Hama-yu, a meeting house of Sasunohama is inaugurated!

On September 9, "Sasunohama-Goya(Hama-yu)"---a pre-fab hut by the sea in Sasunohama village---was inaugurated. "Sasunohama-Goya" is a public place for people in the village community to hold meetings.

【The ceremony is held inside the tent set up before the hut with big-catch flags flying. 】

Sasunohama is a small village located at the base of the Oshika peninsula. There used to live forty families before the disaster, but now only seven of them remain because many houses have been washed away by the tsunami. Other families are still taking shelter apart at relatives' homes or temporary housing.
JEN is working on two assistance projects in parallel which provide fishermen with fishing equipments and local communities with voluntary services respectively, having had discussions and workshops in advancing these projects.
During the discussion, participants expressed a desire, "We need a place where any villagers not only who remain in the village but also who are temporary living away from the village can get together." and so Sasunohama-Goya was set up.

【After an opening speech from a person involved, the key to the Hama-yu was handed to villagers】


People in the village decided to give a nickname, Hama-yu, to the meeting place through their talks, the word-for-word translation of which nickname from Kanji to English is "beach-friend", because the nickname has the same sound as a vernacular word, "beach-play" in Kanji, that means children play on the beach or on the boat.

【Villagers and people involved together in a photo.】


It was a builder with its headquarter in Hamadori(Coastal region), Fukushima prefecture that took on the construction of the meeting house. They say that they set up a branch office in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture and began their business after the earthquake and the subsequent nuclear accident. A staff of the builder said in his speech "We will make efforts to work for the recovery of the areas stricken by the disaster here in Miyagi prefecture until the day when we are able to come back to our home town."

【A get-together after the ceremony.】


【Village women take care of cooking.】


In Sasuno-hama, oysters are going to be shipped this fall and so it's now being planned to open a Kaki-goya, a store that provides tourists and volunteers with oysters fresh from the sea in time for the oyster season.
IIf everything goes well, the store will be open for business in mid October at a booth attached to Hama-yu.
We will continue to provide our breaking assistance news just in time on how people in fishery village advance step by step for months to come.
We would like to ask you for the understanding and cooperation to our activities.
Both the Sanrikukahoku Shinpou dated September 8 and the Ishinomaki-nichinichi Shinbunn dated September 10 covered the inauguration ceremony. Do go through those newspapers.

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