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SGI News: Global activities for peace, education and culture

Emergency Relief in Japan

Delivering basic supplies by motorbike  [Photo ©Seikyo Shimbun]

Following the severe earthquake in the Niigata region of Japan on October 23, the Soka Gakkai offered emergency aid and shelter to some of the estimated 100,000 people evacuated from their homes. The quake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, killed 34 people, injured over 2,000 and destroyed more than 6,000 homes. It damaged roads and caused mudslides that buried homes with earth already loosened by heavy rains from typhoons that had struck the region prior to the quake.

The Soka Gakkai's Nagano branch delivered a total of 40 tons of basic necessities--including food, potable water, blankets and clothing--to the most seriously affected towns in the days after the quake. Six Soka Gakkai community centers were made available to local authorities as emergency shelters, and about 1,100 people were housed there for several days. Local Soka Gakkai members provided freshly prepared food to families housed in the centers, while members with medical expertise visited the centers to offer advice and encouragement, especially to the many elderly evacuees.

Ojiya city, Niigata, after the earthquake

Local members in Niigata visited affected areas daily to check on the condition of the inhabitants and deliver basic supplies by motorbike. Volunteer teams from the Tohoku and Tokyo areas were also dispatched.

A series of natural disasters struck the Japanese archipelago in 2004, and Soka Gakkai volunteers were also active in relief and cleanup efforts following the most deadly typhoon, which killed 84 people on October 20.

Serving meals to evacuees at a Soka Gakkai community center

In northern Hyogo, where half the towns were immersed in floodwaters, Soka Gakkai members offered assistance and visited homes that had suffered damage. Soka Gakkai leaders visited victims in Okayama, Kurashiki, Kojima and Tsuyama, while volunteers assisted in cleanup efforts, including removal of debris from mudslides.

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