Tracing the vulnerable evacuees
Necessity of long-term assistance
The existence of people who experience more
difficulty in evacuation life, such as persons
with disabilities and their families, households
with only elderly people, and single parent
households is relatively obvious in the period
of emergency relief or at evacuation centers.
However, the situation of these people is less
obvious after moving into temporary housing
at the end of the emergency period.
Evacuees staying at home
One voluntary organization distributed
supplies to 200 to 300 evacuee households
who stayed at home, but the activity finished
three months after the disaster. However,
there were many elderly women and single
mo t h e r s w h o c o n t i n u e d l i v i n g i n
partially-damaged houses, often isolated, and
who could not access the information that
was available in temporary housing
communities. Because of this fact, the
organization restarted the activity, this time
targeted to single elderly women and single
parent households only, and continued to visit
them periodically.
People who stayed at evacuation centers
during the entire period
The above organization also paid attention to
evacuees who stayed at an evacuation center
during the entire period. These people were
expected to have more difficulty in the
reconstruction process; elderly people, those
who did not want to move into temporary
housing because they were not sure whether
they could survive there, and elderly people
with aching knees that might prevent them
from being on their own.
Once the evacuation center is closed, these
people were forced to move into the available
temporary housing. However, there were
concerns that it might be difficult to follow up
on them. In order to avoid losing contact, the
organization helped them move from the
evacuation center to temporary housing. It
created a good connection to continue their
relations even after the evacuees started a
new life in temporary housing.
It is effective to build a system in the
emergency relief period that allows response
workers and volunteers to continue their
relationships with those who need assistance
in the reconstruction and post-reconstruction
period.