An outpouring of generosity in a fund-raising drive to help children affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster raised billions of yen more than anticipated, prefectural authorities in Miyagi announced.
An outpouring of generosity in a fund-raising drive to help children affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster raised billions of yen more than anticipated, prefectural authorities in Miyagi announced.
As a result, Governor Yoshihiro Murai seeks to expand assistance to those youngsters, specifically by using the donations to the Great East Japan Earthquake Miyagi children’s scholarship foundation to finance measures against bullying and truancy.
He said a change in the post-disaster environment is taking a toll on all children in the region.
The prefectural government set up the foundation in October 2011. It has raised almost 9 billion yen ($73,000,000) to date, or 5.5 billion yen more than its target.
The foundation was established to help the 1,064 children in the prefecture who lost both or one of their parents in the disaster that triggered a nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture.
But with more than double the target of 3.4 billion yen raised, Miyagi prefectural officials have set their sights on improving the well-being of all children in Miyagi’s devastated areas, starting in fiscal 2016.
Under the current setup, children who were orphaned or lost one parent in the disaster are eligible to receive a monthly cash payment as a scholarship grant.
Preschoolers through junior high school students get 10,000 yen, while high school students and college students receive 20,000 yen and 30,000 yen, respectively.
After the recipients graduate, an amount ranging from 100,000 yen to 600,000 yen is given as a lump sum.
The arrangement allows children to receive 4.29 million yen each in assistance to help cover their education from elementary school through college over a 16-year period, according to Miyagi officials.
The total needed for the program is projected at 3.4 billion yen.
So far, the prefectural government has spent more than 1.1 billion yen for children in that category.
The level of donations by individuals and businesses in and out of Japan far exceeded the prefectural government’s expectations.
In a year after the disaster, the foundation raised 4.1 billion yen.
As of the end of September this year, some 12,700 donations totaling 8.92 billion yen had been made.
This year alone, 700 million yen was raised.
However, the prefectural board of education insists there is no need to raise the cash level of assistance to orphans and children of single-parent households, saying the amount needed for schooling had already been determined after they weighed the mater carefully.
Some support groups call for spending of the additional funds on organizations that have programs to assist children in their school work and other activities.
They say many such organizations are short of funds.
The prefectural governments of Iwate and Fukushima--two other jurisdictions devastated by the 2011 disaster--also say that donations exceeded their expectations.
In the case of Iwate Prefecture, the level of donations stood at 7.74 billion yen as of the end of September, while 4.25 billion yen was raised in Fukushima Prefecture as of the end of March.
The two prefectural governments offer cash to children who lost their parents to help their education. The number of such children is 583 in Iwate Prefecture and 198 in Fukushima Prefecture.
Total payments per recipient through college are projected at 7.06 million yen in Iwate Prefecture. The figure in Fukushima Prefecture is 7.56 million yen.
The Iwate prefectural government also began providing subsidies in fiscal 2012 to children when they enter a national contest for cultural activities.
It raised the cash level of assistance in fiscal 2013.
Organizations in Fukushima Prefecture working to help children and high school students traveling overseas on an educational program became eligible to receive financial assistance from 2012.