Crisis Response International

CRI Japan Deployment Summary

Objectives:

1. Provide effective CRI trained disaster relief assistance in areas of Japan with greatest needs such as Tohoku & Wakayama.
2. Explore opportunities for CRI to establish a more long-term presence in Asia by recruiting and assisting CRI trained responder(s) working in Japan to charter a Crisis Response Unit.
3. Identify people, location and material resources throughout Japan that would be most likely to help host, facilitate or support CRI disaster relief assistance in the future.
4. Identify people, location and material resources throughout Japan that would be most likely to help host, facilitate or support CRI disaster relief training in the future.

Deployment Summary:

Crisis Response International (CRI) deployed a 15-member team of their trained responders to disaster-stricken Japan from November 11 to November 22, 2011. One of the primary objectives was to provide disaster relief assistance to two main areas in Japan. The first part of the trip focused on the double typhoon flooding down south in the Wakayama area. The second part of the trip focused on the earthquake-tsunami damage to the north near Iwaki. In Wakayama the team ‘mucked out’ a home of an elderly couple that was left with about a foot of mud when the Shingu river rose out of its banks and flooded several valley villages. In Iwaki the team helped with organizing donated supplies, food prep and distributing meals to people displaced by the tsunami still living in temporary housing.

Another goal of the trip was to partner with the house of prayer community in Japan which we accomplished through The Altar IHOP – Tokyo. The Altar helped place the CRI team in the areas of greatest impact and blessed them with travel arrangements, guides and interpreters. Midway through the trip the CRI team traveled back to Tokyo and participated in The Altar’s Wednesday and Thursday evening gatherings and shared the vision of equipping and mobilizing responders and provided a practical preparedness presentation.

Finally, a third purpose of CRI’s trip to Japan was to also help set the stage for an additional deployment/training opportunity currently being discussed for May 2012 following the ARC School in Hawaii. The May trip would likely continue to work with those ministry partners  who are demonstrating a commitment to the ongoing recovery and rebuilding efforts in Japan. The Ring-of-Fire nations are not strangers to disasters so CRI sees this not only as an open door to a single country but unto the rest of Asia as well.