On the earthquake-struck Noto Peninsula, the coming of summer has brought along with it the return of many summer festivals in the area, marking the resilience of communities and their desire to rebuild. In July, Habitat Japan continued working to towards a speedy return to safe and decent housing by holding shelf-building workshops and offering housing consultations.
On July 6th and 7th, shelf-building workshops were held at a newly built temporary housing site located in Monzen-machi, Wajima City. A total of 16 students from the nearby Kanazawa University’s Habitat Japan campus chapter, “Kindai Habitat”, came to Monzenmachi and helped lead the two days of activity. A trusty partner in our disaster relief efforts, some students from Kindai Habitat traveled to and from their home in Kanazawa each day, and one student even volunteered for the 9th time.
Setup began with the help of volunteers from 9AM, and by the time the workshop began at 10AM a winding line of residents waiting to join had form. Shelf building workshops have been held starting at evacuation in the area since March, so many people caught wind of and eagerly anticipated their chance to join a workshop for their own household. Residents were enthusiastic, with many even bringing their own power tools or hand-drawn designs including the dimensions of the shelf they needed to make.
As the workshop began, student volunteers split into four team of two, working as pairs to build shelves with the first four households that signed up. At least one member of each team was had experience leading this workshop before, so everything from drawing up plans to building shelves to their specifications started off smoothly. Many teams challenged themselves to make shelves in increasingly complex shapes to best fit residents’ needs. One resident wanted to make effective use of the space in their laundry room offered their thanks to student volunteers, saying “Thanks to your expertise, we were able to make a perfect fit. It’s good enough to sell!”
During this round of workshops, we were able to meet not only the residents directly participating but also the neighboring community who would interact with volunteers from time to time. Even after the workshop ended, many residents showed their appreciation and demonstrated the community’s warmth by staying to help clean up. Habitat will continue holding shelf-building workshops to serve residents of temporary housing sites in Monzen-machi. We ask for your continued support to help as many affected people as possible work to rebuild their lives by facilitating the creation of safe and decent living environments. Please donate using the button below.