Reporting session of disaster recovery efforts in Naganuma [Nagano/Japan]
On the 19th March 2023, the Activity and Achievement Reporting Session by the Naganuma District Disaster Recovery Planning Committee was organized in Naganuma district, Nagano city. This district had experienced considerable damage by Typhoon Hagibis in 2019, and the Committee have been spearheading initiatives towards the community’s recovery from the damage since then. SEEDS Asia was also invited to this session, and we are truly honored to receive their words of appreciation for our engagement in, and support for, their activities.
Experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we perceive disaster recovery. Before the pandemic, stakeholders were free to meet and discuss in person. However, Naganuma district’s path towards recovery has been unprecedentedly challenging due to the outbreak of Covid, which followed the typhoon disaster. The fears of infections spread more rapidly than the virus itself, impacting how information was shared and agreements reached, in a situation where community members were not able to meet.
It was also a new challenge for SEEDS Asia to support a disaster-stricken community with Covid influencing its actions – mainly in the use of ICTs by assisting remote meetings and establishing a support network of experts in the distance. After SEEDS Asia launched its satellite office in Naganuma, we accelerated our support to the district by promoting the “collection of voices” from across different generations. These efforts led to the creation of the “Apples for Disaster Recovery and Community Development” (apple-shaped cards that residents could post to submit their opinions) and “Rediscover Naganuma Map” (a map reflecting the voices collected through the Apples for Disaster Recovery and Community Development). The apples and map were a process designed to visualize the charms and challenges of the district, and indeed served as a venue of expressing real values of the community.
Even now, we still recall the words of the residents when SEEDS Asia first visited Naganuma after the typhoon-induced flood: “Our community may disappear.” Their worries were not only about their own life that had been damaged, but also about the aged community as a whole. We would be more than humbled if SEEDS Asia, through its projects in Naganuma, was able to be a part of the realization of their desperate wish to continue their endeared community. We would like to express our heart-felt gratitude to the members of the Disaster Recovery Planning Committee. We would also like to thank JANPIA and Japan Platform for making these projects with the district possible.
