Category: Disaster Relief
disaster relief efforts of MAM
-
All I can do is walk up
Day Three: 30 March 2011 Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture Today we all go to the peninsula where lots of villages were washed away by the tsunami. The area near the port has a very strong smell, like something rotten. We stop by a small shelter for about 80 refugees. We give them boxes of long sleeve shirts, pants, some medicines, toilet kits, and snacks, and we ask them what else they need. They say they want notebooks and pens; they want to make to-do lists for what they need to do to get back to normal life. They need footwear—both sandals,…
-
Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture
Day Two: 29 March 2011 Up early again. We split up into two groups. One group will work to clear rubble and help clean up damaged houses and public areas. The second group will cook food for people staying in a junior high school that has been converted into a shelter for about 900 refugees. People are also living in the neighboring houses; they need help, too. Today I am with the cooking group. There is a place where the SDF provides drinking water from a giant tanker. We go down to get some water for cooking rice. The SDF…
-
Tokyo to Miyagi Prefecture
For more than 10 years, the Japanese student volunteer organization IVUSA has been sending groups of students to India to participate in Embracing the World’s housing projects for the homeless and for disaster refugees. These students participated in projects to build homes for tsunami refugees in both Kerala and Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. And in 2010, after devastating floods in Karnataka, they helped to build homes for people whose islands had been entirely submerged by flood waters. Many of the volunteers have made several trips to India for this purpose. Viveka Koichi Kanematsu has been Embracing…
-
Volunteers distribute food and water in Sendai
14 March 2011 Embracing the World has sent its first group of local volunteers from our Japan Center to Sendai—the major city nearest the epicenter of the earthquake, and hit hard by both the quake (Japan’s worst-ever) and the subsequent tsunami. At Amma’s request, the ETW representatives went to Sendai in order to study the situation on the ground and also to distribute food and water for the refugees. We set out for Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture on 13 March, within 3 days of the disaster. Because all the highways going north are completely locked down for military and authorized use…
-
Amma s invisible hands
Devotees and school community from Davangere offered Seva in the MAM’s House Building project taking place in the village of Dongarampura, in Raichur, where the MAM has built 250 houses. Those participating took this service work as a God given opportunity and offered it to Amma with love. A family of five closed the hotel that they own to join the group. Several others including businessmen, engineers, employees, etc. took leave from work to be available to serve Amma’s cause. One of them gave up household responsibilities to other family members to stay in Raichur and handle the accounts and…
-
Our Golden days in Raichur
Davangere is truly blessed to get another opportunity to participate in the seva work in Raichur. Our previous one day visit to Raichur gave us such a lot of inspiration that we wanted to visit Raichur again for a longer time. Taking Amma’s permission we once again went to Raichur for a week. We reached Raichur on 18th April early morning. Our 27 members’ team consisted of non-teaching staff of Amrita Vidyalayam and devotees. It had people from all ages (from from 15 years to 60 plus years). We had 7 ladies in our team. 7 people joined us in…
-
Tapas in Raichur
16 April 2010, Bangalore Inspired by Amma’s Love and Service for the humanity, Amma’s Bangalore children also wanted to do squirrel’s seva in the great Service been carried out by Amma for the flood victims in Karnataka and Andra Pradesh. Under the leadership of Swami Amritegeetananda Puriji, a team of 19 members left for Raichur. I remember how eager our hearts were to reach there. We reached on 5th Monday night and were received by the warm love of our brahmachari brothers in Raichur, who are in charge of the constructions. Our day started with the archana after which we…
-
Last day in Raichur
The report from Raichur!! Today is the last day of working here for us. We had some pieces of bread and chai for breakfast. This is the last breakfast here. Unfortunately everything is ending. I must miss the meal here… After we got power, we started working; such as bringing sands, unloading blocks and bricks, and sprinkling water on the walls of houses. I think we worked hardest than ever because all of us did not want to regret at all. Today is the last. During the break time after the lunch, most of the students went up to the…
-
living life with a smile
4 March 2010 Raichur This is my first trip to india. I felt so many differences between Japan and India. First, I was surprised at unique Smell of India. I can’t explain well but it’s so impressive because there is no smell in Japan. Second, I felt a power of religion. Almost all people in India pray to God and they have a mind which most Japanese don’t have. I think it’s great thing to live here. Third about poverty. I have known India has a lot of problems about poverty.But when I came to India,there are big big smiles.…