Micro Steps for Significant Changes in Supporting Refugees

This chapter shows how a student-led, volunteer-run group, Fukkokai, operates with a limited budget, a small team, no formal authority, and difficult access to evacuees, while these refugees themselves face severe constraints—having suffered heavy losses, living far from home, and often lacking reliable information. Despite these constraints, evacuees also organize, support one another, and actively work with Fukkokai to resolve outstanding issues. Adopting a needs-first, co-creation approach, Fukkokai and evacuee groups review gaps left by existing projects, map unmet needs, and jointly identify feasible matters for a student team to address. Through micro-steps and partnerships, they expand networks with partner organizations and local hosts to assemble modest but reliable support—borrowing a bus; organizing Nebuta trip, autumn-leaf viewing, cooking classes, study groups, and listening sessions; and sending apples to kindergartens in affected areas—so that everyone can work together on practical solutions.