We produced this booklet as a summary of our operation "Minnano Volunteer Station" that begun in November after receiving a grant from The Japan Platform.

This booklet was created with the intention of sharing the know-how and experiences in relief support with the community of Mashiki town, as well as useful wisdom for future disaster relief leaders and organizations.  

Reflecting on the past five years from the initial emergency to post disaster phase, this booklet is full of the hopes  and challenges faced by different relief organizations when responding to the various  needs of Mashiki town. 

As we worked on this booklet, we also came to realize  these five years have helped us to see that to support communities is to  "Start with knowing the community, and to leave them empowered." 

In order to carry out mid to long term support activities possible in the town, the "Minna no volunteer station" (aka Minnabora)  set up a network connecting various local groups and organization to collaborate on the activities while continuing other KCDRC operations. 

It is not easy to continue our activities even if we have the desire to do so, but I feel that with the help of local people and cooperation with people who have the same desire, we can expand our circle of support and this has enabled us to respond to as many needs as possible.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mashiki Town, the related organizations, and the support groups who cooperated with conducting interviews during the preparation of this report.

During the four months between the beginning and publication of this report, the staff at the Kumamoto base, as well as Mr. Manato Koga, who is in charge of public relations, and the people of Mashiki-cho who cooperated in a trial-and-error process to determine how to conduct interviews and create the report. I would like to express my gratitude to the headquarters staff and temporary staff for their cooperation in proofreading the text, and for the way we were able to work together as a team.

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Two are better than one.
Because they have a good reward for their toil.
Ecclesiastes 4:9