moving forward

Dear friends, family, and followers of Hearts for Haragama,

First and foremost, thank you for being patient as we worked on the PayPal situation.  Its really great to know that we have so many loyal supporters out there.

After about a months worth of negotiation we’ve come to the conclusion that we no longer can trust PayPal to help us with our organization.  Unfortunately, after collecting close to US$8,000 in donation money in merely a few weeks, the PayPal corporation decided to freeze our account and prevent us from withdrawing any of this money.  It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially after witnessing all of your generosity and knowing where all of this money could be going towards, but we have not lost hope!  With a bit of hard work and patience, we’re positive we can get things going in the right direction once again.

For those of you who have donated, we will contact you personally with further information about your donation and our decision to part ways with PayPal.  Please check your email within the next week for more details!

For those of you who still would like to donate, you can still donate via bank transfer.  It’s a bit more work than PayPal, seeing as how you actually need to physically go to your local bank, but when you’re there the process should be quick and painless.  All you need to do is present our account information (below) and ask the bank teller how to transfer money to an overseas account and they will help you from there.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.  We hope you understand and will continue to give us, Tsukasa, and the students of Haragama Kindgarten your support.

Sincerely,

Billy, Darren, Danny, Haruka, Kevin, Sayaka, and Vinnie.

Bank Name：THE　TOHO　BANK

SWIFT Code ：TOHOJPJT

Branch Code：0126124

Branch Name：WATARI　BRANCH

Branch Address：2-1　FUNABA　WATARI-AZA, FUKUSHIMASHI FUKUSHIMA、960-8141　JAPAN

Account Number：394710

Name of Beneficiary：HEARTS FOR HARAGAMA

Address of Beneficiary：3B GRAY SCORE 4-10 ARAMACHI FUKUSHIMASHI　FUKUSHIMA　 960-8042　JAPAN

How to remit donations:
Remittances can be made in either USD, AUD, CDN, YEN, or EUR. There will be a small handling charge deducted from your donation when sending money from overseas.

open day at haragama kindergarten

Last weekend we made our third trip as a group out to Soma. This time we were accompanied by a few other foreigners who wanted to join in the festivities – which is exactly what they were! Tsukasa had organised a special ‘open day’ at Haragama Kindergarten in order to give his students at evacuation centres the chance to get out amongst friends and take their minds off things for a while. Word quickly spread amongst other junior school-aged kids in the centres and on the day we ended up with close to 60 students of all different ages – an amazing turnout!

We left as a group from Fukushima City at 7am and arrived in Haragama shortly after 8am with three cars literally overflowing with friendly foreigners and donations of clothing, books, toys and food supplies. We had also planned an Easter egg hunt, face painting, rice pounding to make mochi and other activities and games for the kids.

All of our activities were a huge success and the day went off without a hitch. Young and old alike had a great time; parents kindly helped to make lunches and then helped themselves to the donations they needed. We partied hard from 9am until after midday and promised to be back soon for more fun and games. Even our often-questionable Japanese language ability couldn’t stop us making friends!

According to some of the parents, Saturday was the first time they had seen their children laugh since the tsunami. Tsukasa and his father thanked us from the bottom of their hearts for simply helping to put some smiles on the faces of the students and their parents and we were all very moved by their comments. Speaking personally, the open day was the most constructive and positive thing I have done since March 11, and I’m sure everyone else was just as glad to be a part of such a hands-on event. Putting aside all the amazing donations we have received so far, simply being amongst so many loving people was so reassuring and only convinced us further that what we are doing is truly making a difference to the lives of the people of Soma.

Thank you all for your continued support!

Please feel free to check out the entire album on either Picasa or Facebook!

the first month

Yesterday marked exactly one month since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Despite some severe and frightening aftershocks yesterday and today, it is heart-warming and humbling to see the progress Japan and the Tohoku area have made in this short time and now, as much as ever, we are proud to be a part of such a selfless collaborative effort.

However, there is still a long way to go! While the people of Tohoku still have their strength and their dignity, they do not have the resources they require to rebuild their homes, towns and facilities. That is where we can help.

So far we have made two trips out to Soma with carloads full of food, clothing, whitegoods and other supplies, we are planning another trip for this weekend, and we don’t intend to stop there!

Of course, we must also thank everyone for the generous donations we have received so far. As well as some fantastic individual monetary donations, we have also heard of various other fundraising initiatives as far away as Vancouver and Germany; likewise, kindergartens in Yokohama and other parts of Fukushima have offered school supplies…and all of this in just a few days!

We have had an overwhelmingly positive reaction so far, so let’s keep up the good work – your generosity is definitely making a difference and every little bit counts!

the story so far

Even before we had formally created our volunteer organisation, Billy had managed to secure some very generous donations from around Japan, and indeed, from around the world.

When we made the decision to help Tsukasa and Haragama Kindergarten, we did some quick calculations and realised that even for our comparatively small-scale relief operation, the costs were going to be high.

An early estimate of the food supplies Haragama would require per week looked something like this: 60kg of rice, an additional 30kg of rice for mochi, 7kg of pasta, 20kg of yams, plus an additional array of preservatives and condiments. The costs for food alone were going to exceed $600 per week, to say nothing of the water shortages, the upkeep of the kindergarten itself, transportation and of course the costs of tuition.

Fortunately, we were able to secure pledges from a wide range of sources, from local foreigner-owned restaurants, to NPOs in Tokyo, to businesses as far abroad as Hong Kong and the US. With these donations combined, we were able to cover roughly the first three months worth of food supplies, before even publicising our charity efforts.

We never hoped to achieve such significant fundraising goals so swiftly. But we still have a long way to go!

our inspiration

Our friend Tsukasa had planned to get married on March 12th – the day after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed entire towns along the northeastern coast of Japan. Luckily, his fiancée and his family were unharmed, but his neighbours, his home, all his possessions, and $10,000 that he had saved up for a honeymoon in Mexico were all lost in the tsunami.

Three weeks later, he offered to show us around his town and give us what was essentially a guided, personal tour of the damage and the effect this tragedy had on him and the people of his town, Soma. To say it was surreal, confronting and heartbreaking would be a huge understatement – each of us were deeply moved by the experience and Tsukasa himself immediately won us over with his good humour and warmth.

His story is not unique. There are thousands of others who have experienced similar hardships and losses. However, after he so kindly invited us into such a deeply personal part of his life, and after witnessing him confront his losses with such humility and strength, we decided we needed to help.

Tsukasa and his family own and operate Haragama Youchien, a kindergarten in Soma. All 64 of their students were safe from the tsunami as they were aboard a bus being driven by Tsukasa when the massive wave destroyed their neighbourhood. Twenty-seven students lost their homes and are now living in evacuation centers. Many families are now without incomes, as various businesses in the area were also washed away. Fortunately, thanks to being located atop a small hill, the kindergarten itself was untouched by the tsunami. They are already planning to re-open and resume lessons on April 11th – exactly one month after the tsunami ravaged their community – free of charge.

On top of this, despite their own personal losses, and with the help of some of the students’ mothers, Tsukasa and his family have taken it upon themselves to provide hot meals and offer a bus service to and from the kindergarten for each student, beginning April 20th. Due to the lack of income and essential resources in the Soma area, we have decided to help Tsukasa in this noble endeavour by providing them with the food, supplies and financial support they need until life in Fukushima begins to return to normal and they can operate efficiently once again.

Thanks to the generous donations we have secured from businesses and other NPOs alike, Tsukasa already has enough food to provide his students with hot meals for the immediate future. However, he still needs our help to cover the kindergaten’s operating costs. By donating, you will be helping to replace destroyed white goods, food preparation supplies and teaching materials, as well as helping cover delivery, transportation and tuition costs which Tsukasa and his family had originally planned to cover by themselves.

Ensuring the welfare and quality of life of the students of Haragama is our first priority. However, by helping Tsukasa himself shoulder this burden, we also hope we can grant him and his family the time and peace of mind they so deserve to begin rebuilding their own lives in Soma. By helping the students of Haragama, you will also be helping the man whose selflessness and heart was the inspiration for all of our efforts so far.

With thanks and love from Fukushima,

Billy, Darren, Danny, Sayaka, Haruka, Vinnie and Kevin

how to donate

For those outside the Fukushima area, you can donate money at any time directly to our PayPal account by simply clicking on the button at the top of this page.  If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can make a donation via credit card by entering your details and clicking ‘continue.’

If you would like to make a non-monetary donation, please let us know at haragama.fukushima@gmail.com.

For those of you in Fukushima, aside from asking for donations, we will be doing various fundraising activities over the next two or three months in order to raise money for Tsukasa, Haragama and the city of Soma. We will be sending out info about these activities to guests of Hearts for Haragama on Facebook, so please RSVP, save the date and get involved!

You can keep up-to-date on donation goals and where your money is going by checking back on this website. If you would like to host your own fundraising event, whether you’re in Japan or anywhere else, please drop us a message at haragama.fukushima@gmail.com.