Fukushima Disaster Recovery Activities
Since 2013, ICA Japan has been working with residents in temporary housing sites at Minamisoma City, Fukushima prefecture. Although many governmental recovery projects started, the speed is slow due to local issues, such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear radiation disaster. This keeps the residents for 4 or 5 years in the cramped temporary housing, instead of the promised less than one year stay. Our aim is to strengthen community ties while overcoming hard situations thorough horticultural activities.
Advanced agriculture training in Cote d’Ivoire
The project activities with ICA Cote D’Ivoire got into full motion in June with materials distribution, monitoring by Wayne Ellsworth, and advanced soil care training by two Japanese experts, Yuji Isoda and Kazako Yamamoto. The villagers almost finished building the chicken houses, planted 2 hectors of Okura, and began staking the agroforestry land, to mark where the seedings will be planted.
The highlight of June was the 11 days of advanced agriculture training for the staff, villagers, and representatives of the regional agriculture ministry, people from the agriculture college, and the district office responsible for all the programs in the region. A man about to graduate from agriculture college said “Now I have to return to college and re-think to whole curriculum – this is so advanced, so scientifically based, and they have told us the precise reason for everything. I learned so much in only three days!”
The photo shows the district office where the training took place. In the photo is the district director, the Cote d’Ivoire staff and two Japanese experts.
This post was first published in the Global Buzz, July 2015.