Japan Press Weekly

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2011 July 6 - 12 [WELFARE]

To protect children’s lives from natural disaster

Akahata “current” column

Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture has 11 daycare centers for children damaged by the March 11 disaster. Eight of them lost part of their buildings due to the massive tsunami. Amid the difficult conditions surrounding reconstruction, childcare staff members are making efforts to resume full services as soon as possible.

Reopened daycare centers provide a tremendous support for children and their parents. A mother of a three-year-old girl living at an evacuation center said, “My daughter has been stressed out with the unaccustomed surroundings and is scared every time she hears an emergency quake alert. Therefore, I’m so grateful for the daycare center because she can play there with other children without feeling anxiety.”

In the three Tohoku prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, more than 400 daycare facilities were damaged and 30 were completely destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. However, no deaths of children at such facilities have been reported. This should be thanks to daycare workers’ response to the emergency situation as well as to the disaster drills which they have been required to conduct every month.

On March 11, staff at one of the childcare centers in Ishinomaki City put eight children whom they were taking care of at that time in two carts and evacuated them from the area affected by the tsunami. Realizing in a disaster drill two years ago that it would take time for them to complete evacuation with only one cart, they had the city office provide a new cart for them after making repeated requests. As the result, while losing their buildings, the daycare workers could save their children’s lives with the use of two carts.

A principal of a childcare center in Iwate said that when the tsunami hit, there were only 30 children in their facility who were waiting for their parents to pick them up. “We desperately ran away from the tsunami. But what if we had had to take all of our enrolled children? I don’t know if we could have made a safe evacuation. I realized we cannot be responsible for saving children’s lives under the current childcare standards. We don’t have enough staff.”

Every corner of Japan is at risk of experiencing a major earthquake. What we have learned from the devastating experience is that in order to protect children’s lives the childcare system and standards need to be improved.