CWS: "Still humanitarian gaps in Japan relief"

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

 ‘Still humanitarian gaps in Japan relief,’ says Church World
Service

CWS, local partners providing supplies, health services to struggling
cities


TOKYO, Japan - Thursday, April 21, 2011 -- In Japan’s Ishinomaki
City, Miyagi Prefecture, where more than 5,500 of its 163,000 citizens
were lost, shops are opening and road repairs are beginning in a city
that three weeks ago was covered in water. But, reports humanitarian
agency Church World Service, there are still “humanitarian gaps.”

Although overall relief efforts now are moving ahead as planned along
the country’s quake and tsunami-decimated northeast coast, Church
World Service and its Japanese partners are working to fill those gaps,
providing food, water, health and medical services, hygiene items,
clothing and fuel. 

Coordinating Church World Service efforts from Tokyo, Takeshi Komino,
head of emergency response for CWS’s Asia Pacific Region, said the
agency and its local Japanese partner organizations Peace Boat, Civic
Force and Japan Lutheran Emergency Relief (JLER) are distributing
supplies to at least 10,000 people in Ishinomaki and Kesunnuma Cities in
Miyagi.  The relief materials were loaded onto four 10-ton trucks in
Tokyo and delivered to people in the stricken cities.

As part of the relief effort CWS partner Peace Boat is providing 2,000
hot meals per day, assisting evacuees in the area and cleaning debris
from evacuation sites, houses and roads in the city and in surrounding
areas. 

Because of the severity and the scope of the crisis CWS has expanded
its U.S. fundraising appeal,  to support its response, which centers on
emergency relief support to some 25,000 individuals living at 100
evacuation sites in northeastern Japan’s Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate,
Ibaragi and Tochigi prefectures.

Local Japanese partners working with CWS to respond to the disaster
include the Japan Platform, Peace Boat, Civic Force, Japan Lutheran
Emergency Relief, NICCO, OXFAM Japan and the National Christian
Council.

Mobile med clinics move to places of need
CWS's Komino reports that the health condition among evacuees is
stabilizing but that "a lot of cases of flu and chronic diseases"
remain, which CWS partners continue to address by providing access to
medicine and health care at mobile and stationary clinics.

In Natori and Iwanuma Cities, Miyagi prefecture, and Rikuzentakata
City, Iwate Prefecture, CWS’s partner NICCO is providing stationary
clinics and mobile medical services to at least 7,500 people, with
Tohoku International Clinic in Natori serving as hub for stationary
medical services. Elsewhere in the Otomo area, the teams have provided
mobile medical assistance at ten evacuation sites. The mobile medics
also will provide at least 5,000 people in Rikuzentakata evacuation
centers with basic hygiene items, temporary toilets and communication
services.  

Psychosocial recovery issues are still high on the response agenda. 
Komino says CWS
is working with OXFAM Japan partner the Japan Organization for
International Cooperation on Family Services to provide counseling and
to secure safe, private living spaces for pregnant women and women with
young children who are still living in crowded evacuation centers in
Ofunato, Miyako and Kamaishi Cities in Iwate Prefecture. 

Generators, pressure washers, washing machines for Rikuzentakata
evacuation centers

In an effort to provide evacuation center residents in Rikuzentakata
City’s Otomo and Hirota towns with some household necessities, CWS
partners have purchased and delivered generators, high-pressure
cleaners, washing machines and temporary toilets to evacuation centers.

Some 135,000 people still are living in registered evacuation sites
across Japan, according to latest Associated Press reports, and
thousands more may be living in unregistered evacuation sites.  

The extent of damage still is unclear.  Further complicating the
recovery is the continuing cris
is at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant, where the government last week placed the severity level of the
meltdown on par with that of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

HOW TO HELP: Contributions to support Church World Service emergency
response efforts may be made online, or mailed to Church World Service,
P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515 (Appeal #699-Y). Text CWS to 50555 to
donate $10.

Media Contacts: 
Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676,
media@churchworldservice.org 
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net 

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