After quake, Pinoys in Japan find comfort in churchPIA FAUSTINO
Five months before a devastating magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March this year, GMA News Online visited the city of Sakai, a low-key metropolis near Osaka.
GMA featured the everyday lives of Filipinos and Japanese in Sakai, one of the country's oldest cities which has 800,000 residents but around one million bicycles, making it the unofficial biking capital of Japan.
On Tuesday, GMA News Online reconnected with Filipinos in Sakai to ask how the tight-knit community of Filipinos is coping after the earthquake.
The community gathers every Sunday for mass at Sakai City's only Catholic church, St. Joseph's.
GMA News Online producer Pia Faustino and photo editor Joe Galvez attended Sunday mass with Sakai City's Filipino community last October 2010. This video provides a glimpse into how church life helps some OFWs feel more at home in Japan.
Video produced by Pia Faustino
Cecilia Yamauchi, one of the group's most active members, was happy to report that Sakai was spared any major damage, being located far from the quake epicenter.
Still, the quake did "shake" Sakai's Filipino residents, literally and figuratively.
Yamauchi recalls how the group gathered for an emotional mass on the Sunday after the quake on March 11.
"Nag-iyakan kaming lahat. Kasi nakita namin ang isa't isa na buhay. Pasalamat kami. Hindi mo mapigil ang iyak," Yamauchi says.
Helping other Pinoys
Even if they were spared from the disaster, the group realized that many others were not.
After the quake, the community held an emergency prayer meeting during which they collected cash donations for their fellow kababayans who had lost their homes and livelihoods to the disaster.
Their group managed to raise at least 60,000 Yen, which they coursed through the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo.
"Financial lang talaga ang tulong na maibigay namin kasi di kami makapunta doon. O kaya personal prayers, Talagang nagpe-prayer meeting kami every time," says Yamauchi.
The Pinoys in Sakai even offered temporary shelter for Filipinos families from Yokohama and Tokyo who found it difficult to bear the numerous aftershocks after March 11 earthquake.
"Through the church ang connection namin. Talagang kung anong maitulong namin, in-offer namin -- prayers, financially, pabahay, at kung ano pa. Lahat kami nagoffer ng bahay," says Yamauchi.
The evacuee families stayed in Sakai for around two weeks.
Photo Essay by Joe Galvez
Click to view in full screen.
Source of comfort
After the March 11 earthquake, the church has once again proven its role in pulling the Filipino community together.
For many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the church has become a source of comfort.
Going to church is an activity that helps many OFWs cope with the loneliness that sometimes comes with living in a foreign land.
In Japan, a society where the majority of citizens aren't particularly religious, many Filipinos yearn for the familiarity, regularity, and sense of community of Christian worship.
Churches like those in Sakai may just be one of the most valuable crisis-response weapons that Japan's Filipino community has. - VVP, GMA News
GMA featured the everyday lives of Filipinos and Japanese in Sakai, one of the country's oldest cities which has 800,000 residents but around one million bicycles, making it the unofficial biking capital of Japan.
On Tuesday, GMA News Online reconnected with Filipinos in Sakai to ask how the tight-knit community of Filipinos is coping after the earthquake.
The community gathers every Sunday for mass at Sakai City's only Catholic church, St. Joseph's.
GMA News Online producer Pia Faustino and photo editor Joe Galvez attended Sunday mass with Sakai City's Filipino community last October 2010. This video provides a glimpse into how church life helps some OFWs feel more at home in Japan.
Video produced by Pia Faustino
Cecilia Yamauchi, one of the group's most active members, was happy to report that Sakai was spared any major damage, being located far from the quake epicenter.
Still, the quake did "shake" Sakai's Filipino residents, literally and figuratively.
Yamauchi recalls how the group gathered for an emotional mass on the Sunday after the quake on March 11.
"Nag-iyakan kaming lahat. Kasi nakita namin ang isa't isa na buhay. Pasalamat kami. Hindi mo mapigil ang iyak," Yamauchi says.
Helping other Pinoys
Even if they were spared from the disaster, the group realized that many others were not.
After the quake, the community held an emergency prayer meeting during which they collected cash donations for their fellow kababayans who had lost their homes and livelihoods to the disaster.
Their group managed to raise at least 60,000 Yen, which they coursed through the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo.
"Financial lang talaga ang tulong na maibigay namin kasi di kami makapunta doon. O kaya personal prayers, Talagang nagpe-prayer meeting kami every time," says Yamauchi.
The Pinoys in Sakai even offered temporary shelter for Filipinos families from Yokohama and Tokyo who found it difficult to bear the numerous aftershocks after March 11 earthquake.
"Through the church ang connection namin. Talagang kung anong maitulong namin, in-offer namin -- prayers, financially, pabahay, at kung ano pa. Lahat kami nagoffer ng bahay," says Yamauchi.
The evacuee families stayed in Sakai for around two weeks.
Photo Essay by Joe Galvez
Click to view in full screen.
Source of comfort
After the March 11 earthquake, the church has once again proven its role in pulling the Filipino community together.
For many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the church has become a source of comfort.
Going to church is an activity that helps many OFWs cope with the loneliness that sometimes comes with living in a foreign land.
In Japan, a society where the majority of citizens aren't particularly religious, many Filipinos yearn for the familiarity, regularity, and sense of community of Christian worship.
Churches like those in Sakai may just be one of the most valuable crisis-response weapons that Japan's Filipino community has. - VVP, GMA News
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