Japan: Aftermath AND Aftershocks

Dr. Yumi Yamamoto has kept us informed about news as it’s reported in Japan.  You can read her reprots on our Website at www.lifenets.org/japan.

Here is a start:

April 11, 2011 from Dr. Yumi Yamamoto

Dear Victor,

Here in Japan the aftershocks have been happening. Last night there were shakes as big as TV had to show alerts almost every 5 to 10 minutes from 5 to 8 pm. As I wrote in the report before, houses that had survived are collapsing, even 10 minutes ago.  There was a pretty big shake on Honshu Island, of which origin was not far in the ocean.

Dr. Yumi Yamamoto

Fukushima nuclear accident has been classified as level 7, which is as high as the one in Chernobyl..

Yumi

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April 8, 2011 From Dr. Yumi Yamamoto

We hear a lot of heartful messages from all over the world. Thank you very much. 

In the midnight (11:32 pm) of yesterday, the strongest aftershock (magnitude 7.1) hit the north eastern coast of Honsyu, Japan, which was the same area of the earthquake on March 11th. Fortunately the crucial damage at the atomic power plants have not been reported yet by this shake.

A 79 year old man died because of a cardiogenic shock, and many others were injured. Some houses, buildings, roads, etc which had survived through the disaster were destroyed.

Others which had been under reconstruction since March 11th got serious damage again. Because it happened in the midnght, this time, people who had not been at a normal mental condition already through the consequences of the disaster, were frightened extremely.

Children who were sleeping at the shelters got awake because of a big shake and cried in terror. The electricity has been off at the large area.

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April 5, 2011  Report from Dr. Yumi….

Thank you for your warm prayers and kind donations to Japan. 

A doctor of postmortem examination sent a message to one of Japanese newspaper companies yesterday.

On the day he saw a small body with mud and grasses lying on the table at a gym that was used as a temporary shelter for dead people in Miyagi Prefecture, where more than 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake and the tsunami.

Because his job is to examine the bodies of dead people, he should have got accustomed to it. But when he saw a girl who was just at the age of his own daughter, he could not hold tears. By the name tag she carried on her clothes, he could recognize she was a pupil of the third grade in the elementary school (10 years old). Her belonging was an emergency bag filled with stuff, such as retort pouches. It should have been too heavy for her to run away with when the tsunami came. He found many people died were found with heavy bags with a lot of stuff like her. Because people there knew what would come after the earthquake, they tried to run away with things as many as they could have.

Because the tsunami came about 20 minutes later after the earthquake, they tried to prepare for a temporary life in the shelters. He wrote if the little

 girl had gone immediately with no baggage, she might have survived.

Ban is a two year old female dog. She was found floating on a house roof at one mile offshore of Miyagi Prefecture on April 1st, which was after 3 weeks of the disaster. The news of her rescue was on TV, and she met her owner at last after 24 days of the earthquake.

Here we had bad news and good news. People at the shelter try to go ahead with good news and it is what we have to do. Our steps for a recovery in the next many years has just begun.

Here is the film of Ban.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaNPz_qlBnk

Helping Japanese Evacuees is a team effort – including children

See more at http://lifenets.org/japan

Dr. Yumi Yamamoto writes to us:

Thank you for your warm prayers and kind donations to the people in Japan.
March 30th

I received several reports from the doctors who are working at the area of the disasters. It is like  working in field hospitals in war. They are lacking  electricity, water, drugs, staffs, beds, clean gauzes, information and many other things that should exist normally.

My cousin wrote me about her friend nurse. When the tsunami came which flushed out the area where she lived, she was working at hospital. Later she knew the tsunami took everything, even her parents, but she had no way to go to look for them. She had no home to go back She had no clothes to change into.

She had no bed to sleep on after the hard work besides the floor at hospital. In a week or so, her parents’ bodies were found. But she has to keep working like every other medical staff is doing without any funeral ceremonies for them.

At the shelters children are organizing ‘Kata tataki Tai’, which means a shoulder massage club. These children visit old people in the shelter and they give massages on their shoulders (see left). What one can do may be very very little, but their small weak hands can make old people smile and happy. One child asked a lady when she was giving massages on her shoulder if she felt better, and the lady answered, ‘Yes, I am feeling as good and comfortable as though I am in Paradise.’

Twenty days have passed after March 11th.

Spoke on Skype with Dr. Sam Chilopora today

Today we spoke with Dr. Sam Chilopora.  Good news and bad news.  First, the good news is that from in our Balaka Goat Program we have 16 baby goats born since our visit in September 2010!  They are

Dr. Sam Chilopora

doing well and we are very happy about this since so many of them died before this.  The orphan children depend on these goats for milk.  You can see some of what we have written about our Malawi goat program at http://lifenets.org/malawi/goats09balaka/goats09balaka1.htm

The bad news is that it’s coming to the end of the rainy season and there was not much rain this season.  Not enough to germinate the maize.  Crop prospect does not look good.

Bev and I will be in Malawi in a few weeks and will see our good friends….

The latest Wheelchair activity here at LifeNets

Here are a few photos of our recent wheelchair donations.  The power chair was placed in Florida.  The pediatric chair was placed in Indianapolis.

This blog is up again

Just want to let our followers know that we’re going to be posting relevant LifeNets info regularly. Lots happening in the world. We are helping directly in the Japanese triple disaster. See our latest eNews at http://lifenets.org/enews/2011/march%2028,%202011.htm

Growing Rice in Malawi

LifeNets has added another food staple to the list of agricultural crops it is helping farmers to grow: rice. A LifeNets loan is allowing Mr. Julius Kachali to grow rice, cassava, and maize on a 2.5-acre farm. Although he is at the time a subsistence farmer, Mr. Kachali has his eye on becoming a commercial farmer, and already has hopes of building a dam to ensure a water supply for wet and dry farming.

In the meantime, this project is a model farm for others in the community, allowing them to learn better methods of farming. With the help of his wife and two agricultural assistants from the government, Mr. Kachali’s farm will in time help his whole community! Read more about the project here.

Exporting Experience to East Africa

The LifeNets Heifer Project in Zambia is ten years old, and now LifeNets is using the lessons learned from that experience to expand the program to Kenya and Zimbabwe. In October, John Elliott visited the brand-new project in Kenya. He shared the September report from the program director, Moses Nyaira. Mr. Nyaira reports that LifeNets East Africa is now registered as a non-governmental organization with the Registrar of Societies, complete with the required officers and representatives.

Five families from the town of Ogembo will be the first heifer recipients–some have already received heifers. From Ogembo, it is hoped that the project will spread to western Kenya and northwestern Tanzania. To read more about this project, including profiles of the recipient families and information about the benefits provided and the challenges faced, read Mr. Nyaira’s full report here.

Progress on Prenatal/Neonatal Clinic in Malawi

In September, we wrote about a new clinic that LifeNets is helping build in Salima, Malawi. Nester Phiri, who will run the completed clinic, writes from Malawi:

September 27, 2010

A Letter of Thanks

I would like to thank LifeNets Contributors for assistance given to me through LifeNets coordinator Mrs. Beverly Kubik, which has enabled me to build a Clinic of which upon its completion will help me to earn a living.

The Clinic will comply of three departments. The first department will be for daily care of sick people where they will be getting the treatment according to their illnesses. On this I will need to employ a clinician to run that department. The second department will be a prenatal care for pregnant mother before they deliver their babies. I will be the one responsible for this department. The third will be for children care ranging from day one to five years of age. Theywill be monitored on their weight, growth in general and their health status. They will also be given various vaccines. I will be in this department also on voluntary basis because most resource on this area come from the Government.

The clinic will assist about75 families around it and others from within Salima district. I will need about five people to start the clinic that is including me.

I heartedly thank you for your assistance.

Yours faithful,

Nester B. Phiri

In addition, Rotary International gave LifeNets a $21,000 grant for boreholes for water, one of which will serve the clinic and community in Salima. For more information about this clinic, click here.

LifeNets Featured on eHow

On November 19th, LifeNets was featured in an eHow article on how to donate electric scooters in North Carolina. Read the article here and learn more about the Wheelchair Program here.

LifeNets Helps in Haiti

While LifeNets’ primary function is not disaster relief, when there are crises that demand attention donors often seek out LifeNets and ask what we are doing to help. Typically, LifeNets personnel direct those who inquire to agencies who are better-equipped to handle disaster relief, such as Red Cross or the Salvation Army. In the past, LifeNets has been able to help following disasters such as 9/11, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, and Hurricane Katrina. This was most often accomplished through individuals known to LifeNets, where there were specific needs that LifeNets was able to address.

Following the Haiti earthquake–the worst national disaster in the Western Hemisphere–requests came to LifeNets about what we were doing to help. Although LifeNets directed donors to the above-named relief agencies, stilll money was sent restricted for use in aid to Haiti. Enquiries led to an acquaintance in the Church of God (Seventh Day), who had earlier given over $12,000 in support of rebuilding in Sri Lanka. The $1,000 that had been received by LifeNets was donated to the rebuilding of a school and church in Haiti.

Progress on this project is slow, as is all progress in Haiti at the moment. However, William Hicks (Director of Missions and the Disaster Relief Fund for the Church of God) reports that the project is still open and making progress through the red tape that is necessary for such an undertaking.