There was a ceremony held for the finishing of the framework, this is a tradition in Japan when a building gets constructed.
Many neighbors, staffs and their users joined in for rice cake throwing.

【Rice cake throwing】

Everybody said that they are looking forward to seeing building finished, which is scheduled for this March.

It took quite a long time to take down the damaged building but they are now doing the groundwork on our new establishment.
It is difficult to complete it by the end of this year, but we expect the finishing of the framework.

【Building our institution and expanding the area】

We were not able to receive a subsidy from the administration. Although some inspectors have visited from other prefectures, we can not receive support because we are not located on the coast line where it has been damaged the most by the Tsunami.
Since there are a lot of refugees from Minamisanriku-cho in Tome-city, there will be an increase in the need of institutions for the elderly. We hope to contribute to the local society in various ways in the future.

We are working toward reopening our institutions once more since we had to close down by the earthquake.
We were planning to construct a new building on our property in Tome-city first. However, since it was an agricultural land, we found out it would take a long time to ready for set up. We do not have much time because there are a lot of people who are waiting for reopening our institutions. Because of this reason, we have decided to rebuild larger institution so that capacity will be 45 people although it was only 28 people previously.
We moved out of our damaged institution and it is being demolished for rebuilding now.

Inside a temporary institution

dismantled institution

As soon as we finish demolition work, we will start building a new institution and try to complete it within this year. We have neither public fund nor subsidy, although this was caused by the earthquake on March.11. We have to do all by ourselves.
The representative, Ms. Shihoko Ishikawa said, “We give priority to our users and aim to complete our new institution within this year in order to create a better environment.”

From left: clerk Mrs. Haga and Representative Ms. Ishikawa

Immediately after the earthquake disaster, we made an effort to restoration support such as providing a place to stay for the people who are not able to live their home and distributing food to our neighborhood continuously. We also cooperated with other NPOs and delivered food and clothes to the places of refuge in Shizugawa and Ishinomaki where were affected by tsunami.
There are 460 people from Minamisannrikuchou who have taken refuge in Tome city as of the end of June. We opened ‘Occhakko-salon’ in Minamikatachou for making them relax for a while. It opens for a few hours around noon for several days a week.
This building was supposed to be used for providing meal service and supporting for child-raising before the earthquake occurred.
Since the institution, “Donguri-no-ie Shindenn”, for a child day service was closed down, it becomes a temporary place for the children. We are managing to open a new institution.