Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
One year on from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, the disaster's impact still haunts children. We are still there, as we were in the days and weeks immediately after, thanks to your support.
Our response
Within hours of the disaster striking, Save the Children launched an emergency response to provide relief to children and their families in the hardest-hit areas.
The sheer scale of the disaster meant that despite a strong government response, there were still large unmet needs.
These gaps were in education, emotional support and protection for children – areas in which Save the Children has global expertise.
Help us be ready to respond to the next emergency - please donate to our Emergency Fund
Keeping children safe
- We distributed essential household items such as blankets, towels, and soap to 3,060 people who had lost everything and were living in evacuation centres
- We quickly set up 19 Child Friendly Spaces in evacuation centres where children could play and receive psychosocial support to help tem recover from their traumatic experiences. It also kept them safe from the dangers of the debris-filled streets. They also gave parents time to rebuild their lives and livelihoods knowing that their children were safe.
Getting children back to school
With schools destroyed, teachers displaced and thousands of children living in evacuation centres, children faced great challenges returning to school.
We provided school kits, learning materials and stationary benefitting 17,864 children.
We also subsided school lunches for 21,342 children in schools where lunch services were not yet back up and running.
We’ve begun providing scholarships to high school students, whose families’ income was affected by the disaster. So far, 1,030 children have benefitted from these scholarships and a total of 28,057 children have been reached by our overall education work.
Enabling communities to support children
In addition to our direct intervention, we are providing support to local organisations and associations through small and medium sized grants, enabling them to provide support to children. We’ve for instance supported a mobile library project which has reached 29,680 children.
The future
Over the next five years, Save the Children plans to help children to recover from their experiences.
We are:
- Providing grants so community groups can deliver work to improve children’s wellbeing and protection.
- Working with local authorities and schools to ensure that children are included in government’s preparedness plans, and that children themselves are well equipped to protect themselves from harm in the event of a future disaster
Help us be ready to respond to the next emergency - please donate to our Emergency Fund