Donation appeal for the Fukushima PokaPoka Project

The Fukushima PokaPoka Project is a recreational program run by Friends of the Earth Japan for Fukushima parents and children.

After the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, we launched this program to help parents and children in Fukushima to get away in order to relax in the town of Inawashiro, where radiation levels are relatively low. PokaPoka has given children a chance to play outdoors without worries about radiation levels, and it’s given parents time to talk.
Even now, about 10 times a year, parents and children of all ages interact and engage in various activities. This year, we organized a study tour to Nagasaki and Minamata in Japan, where participants interacted with people involved in activities to pass on their experiences of the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki and industrial pollution in Minamata.

Nearly 13 years have passed since the nuclear accident.

Observers might think there is no more need for victims to recuperate from that accident.
But even though air dose rates have decreased, radioactive soil contamination has not decreased as much, and there are still local hot spots where radioactive contamination remains.

Those whose lives were so disrupted by the nuclear accident still have not healed their wounds or lost their anxiety.

The world has been led to believe that the nuclear accident is over and reconstruction is coming along well, which makes it difficult to have a frank conversation about the nuclear accident and radiation concerns. People need a place where they can talk openly without trying to hide their anxiety.

We believe it’s important to support those who still live in Fukushima, those raising children, and the very children who want to feel safe about what they eat and who want to play outdoors where radiation levels are known to be low, even if just for a few days a year.

We know that there is still a need for the Fukushima PokaPoka Project.

Many want to participate again this year, but applications always exceed the spaces available.

It is difficult to attract donations, perhaps because memories of the accident are fading, but project financing is always a challenge.
We are asking for your generous donation to help keep the Fukushima PokaPoka Project alive.

Fukushima Pokapoka Project FY2022 (to March 31, 2022) results: Revenues approx. 7 million yen, expenditures approx. 8.5 million yen
Participants in FY2022: (being confirmed)

POKA-POKA Project for Fukushima Children (Japanese)
>https://www.foejapan.org/energy/action/111212.html