Assembly of young women leaders of Tohoku!

2017.10.27-29
Twenty young women leaders, who play active role in disaster-stricken areas of Tohoku, gathered at Nansho-so, a historical house with beautiful verdant garden in Morioka, Iwate. These women carry out activities in various area, such as childcare support, learning support, and urban development, but all of them tackle with social problems of disaster-stricken areas.

【Assembly of young women leaders of Tohoku!】



Since the East Japan Great Earthquake seriously damaged many of the municipalities of seacoast of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, more and more young people are migrating outside of these municipalities and the population is aging. On the other hand, after the Earthquake many young people who hope to help the local community came back (U-turn)  or moved in (I-turn) to disaster-stricken areas. Local young people are carrying out activities to solve local problems such as revitalization and restoration, but they are facing many challenges such as organizational management and sustaining of activity. Among them, women, especially young women, tend to struggle lonely facing many difficulties, as there is no space for them to participate in the framework of local community, or to participate in training.

“Grassroots Academy Tohoku in Iwate” is a training camp aimed to strengthen the leadership of young women leaders in their twenties or thirties so that they can actively participate in local community and gain power to express their feelings, and expand network of solidarity with local institutions and people.

The Academy was hosted by NPO Women’s’ Eye, who carry out support activities in disaster-stricken areas mainly in Minami Sanriku Cho in Miyagi prefecture.

JEN is fully supporting financing and planning of program of this event.

On the first day we held team building training in Nansho-so in Morioka, Iwate prefecture.

Through hands-on training that require team members to think hard and cooperate, participants learned important lessons that could be used in daily activities, such as to trust other members, to nurture comfortable environment by not blaming others who failed, to build equal relationship, and to set challenging goals.

【Participants wrote down lessons learned through hands-on training as wrap-up】



Second day was about introduction of participant’s activities. We held presentation training to facilitate participant’s communication to introduce their activities and goals.
Each participants spoke from their heart, raising various challenges such as organizational management and relationship building with local communities, and discussed possible solution. It was very energetic session.

【For each activity introduction, more than three members participated as listeners, and actively raised questions.】



On the third day, the participants visited Manmaru Mama Iwate that operates house for after birth care for mothers in Hanamaki City, and they sincerely listed to organizational structure, the challenges, and achievements.

【A look of visit to Manmaru Mama Iwate】



Through the encounter at Grassroots Academy in Iwate, young women leaders who carry out various activities inspired each other, and were able to gain network necessary to expand their activities. We hope further success to the young women leaders empowered by this training camp!

【Group photograph in Nansho-so】



Photograph provided by: NGO Women’s Eye