Action Plan under Recovery Assistance Project in 2013

(1)

Operates "IVY Nursery School" exclusively for mother and child evacuees from Fukushima
Yamagata hosts more evacuees from outside of its borders than any other prefecture in Japan. Currently, the prefecture is economically troubled, partly because extended families tend to live together. As of March 2013, 17% of the 56,920 people who fled from Fukushima to other prefectures in Japan, or 9,420 people, were in Yamagata. The majority of them were mother and child evacuees. However, due to public and licensed nursery schools being all but completely filled, those mothers could not find someone to watch over their children so they could go to work. So in September 2012, we opened a nursery school exclusively for child evacuees from Fukushima in the city of Yamagata. While the capacity of the school is 40 children, this year, we have 74 children in our care, and were able to give 61 of their mothers the opportunity they need to work or find jobs. Our school has also been praised for only accepting 10,000 yen for monthly daycare fees, all expenses included, and by being mindful of the cesium and additive content of the meals and snacks that we serve.

(2)

Provides operational support to nursery schools following their reconstruction after being completely destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami
Between the two prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, 40 daycare facilities were completely destroyed (27 out of 306 in Miyagi, 13 out of 168 in Iwate). Even after business facilities reopened following their destruction, the number of mothers unable to return to work had increased. To address that situation, IVY set out to provide special assistance to non-licensed nursery schools, which do not receive much in the way of public assistance. In 2013, we also helped cover personnel expenses for the five daycare teachers at Tsubomi Nursery School in the city of Kesennuma, and also provided accounting support. As a result, 18 mothers were able to leave their 18 babies between the ages of 0 and 2 in the care of veteran daycare teachers from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM from Monday through Saturday, and go to work with the comfort of knowing that their children were in good hands.

Episodes

The following are happy stories from mothers who fled Fukushima and placed their children in the care of IVY Nursery School.

Ms. A: "While my daughter and I continued to live as evacuees, I got a divorce from my husband, which placed me the position of having to work at all costs. So I took the liberty of placing my daughter, who had just turned four, in the care of IVY Nursery School starting this October. This enabled me to find work right away. While I may eventually find work that takes advantage of my qualifications, for now I am working part-time close to home for the sake of my daughter. I used to worry about childcare. But now I know the right balance between childrearing and my job by working together with the daycare teachers."

Mr. B: "I left the disaster site to Yamagata with my five-year-old and two-year-old daughters in tow, after which I divorced my husband and became a single mother. Although I initially experienced difficulties in finding a job due to my lack of qualifications and an education, I finally found a new place of employment, and started working mornings. I have a strong sense of the value of my interaction with the fellow mothers I have met at IVY Nursery School. I hope to go beyond simply depending on the nursery school to being part of a support network together with the mothers I have been so fortunate to meet."

Future Plans

(1)

Operate "IVY Nursery School" exclusively for mother and child evacuees from Fukushima
IVY will continue to provide daycare assistance in 2014. However, IVY Nursery School was established as a short-term initiative, designed to conclude at the end of March 2015. We therefore plan to help evacuee mothers move their children to public or licensed nursery schools for one year from April 2015.

(2)

Provide operational support to nursery schools that were rebuilt after the earthquake and tsunami
The facility at which the Tsubomi Nursery School teachers worked before the earthquake will reopen in April. The Tsubomi Nursery School teachers have performed well over the past two years. They will move with the children under their care to the school when it reopens in April. IVY plans to help with accounting-related tasks.

Determination

One of our objectives over the long term is to apply our earthquake assistance experience and networks to localities around the world suffering from conflict or disaster. Starting last October, IVY began providing assistance to Syrian refugees in the Middle Eastern country of Iraq. In addition to kerosene stoves that we distributed to the refugees to get through the harsh winter, UNIQLO also graciously sent about 50 boxes of winter clothes. Our second objective is to help prepare Japan for its next large-scale disaster. We intend to gather feedback from people involved in recent assistance efforts and put a framework together that will enable people to rush to provide immediate assistance when a large-scale disaster does occur.