Natari is located in Utatsu village which is part of the Minamisanriku area. It is a small day care with only 24 students. There were meant to be 60 students this year but, for now, many families have moved away (some waiting for their houses to be rebuilt, others have left for good). Natari is […]
An 11 year old American girl named Miya had a dream to build a park to help the children of Ishinomaki. Together with her parent’s and many others from their Ohio community a plan was put into action. Playground of Hope came on board to help with additional fund raising and park planning activities. This
Melon Daycare has been servicing the Ishinomaki community for over 25 years. Thankfully, located nearly 10 kilometers from the coast, it was not directly impacted by the tsunami. Unfortunately, many other Ishinomaki daycare facilities were and, as a result, Melon Daycare saw student enrollment suddenly increased by more than fifty percent after the 3/11 disaster.
Himawari Daycare was one of the most heavily impacted schools we have worked with to-date. The school housed 50 people for eight days after the earthquake and, sadly, lost 3 of their children after parents had picked them up from school prior to the tsunami striking. It took 4 days for the 2 meter high
Shirayuri daycare, like many of the locations PoH supports in Fukushima, does not lie in the “disaster-zone”. They have been, however, impacted in that their student enrollment dropped by 30% but is now increasing again. When a community, i.e. moms, dads and teachers deems it is time for their kids to start playing outside again,
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PoH does lots of work with preschools throughout disaster-affected Tohoku communities. The reason is simple; working moms and dads need quality dare care facilities for their children, therefore, building and repairing these facilities is an important part of the rebuilding process. This is the “social fabric” we speak of in the PoH mission statement. What
There are over 230 beautiful children enrolled in this kindergarten and it was clear to everyone there that these kids really and truly enjoyed climbing, jumping and running all around their new play set! There was entertainment by NicoNicoTaishi Having been unable to play outside for nearly 2 years and having had all of their
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Although PoH remains committed to help bring play back to Tohoku, in 2013 we began to reach out to orphanages in need of play equipment. Home to over 60 children, the Koyama Home grounds were in serious need of repair. Thanks to a very generous donation from GILT Japan plus 106 of their volunteer staff
When we can service a temporary housing community we are always very pleased…when we can service three temporary communities with just one park we are absolutely over joyed! Making this installation all the more exciting was the overwhelming support we received from the local community. Local volunteers helped build the play set, benches and picnic
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Our third public park installation with our very first Japanese sponsor – thank you AiAi Corporation! More and more the residents of Fukushima are seeking to encourage children to play outside. The Kitachuo park is an absolutely lovely park, very large with lots of open space but did not have a single play set. Even
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