Hope spans seas

By Kath Gannaway
A VISITOR from Japan is connecting Australia’s fire and flood stricken communities at either end of the eastern seaboard with messages of hope and compassion.
Takeru Sato recently displayed hundreds of messages from people in Brisbane and the flood-affected towns of north Queensland at Healesville Walk.
Healesville people read the messages and accepted his invitation to respond with their own messages of support to flood victims.
Mr Sato put the project together after seeing the same sort of support for his home-town of Niigata after it was devastated by an earthquake a few years ago.
He said about 70 lives were lost and 16,000 homes destroyed, with survivors suffering terrible stress and difficulty in the aftermath.
“Some people sent us messages of support and these made people very happy,” he said.
“I wanted to do the same here.”
Mr Sato contacted Yarra Valley Community Health to help him in Healesville and found a willing partner.
The messages came from people of all ages. Six-year-old Simon wrote “I hope you can feel happy soon,” an older couple wrote “Dear friends, we watched with unbelief the speed of the fires and the devastation. We cried at the horror of your experience.”
Two young boys flashing wide “photo” smiles sent a simple message “We hope your hearts are feeling better.”
Louise Farmer of YVCH said the response had been amazing.
“People have been really touched by the messages and have been quite emotional reading them,” she said. Most were happy to have their photos taken to put a face to the message.
Mr Sato visited Marysville the following Monday before returning to Queensland to share the messages from Healesville with flood-affected communities.
“We cannot do things if we don’t know about the situation,” he said.
“By reporting your feelings to them, and them reporting their feelings and the situation to you, I hope this project will help people get to know each other’s feelings and build a sense of community,’ he said.
Mr Sato returns to Japan in two weeks, having drawn together communities divided by thousands of kilometres, but united by beautiful messages.