Earthquakes and volunteers

In the rescue operations, about 200 YWCA volunteers from all over Japan participated in cooking hot rice dishes, distributing the rescue materials, counseling, and visiting the temporary houses. After a while, refugees moved from tents in shelters to temporary houses that were built in less damaged areas. So many people had to leave familiar places. This movement destroyed the communities which existed (human relationships), and many people had to endure against solitude and loneliness.

I think we have to recreate new communities. And to create better communities, we first need to think of each human relationship and make it better. Communities consist of individual members. I hope young people will cherish the bonds they make with each other and look for something unique in their relationships.

-Student's impressions-

In my opinion, good volunteer work is based on human bonds. And it is not easy to make strong human bonds in communities and they can not be made quickly. They are made up little by little in daily considerations of each other.

With a little more courage, we can create new human bonds. And if we repeat this, we may create bigger communities in the end.