Christchurch Earthquake Appeal in SENDAI (CEA in SENDAI)
クライストチャーチ地震支援in仙台
先に報告しましたが、9/8は仙台国際センターで、トークイベントを開催。
クライストチャーチ出身のメンバー、Kaleb Urike（ケイレブ・ウリキ）が、震災を受けた故郷への思い、3.11の震災の体験とその後携わることになった復旧・復興活動について語りました。
平日の夜とあって参加者は少なめでしたが、その分じっくりと思いを伝えることができる場になりました。
トークはまずケイレブの紹介から。
日本とのつながりは、なんと10年以上という彼。
高校生時代の交換プログラム参加から始まり、数度の訪日を経て、現在は仙台市の国際交流員（ＣＩＲ）として働いています。
堪能な日本語を生かして、翻訳や通訳業務を担当し、国際交流協会ではイベントや講座なども行っています。
2.22のクライストチャーチ地震を受け、同僚でもう一人のクライストチャーチ出身者のソフィや、支援してくれる仲間たちと一緒に募金活動を開始。その活動は、このＨＰでも報告しているとおりです。
しかし、本格的な活動を始めようとした矢先、3.11の震災が活動を停止に追い込みました。震災当日は、翌日に控えた一番町アーケードでの募金活動の準備をしていたケイレブ。激しい揺れは、クライストチャーチの地震をイメージさせ、直後はショック状態。その夜は、停電で真っ暗な部屋を出て、避難所で一晩過ごしたそうです。
次の日からは、市の国際交流員として怒涛の日々が待っていました。
仙台市が設置した「災害多言語支援センター」の要員として、市内に住む1万人の在住外国人の支援にあたることになります。インフラが遮断され、原発の問題も発生していた当時、日本人と比べて情報入手にハンデがある外国人に向けて、ラジオ放送やWebでの情報発信を行いました。
故郷の大地震の直後に、現在暮らす仙台で被災したことは、大変な衝撃だったことは想像に難くないですが、「当時は必死に毎日の仕事をこなすのに精一杯で、不安を感じる余裕も無かった」と話すケイレブ。原発問題が悪化する中、多くの外国人が日本を離れていく状況で、「自分が頑張らなければならない」という使命感もあったそうです。
直後の混乱がおさまった後、ケイレブは休日を使って沿岸の被災地域でのボランティアも始めます。
泥かきや避難所での支援活動などを毎週のように行う彼に、「日本人でもそこまでする人は少ない」とその理由を聞くと、
「クライストチャーチでの地震に対し、多くの人が助けてくれようとしたことに、とても感動した。仙台のため、この地域の人たちのために、何かしたいと思う」と思いを語りました。
後半のトークでは、一時帰国した故郷クライストチャーチの現状を報告。
現地で撮影した写真や、地震直後のニュース映像を交えて、現地の問題を説明しました。
震災後半年を迎えたクライストチャーチですが、大きな被害を受けた市街地中心部は以前として立ち入り禁止。復興への道筋は立っていません。
被災状況の特徴は、浅い震源と液状化現象。
浅い震源での余震が現在でも続いているため、もろくなった市街地では危険な状態。そのため、復旧作業もなかなか進まないようです。また、広大な範囲で液状化が発生し、多くの人が移住を余儀なくされています。
トークの最後には、CEAの今後の方向性についても報告。
会場からは、募金の集め方などについて、いろいろなアイディアもいただきました。
受付に設置した募金箱には2,000円の寄付もいただきました。
参加者の皆さま、本当にありがとうございました！
As previously reported, on September 8, we held a talk at the Sendai International Center.
Christchurch native Kaleb Urike discussed his hometown, his experience in Sendai during the March 11 earthquake, and the reconstruction and recovery activities that he has been engaged in since disasters hit those two cities earlier this year.
As expected for a weekday evening, not many people were able to attend the talk, but we feel that those in attendance were able to understand more deeply the situation in Christchurch.
The talk began with Kaleb introducing himself and discussing the deep ties to Japan that he has held for over 10 years. He first came to Japan in high school as a member of an exchange program and from this, it allowed him to visit Japan several times. He currently lives in Sendai City where he works as a CIR (Coordinator for International Relations). In this role, he uses his skills in Japanese to head up the translation and interpretation department, as well as organize talks and events for Sendai International Relations Association.
On February 22, 2011, Christchurch was struck by a large earthquake. Kaleb, along with his colleague and fellow Christchurchian Sophie, got together with others who wanted to help the earthquake victims and began planning activities to gather donations. (Information about these activities is posted on the homepage of this site).
However, right when they were about to start these activities, the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake hit and they were forced to suspend their plans. On the day of the quake, Kaleb was in preparations for a donation drive the next day in the Ichibancho area of the city centre. The massive shaking of the quake immediately made him think of Christchurch. His next reaction was one of shock.
That night, with a power outage stretching across the Tohoku region, Kaleb left his pitch black apartment and spent the night in a refugee center.
For the next couple of weeks, he would also take on the job as an essential member of the Multilingual Disaster Support Center set up by Sendai City to offer support to the 10,000 foreigners living in the city. With the simultaneous shutdown of the city’s infrastructure and the nuclear crisis in nearby Fukushima making access to foreign language information difficult, they worked to keep the foreign community informed via radio broadcasts and the internet.
To have a massive earthquake strike the city where he was living right after seeing his hometown similarly damaged was obviously a massive shock to Kaleb. But he says, “at the time, I was working so hard every day to assist the foreigners in Sendai that I didn’t have time to think about the situation.”
As the nuclear crisis grew worse, many foreigners in Japan chose to leave the country, but Kaleb says that he felt it was his duty to remain in Sendai to work helping others.
After the post-quake turmoil settled down, Kaleb participated in volunteer work in the coastal areas devastated by the tsunami. He helped to clean out the mud deposited by the tsunami and also helped out in refugee centers, thinking it was the least he could do for Japan. “When the quake struck Christchurch, I was deeply moved by how so many people decided to help, so I really wanted to do something for Sendai and the people here,” he said.
In the second half of the talk, Kaleb shared with the audience how he found the situation in Christchurch on a recent trip home. Using pictures that he had taken, as well as news clips from immediately after the quake, he explained the problems caused by the earthquake. Even though over a year has passed since the disaster, it is still impossible to enter the city centre and there hasn’t been much progress made towards reconstruction.
The quake was quite a shallow one and caused a lot of liquefaction in the ground. And because aftershocks still continue to strike, the brittle streets of the city remain dangerous, making it impossible for reconstruction works to proceed. And to top it off, the widespread liquefaction has pushed many people out of their homes and forced them to move elsewhere.
To end the talk, CEA members discussed how CEA envisions its future activities. They also received various ideas from the audience about how to collect donations.
We were able to collect 2,000 yen in donations from the donation box we had set up at reception. We would really like to thank everyone who came out to hear our talk!