From December 8 to 12, 2008, a group of 15 followers including members of the Brazil chapter of Tenrikyo Young Men's Association engaged in voluntary relief operations in flood-damaged areas in the city of Ilhota in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. In this state, heavy rainfalls over nearly two months since October had caused rivers to overflow in a number of places. Some areas had as much rainfall in a matter of a week as they normally would in three months. Homes and businesses were flooded in 18 cities, towns, and villages. At one point, 79,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. It was reported that 135 people had been killed and six were missing due to the flooding, landslides, and other disasters.

Taking that situation seriously, Katsuji Watanabe, head of Brazil Yushin Mission Station, took the initiative in calling on Young Men's Association members and other followers to join him in putting together a hinokishin corps to help with the local government's relief efforts. In the blazing sun of the Brazilian midsummer, the corps members were involved in unloading relief supplies from big trucks that had brought them from all over Brazil and sorting them out at a gymnasium in cooperation with local firefighters. Those followers' efforts were featured in media reports broadcast all across Brazil.

Yutaka Tanio, chairman of the Brazil chapter of the Young Men's Association, says: "With this experience in relief efforts, we hope to establish a system to enable us to effectively engage in disaster relief hinokishin in Brazil in the years to come."

January 24, 2009 13:55JST