Tag Archives: Japan quake & tsunami

Japan quake, one year later: Quiet persistence amid long recovery

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Hideaki Nakagawa in Disaster Relief

On March 11, 2011, the day of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, Hideaki Nakagawa was being interviewed for a role at World Vision. Now an employee, he was a team leader for the meal preparation spaces established at evacuation centers for the disaster’s survivors. Here, he shares his thoughts and memories regarding the emergency response efforts of one year ago. * * * What I experienced on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, and in the days that followed, vividly come to mind as I write this — images of young students crying, while clinging to each other on the shaking patio of the World Vision office in downtown Tokyo; scenes of television news footage that showed...

GLOBAL GLIMPSE — Disaster response in 5 hotspots around the globe

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Larry Short, World Vision media relations in Disaster Relief

Providing you with a quick snapshot of what’s happening in five hotspots around the globe — where your generous support is literally helping people cope with and recover from disasters and crisis situations. Thank you and please continue to stand by us as we respond to multiple disasters around the world. Drought and famine in the Horn of Africa (current) The first UN-declared famine of the 21st century, caused by a convergence of political strife, drought, and increasing global food prices, is affecting more than 12 million people in four countries in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. More than 30,000 children from Somalia alone have perished of acute malnutrition and other related illnesses during the past...

Prayers for Japan from around the world

Posted on June 10, 2011 by World Vision field communicators in Child Sponsorship, Disaster Relief

Sponsored children in Bangladesh express love for their sponsors in Japan. ©2011 World Vision

Three months ago on Saturday, a deadly earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan killed more than 14,700 people, leaving the country’s northeastern coastline devastated. Our colleagues in Japan have spent the weeks and months following the disaster organizing and implementing a full response plan, supported by the World Vision global partnership. As part of an international initiative to encourage quake survivors and those involved in relief efforts, children around the world who are supported by World Vision sponsors in Japan send their love and prayers. Children and sponsors in Japan’s tsunami zone have since received drawings, cards, and origami art messages from sponsored children in El Salvador, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, Kenya, China, and Ethiopia. This post is a collection...

Disaster disadvantage [infographic]

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Jane Sutton-Redner in Disaster Relief

Last year’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was all-consuming for a time, dominating the news and mobilizing compassion from all corners of the world. During those first few months, it was hard to imagine that Haiti’s suffering could fall off the radar. But shortly after Haiti’s one-year anniversary came fresh disasters—New Zealand’s earthquake and Japan’s quake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Scenes of destruction in formerly functional cities, tragic stories, and the threat of radiation riveted media attention and provoked fears that something this bad could happen to us. (And then it did, with last month’s killer storms and tornadoes in the U.S. South.)...

A long road ahead for Japan

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Peter Warski in Disaster Relief

WV Japan staff en eoute to Sendai (WV/2011)

Some humanitarian disasters occupy a few days worth of headlines — if that — and then quickly become a distant memory, if they’re remembered at all. The Japan quake and tsunami, in my opinion, has been the opposite. On March 11, we were instantly exposed to a flood of media coverage on the devastation in northeast Japan and the gravity of the nuclear crisis created by the crippled power plant. That coverage didn’t subside much in the weeks to follow. On some level, the headlines and news clips about this historic natural disaster seem to have rendered the crisis more of an ongoing suspense film than a real-life story about human suffering. One month after the disaster, I must remember...