encouraging people to send messages of hope which we are writing onto origami paper and making them into paper cranes to create a senbazuru (or many senbazuru we hope!) We are doing this so that people feel they are making an emotional connection with those who are suffering, and so that the people who receive these messages know that the world at large has not forgotten them. We think this is an important aspect of ‘giving.’

“Secondly, we are collecting monetary donations with the aim of contributing to a specific project in the disaster area once the task of rebuilding begins. We would {like} to find a specific project such as cooking equipment for a community centre, or play equipment for a daycare centre, or equipment for a school, etc.

“This project is also going into our local schools so that children can feel that they can help too. We are in Western Australia but have a friend in Atlanta who is also starting this project there. We are also gathering financial support from other small groups here who are collecting donations and want to work together to create a single project.

“One of team members is a university student from Sendai who has decided to stay and continue his studies because his parents have said this is the best way he can contribute to the future of Sendai. But it is very difficult for Koki to focus on his studies and so this project is helping him to cope with his personal tragedy.

We have a website (at present very rudimentary!) at www.wishesonwings.com and a Facebook page Wishes on Wings.”

Last week I met Koki, who had returned to this area for a few weeks. It was the first time he had come home since the disaster. When I met him, he was in total shock and very conflicted as to what his next move should be. “Should I continue my studies in Perth?” he queried. “Or should I come back here to help? I really, really want to be here now. What in all of this have I really experienced? I feel so left out, as if I should have been here during the earthquake and tsunami. But what can I do now?”

We talked for a long time, but his deep existential questioning has just begun. Hopefully it will lead him to unfold into a sense of what he is meant to do for those who have and still are suffering tremendously.

The third endeavor that has become part of my life is 500 Frogs. One of the persons involved, Nanci Caron, an occupational therapist in California, was fascinated by the philosophy behind these teeny creatures of hope. “Kaeru” means two things in Japanese. One is “frog” and the other is “to return home.” In addition, frogs carry very rich and deep symbolism in Japanese culture. So images of these wonderful beings seemed an appropriate item to give to children who had suffered great loss during the March 11 trauma and beyond. And for her part in this project Nanci wanted to use small resin-cast frogs, sculpted by her friend, Randy Buckler. Her exact words are better than mine, so here they are:

“Meanwhile, I am busy with the project with my patients, and some of my personal friends. People want to be part of a bigger, creative effort to send a message of hope and caring to the Japanese children. Some of my biggest, toughest, and most ‘complicated’ patients are willing participants in the project …. it provides them an outlet for their spirit of compassion and desire to do something positive for someone. I think having children in mind is the biggest motivator. My patients relate to the feeling of being displaced (because they live in a residential psychiatric hospital), and to the conditions of loneliness and loss. To illustrate the personal touch some of the frogs get, here is one painted by one of my patients – a former tattoo artist. I can imagine this one going to an older child or teenager…”

And the founder of this amazing project, Deb Buckler, has a lot more to add.

“When the earthquake hit Japan, I was heartbroken for those people who had lost so much. And continue to suffer. The economy here is bad, and few people can give money to help out. Sure, you can donate to the Red Cross, or send a few dollars here or there, but I wanted to do something personal. My husband, Randy, and I run a home based resin casting business here on the central coast, and we have a little resin frog that Randy made for fundraising. As it turned out, we happened to have 100 of our little frogs in inventory here, so I went to my groups and asked if folks would like to help paint them so we could send them to the children of Japan. I felt a personally hand painted frog, made in America, would be a nice token of our love and concern for them. Something physical they can put in their pocket and carry around. Possibly their only ‘hand made in America’ item that they owned.

“Well, within moments after I asked for help with the frogs, all 100 were reserved. By the next day, another 400 were reserved, and we are now up to 600 frogs being individually hand painted by folks literally all over the world. Children, adults, groups, families are involved. Because of our connections to these artists, Switzerland and Australia are no further away then my keyboard. So, I am sending frogs to Sweden, Germany, wherever, they paint them, sign them and return them to me. It’s quite a process!

“When I started 500 Frogs, my focus was totally the children of Japan. And that continues to be the case. However, as this project evolves, I realize there is more healing going on on the peripheral. As the person holding this frog pours their love and compassion into it, they are receiving a blessing that will enhance this lives forever. I have received some pretty amazing letters already. Nanci’s experience with her patients is a good example. But the biggest thrill was when a small, very poor school in Fresno, California painted 30 frogs for the children. These are middle school kids … 12 to 16 years old, underprivileged and disadvantaged … so poor, their teacher had to buy the frogs for them and we absorbed the shipping. These kids have nothing, and have always been on the receiving end of society. But now, for once, they were able to give something to someone who had even less then they did. They painted their hearts out on the frogs and most of them wrote such tender, loving letters to the children, they will bring tears when you read them. These kids are so proud of doing this, they are now looking for other ‘random acts of kindness’ they can do! Much better then figuring out a way to rob the local grocery store again!

“It is my hope, that the children who get these frogs will keep them forever, and will remember that someone, in another country, cared very much about them during their desperate time. Perhaps it will affect that child’s decisions toward the rest of the world when he is an adult.”

If you would like more information on this truly remarkable project, please go tohttp://500frogs.com.

Happily a Japanese friend helped to locate a perfect place for these “hoppers.” On August 20 there will be a children’s festival in Higashi Matsushima, a very badly hit area. The organizer of that event is thrilled with these gifts, coming from so far away and filled with so much love. So, that is where they shall find their homes, in the hearts of the children who receive them.

[Source: Ode Magazine]