Posted by on Apr 3, 2011 Views: 2075

Survivors grateful for food despite long lines

ADRA Japan
ADRA organized a food drive for citizens in Sendai, providing hot food for the victims. Hideo Watanabe, Programme Officer of ADRA Japan reported an incident that happened on the 20th:

At around 3PM, a woman around 50 years old fainted due to anemia while waiting in line. Thankfully it was not serious, and we drove her back to her home after having her rest a little.

According to her, she lives alone; although her daughter lives in a nearby city, there is not enough gasoline to use the car and thus the daughter could not reach her mother.

Her house is safe, and although she has electricity and running water, she can only take a bath every four days as she does not know when the gas lines will be repaired. She could not even go far to go buy necessities due to gasoline shortages, and even if she lined up at the store for more than three hours, she could only buy a meager amount of food. In a situation where most of the houses are almost out of food, she was very thankful for the hot meals that ADRA provided.

She continued; “A lot of things are gradually going back to normal. It’s hard living on things you are not used to eating such as dried bread and instant noodles, but I am more fortunate than others in that I have a life and a house. Even if it is only once or twice a day, I am extremely thankful and happy for these hot meals.”

(post translated from here)

ADRA continues to provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake by providing food and supplies to various relief shelters in the Sendai area.