2011 JAPAN­ - CANADA
KIDS FOR KIDS QUILT PROJECT

Helping young people respond to the the Tohoku disaster:
www.clothletters.com
March 12, 2011, one day after the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, this project was designed to help young people express their feelings around the disaster.
Originally, the project was 2 large cloth letters composed of nearly 1,000 individual letters by Canadian children. It grew to over 20 beautiful, expressive cloth letter quilts made by young people across Canada, the Tohoku disaster region and throughout all Japan .
Recently, the young people of Kagoshima created their 'Kagoshima' cloth letters from 104 original haiku poems. Kobe City youth added a hand-sewn 'Kobe City' cloth letter with each colorful letter about the person and all the letters designed to interconnect with the message, ”Our lives may be different, but our roads are all interconnected.”
The cloth letters went on a national exhibition tour of Japan and across Canada, after launching at the Prince Takamado Gallery, Canadian Embassy in Tokyo from October-December 2011.
The things that I was able to do while in the disaster area was possible because of the kindness, support and generosity from so many, many people in Tohoku, in Japan, in Canada and the USA.