Project News

Bikes gifted to the kindergarten

From Tateyama Sabo women's salon (Chairman: Prof.Noriko Obata in Toyama University of International Studies), gifts were presented to Kemiren village and a kindergarten which were damaged by Mt.Merapi eruptions.

Tateyama Sabo women's salon is an association founded for the purpose of conducting PR regarding the importance of Sabo (Erosion and Sediment Control) and broadening a sense of danger against disasters. 280 members are belonging to the salon as PR staffs, and they are mothers in Toyama area. Their activities are joining to Sabo seminars, study meetings, and visiting neighbor Sabo facilities. Also, oversea trainings have been conducted. In September 2010, They visited Jogjakarta and reviewed the activities of the Urgent Disaster Reduction Project for Mt. Merapi/Progo River Basin and the disaster sites of pyroclastic flows in 2006.

The Urgent Disaster Reduction Project for Mt. Merapi/Progo River Basin is a part of" Urgent Disaster Reduction Project for Mt. Merapi/Progo River Basin and Mt. Bawakaraeng", a JICA's ODA Loan Project. The project is working on construction of Sabo facilities for the area's sustainable development thorough disaster prevention. Also the project introduces Disaster Management Duck dance (a pose game which purposes to learn the first movement in the event of disaster) to kindergarten kids for improving disaster awareness among residents. The Salon members, with a guide of Professor Djoko Legono in Gadjah Mada University, visited a kindergarten and watched Disaster Management Duck dance, which was an achievement of disaster prevention training. Also, they visited Kemiren village where the project is working on and had contact with villagers.

After that, because Mt.Merapi has erupted, Tateyama Sabo women's salon wanted to contribute something to their visited village and kindergarten. Then they presented pipes, bikes, toys, and puzzles, etc. Kemiren village had damages on agricultural crops by ash shower of eruption. However vegetable farming now restarted. The gifted pipes were used for fixing broken water pipes.

Besides the above gifts, with "Yonmenkaigi System" which is a part of the Project and performed by Gajah Mada University for reducing disaster damage among communities, they support the fee of having a meeting where the progress status of villagers' planned project is reported and it is also going to be used for future Kemiren village development.

The Volcanic Activity level of Mt.Merapi is lower to level 2 (Attention) from level 3 (Warning) on December 30th, 2010.