Japan

Michael Fogarty Read more about Charity Concert for Japan Tsunami victims

Meg Kitano

On March 11th, 2011, what eventually became known as the Great East Japan Earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, spawning a massive tsunami that wiped out a 600 kilometer stretch of the Sanriku coastline, and triggering a nuclear meltdown at the Daiichi Fukushima nuclear power plant. In response to this unprecedented tragedy, TFI members, friends, and other concerned individuals from across the country began working together to provide support for the victims in any way possible. Read more about The Tohoku Relief Mission

Hiroshi Kawashima

On December 11th, our volunteers at Helping Hands (a branch of The Family International) visited the Ibaraki Prefect Children’s Hospital to perform our clown show. Our clowns performed skits, sang songs, and played games together with the children at the hospital. The children were thrilled to be visited by our happy and energetic clowns. Read more about Christmas at the Ibaraki Children’s Hospital, Japan

Robert McNair

Every year at Christmas, our clown therapy team does visitation work at various institutions in our area and the Chiba Children’s Hospital definitely ranks as our favorite. In October the head nurse of the hospital called, asking us to please return this Christmas with our clown therapy team. So on December 17th, we piled all our clowns into vans, and off we went to bring Christmas cheer to hospital rooms filled with happily surprised little eyes and big smiles. Read more about Spreading the “Smiling Bug” at Chiba Children’s Hospital, Japan

Florence McNair Read more about Christmas Clown Therapy in Hamano, Japan

Last summer (August 2011), we invited people from the parents and children’s club in Higashi-Matsushima (one of the earthquake-stricken areas) to our friend's villa. This vacation was made possible through the support of many kind people who donated their time, skills, and goods in order to make this happen.            Read more about Christmas in tsunami-stricken Japan

Akio Matsuoka 

Many lives were affected by the earthquake of March 11th; among those were the mothers of Higashimatsushima. During summer vacation, mothers of Higashimatsushima take their children to Nobiru beach. Due to the tsunami, the beach is now inaccessible and covered in debris. Read more about English Summer Camp for Japan Tsunami Refugees