Urgent Appeal from Touhoku HELP, Sendai, Japan

June 28, 2012

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death......surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

Dear Ecumenical Friends,
I greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Giver of Life and the Hope of our world.

You have recently received an urgent appeal from Rev. Shoko Aminaka, the General Secretary of NCC-Japan to provide emergency assistance to Touhoku HELP.

I join her in appealing for your sustained solidarity with the people of Japan as the country continue to grapple with the immense challenges of recovery and reconstruction from the triple disaster of March 11 last year.  I do so because of your generosity in the immediate aftermath of that terrible day as the tsunami destroyed and killed everything in its path in the Touhoku region leaving in its wake untold suffering among the people of Japan. 

I give thanks to God for you and for your faithfulness because, during this darkest hour in their recent history, you lit a light in the life of the people of Japan.  You walked with them through the valley of death and you comforted them.

Dear brothers and sisters, you are aware of the enormous needs that exist for the nation's relief and reconstruction. Moreover, the churches and the people of Japan struggle for a national consensus about its energy policy.  According to experts, it will take at least two decades to accomplish these monumental tasks.  As you monitor future developments in Japan, please do not forget the survivors and their families. Most survivors have been moved from evacuation centers to temporary housing.  Unfortunately, they have no clear idea from their government officials whether and when they will return to their homes or how they can recover their livelihood.  

Consequently, you will undoubtedly be deeply saddened by an increasing number of suicides among them.  You know that the trauma that they experienced will take years to heal.  However, for many, their existential situation appears bleak and hopeless.  One counselor reminded the humanitarian workers in Japan that "the living may envy the dead."  Indeed, we grieve with them.

Several of the agencies have supported the "Grand House" project of Touhoku HELP in Sendai.  The largest NGO on the ground in Touhoku, it was established by the Sendai Christian Alliance to carry out disaster response.  The Grand House project combined immediate direct material assistance with spiritual care.  It distributed basic needs to the evacuees and initiated innovative spiritual care activities through mobile counseling "cafés," radio programs and special community lectures, all aimed at providing practical assistance and support to the survivors and their families.  You will be interested to learn that the New York based Japan Society has allocated US$ 100,000 to continue the counseling activities through mobile cafés and radio programs.

Several aspects of the Touhoku HELP activities will be of special interest to you.  I want to share these with you to encourage you to provide urgent immediate support because Touhoku HELP will run out of funds at the end of this month.  If Touhoku HELP closes down, it would be a tremendous loss for these reasons:

1.
First and foremost, the survivors and their families would be denied of the many services provided by Touhoku HELP such as food radiation measurement and special assistance to non-Japanese residents.  There will be a huge void in meeting the many needs of the survivors.