4 million yen sent to Nakahama & Yamashita Elementary Schools

March  marks the end of the school year in Japan. For Nakahama and Yamashita Elementary Schools to be even better prepared to welcome their students back for the new school year in April, the Saint Maur Relief Committee made the decision to send the remainder of the relief fund (around 4 million yen) to both schools as they said they have many immediate needs. The money will go towards,

• refurbishing the floors
• replacing blackboards
• buying additional library books
• purchasing IT equipment, sports equipment and a heating system

We hope to continue supporting both schools in the future and also look forward to further developing the close bond bewteen Saint Maur and the two schools.

Whole School Photo

With the memory of the March 11, 2011 still fresh on our minds, the Tohoku Relief Fund Committee gathered the entire school on the playground to take a photo of everyone showing our continued support of ‘Pray for Japan’. Come and check out the ‘giant’ photo.

Remembering March 11th

With March 11^th falling on a Sunday this year, the Tohoku Committee of students and staff would like to announce some commemorative events. Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday the focus will be “reflection”, while Friday’s Japanese Culture Day is one of “celebration”.

On Tuesday the 13^th the whole school will display their individual and group haiku. Our theme is reflecting upon the hardship & loss of March 11 to the unity & hope that we had some minor part in inspiring. At the end of the week, all our poems will be collected and forwarded to Nakahama & Yamashita Elementary Schools. We have also organized for a continuous slideshow of images from Tohoku running parallel with our own fundraising efforts here at Saint Maur. The screens will be at four different locations throughout the school. Beside each screen, there will be poster paper where students, staff and family members can post messages to Nakahama & Yamashita Elementary Schools.

On Wednesday we’ll be encouraging everybody to wear their Pray for Japan t-shirt, or a red& white t-shirt over their uniform. At 1.15pm we’ll take a whole school photo. During morning recess & lunchtime there will be refection services in the chapel.

And on Thursday afternoon the Student Councils are keen on holding a “No Electricity Hour” in the classrooms. Just 12 months ago some of us were inconvenienced with no electricity for short intervals, but up north many families had to do without indefinitely. Their proposal fits nicely with our week of reflection.

The Tohoku Committee.

Remembering March 11th

A number of events have been planned for next week to mark a year since the disaster.

Tuesday 13^th:

· Class displays of haiku poems

· Continuous slideshow running on 4 screens throughout the school

· Post messages of support to Nakahama & Yamashita Elementary Schools

Wednesday 14^th:

· Wear your Pray for Japan t-shirt, or a red& white t-shirt over your uniform 

· Whole school photo at 12.50pm

· 10 minute reflection service in the chapel morning recess & lunchtime

Thursday 15^th:

· No electricity hour in the afternoon

Christmas Assembly movie

Click here

Sending our Christmas gifts to the children in Tohoku

Christmas gifts for students and staff at Nakahama ES & Yamashita ES

JP & the Cezar's Kitchen crew have volunteered their time and skill to prepare Christmas cake for all the students & staff at both Nakahama/Sakamoto Elementary School & Yamashita Elementary School. The Saint Maur Relief Fund will cover the cost of the ingredients, and will also purchase a large candy cane for each child. We'd like to wrap the cake & candy cane boxes in colourful Christmas wrapping paper, and we're asking students to decorate square paper measuring 25cm x 25cm with joyous cheer! Students/HR teachers can give cards/decorative paper to Mr Morice.

Books & Christmas Cake sent to Tohoku schools

Thank you to everybody who donated books. We've just sent off 2 boxes of new/nearly new books to Yamashita Elementary School's library... just in time for Christmas. From our fund an extra 250,000 yen library donation was also added.

And for some extra joyous cheer, JP & the Cezar Kitchen crew have volunteered their time & skills in preparing Christmas cake for all the students & staff at both Nakahama/Sakamoto ES & Yamashita ES. Our fund will cover the cost of the ingredients, boxing & delivery, and there’s also a large candy cane for each student.

Latest News

• 9 kotatsus for families in need will be sent to Nakahama  before Christmas (9 x 8000 yen)
• Books donated were sorted and will be forwarded to both schools Monday after the HS SC brings in additional new books Monday
• 250,000 yen has been allocated for Yamashita ES's library
• We are looking into forwarding a candy cane for each student and perhaps a class Christmas cake per class (or bag of cookies per class)
• December 11th is a Sunday, so we'll wear our Pray for JP t-shirts Friday, Dec 9

Latest News

Thank you to all those who joined us on Wednesday, November 9^th for our presentations on recent Tohoku trips.

After our experiences with Peace Boat, it was decided that we would donate a further 1,000,000 Yen from our fund to assist them with their relief work in Ishinomaki City over the winter. A Peace Boat representative joined us for the second time at our Xmas Bazaar, and will again visit our school Friday, November 18^th.

The committee decided to assist Nakahama & Yamashita Elementary Schools in replenishing the international section of their libraries. We also thought you might like to donate a book about your country. Ideally, the books should target elementary students whose first language is Japanese. The books might be about food, sports from around the world, dance, geography, history, or even atlases. You can drop off a book in the collection boxes by the Front Office, near the Faculty Room or in the Montessori Building.

Finally, December 11^th marks the 9^th month since the magnitude 9 quake hit Japan. We would love to see as many members of the Saint Maur Community as possible in their Pray for Japan t-shirts during the school day.

Teachers Visit Yamamoto

A group of 7 teachers from Saint Maur have just returned from the tsunami hit region. We visited the town of Yamamoto, just south of Sendai and home to Nakahama Elementary School. We worked out of the Yamamoto Volunteer Centre, mainly assisting the remaining strawberry farmers. Some 90% of the strawberry farms in the area have as yet been unable to rebuild.

We visited Nakahama ES and Yamashita ES and presented students and staff with gifts courtesy of our Tohoku Fund. On the final day we were lucky enough to take part in Yamashita ES’s International Day. It was a truly magical experience, with all members looking forward to another trip north in the near future.

Both schools are short on library resources, so this looks like becoming part of our fund’s focus.

Miyagi trip presentation Wednesday 8th Nov

Some of our teachers will be giving a presentation and sharing their experiences of recent trips to Miyagi-ken. The presentation is open to parents, students and teachers. It will be at 12.50 in Mr. Morice's class.

Peaceboat In Ishinomaki

In May the Saint Maur Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund made a 100,000 yen donation to Peaceboat Japan (see earlier post). Over the mid-semester holiday one of our teachers had the chance to join a Peaceboat team and see first-hand the fantastic work that they are doing in Ishinomaki. Follow the link to find out more.
Peaceboat Ishinomaki Presentation
    

Message from Nicky Farmer of The International School, Uganda

I am glad you received the donation from our school in Uganda.We began the fundraiser in June to not only raise money for the people of Japan but as an awareness program to the school and its community.

Students aged 5-12years old held a swim-a-thon whereby getting sponsors for the amount of laps they swam in class. With the incentive of 'every little helps' and the support and enthusiasm of our Japanese families, the students raised just under $3,000.

Saint Maur teachers visit Miyagi-ken

A number of our teachers had the opportunity to visit the Tohoku region over the mid-semester break. As well as taking part in volunteer activities, they were able to visit two schools in the region and now have a clearer idea of how money from the Saint Maur Relief Fund could be used. More details and photos to follow.

Donation from the International School of Uganda

Thank you to everyone at the International School of Uganda for the very generous donation of 220,227 yen. We look forward to hearing about how the school raised so much money.

7 months on

Kotatsu Donation Program - Message from IACJapan

The IACJapan group is happy to announce that through the support of St. Mary's alumni George Tsai (Class of 1973) and James Reed (class of 1969) and with proceeds from the IACJapan Natsumatsuri held at Nishimachi in June, we will be donating another 350 kotatsu to Tagajoshi, Ofunato and Kesennuma. We are hoping that people will join in helping keep the elderly warm in Tohoku this winter as most of them are accustomed to using kotatsu to keep warm. We still need thousands more and would like to ask everyone to visit the donation link below to see how you can help one of these families.

http://alum.smis.ac.jp/Giving/GiftOfWarmth.aspx

Kotatsu Donation Program

卒業生たちの支援により、IACJapanグループは東北援助計画「暖かいプレゼントを贈ろう」を始めました。これは東北各地域に建てられた仮設住宅へコタツを送ろうという計画です。この寄付計画は、セント・メリーズの卒業生であるジョージ･サイさん（73年卒業）がセント・メリーズ同窓会を通じて200万円の寄付をされたことにより始まり、250個のコタツセットの購入に充てられました。9月には、購入資金の500個分をジョージ・サイさんから、100個分をジム･リードさん（69年卒業）からご支援いただき、合計600個のコタツセットを購入し、今後、秋深まる東北に送る予定です。

詳しくは下記ウェブサイトをご覧ください。

Click here for information in English

7 months on

October 11th will mark 7 months since the giant earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku area. On this day Saint Maur students are encouraged to wear their PRAY FOR JAPAN t-shirts to show support for the people who are still homeless and for the children who have lost brothers, sisters, mums & dads.