Article by Patricia Nip
When I first met Mike Connolly in November of 2011, we were in the living room of a reclaimed house in Ishinomaki. I had just arrived for a week of volunteering in the tsunami ravaged coastal region just north of Sendai. During the grand tour, I was told that I was in good company because there were two other Canadians in the house that was serving as the headquarters for the volunteer group It’s Not Just Mud. The first one that I met had been my ride from the train station, and now I was meeting the mysterious Mike. As we were introduced, I couldn’t shake a strange sense of déjà vu.
A few days later, Mike and I were sent off together on a tsunami clean up request. We made our way to what used to be the Kikuchi family’s small family business. Their simple wish was to regain access to the second floor of the building, where their family had lived before the tsunami debris filled the first floor and made it impossible to access the stairwell. It was during the course of our path clearing, potentially tetanus causing endeavours that the mysterious source of my déjà vu became clear to me. Mike Connolly, was Mike-sensei…
It turns out the first time I actually met Mike Connolly was 6 years prior. At that time, I had no inkling that I was meeting a driven, global humanitarian. He seemed normal enough. He was a tall, bespectacled man, with an easy, quiet smile, topped with head of light brown hair. What caught my attention at the time was his fluent Japanese, which was how we met in the late spring of 2005. He was a teaching assistant for our pre-departure Japanese language course at the University of Waterloo. Our time together was short, as Mike had to leave early to start his own stint as Miyoto City’s (Kagawa-Ken) new CIR. And as he left us with tales of the two storey house he would be provided with, I had no idea that we would unexpectedly meet again 6 years later while digging out from under a pile of compacted, dust covered gareki.
One of his first post JET ventures into the world of humanitarian work was in Afghanistan. Mike spent time volunteering for the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), a program dedicated to providing education and leadership opportunities for Afghan youth at home and abroad.
Mike had been in Tokyo saving funds for a return to Kabul when the triple disasters hit the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11th, 2011. Almost immediately after, he set to work with a range of organizations. He helped to establish Foreign Volunteers Japan, an NPO dedicated to fundraising, aid delivery and helping to manage volunteers in the wake of the disaster. Once in Ishinomaki, Mike joined forces with It’s Not Just Mud. Here, not only did he continue his efforts with Foreign Volunteer Japan, but he was now rolling up his sleeves and helping the local community with restoration and rebuilding, on both physical and spiritual, projects.
Eventually, Mike was able to use his drive and vast volunteer experience when he joined Habitat for Humanity Japan in April of 2012 as a project coordinator. With Habitat for Humanity in Miyagi, he has been able to continue his tsunami relief work. Mike has already welcomed several groups of JET volunteers to help the rebuilding efforts in Tohoku, most recently for a project to build a house from scratch in Iwate.
While his dedication in Tohoku is already noteworthy, it wasn’t completely a surprise, when late last year, as Mike was preparing for a well-deserved vacation, he again sent out a social media appeal. He was looking for volunteer opportunities he could take part in at his destination. Later, when Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines in November of 2013, Mike took it on. In the midst of his efforts in Miyagi, he started to pass on information to potential volunteers and began the process of gathering and organizing financial and material support for this new humanitarian disaster. When it came time for him to enjoy his Christmas, he hopped on a flight to join fellow Tohoku volunteer alumni and the NPO, All Hands Volunteers, in their typhoon relief efforts. This is a man driven by a need to help others.
In addition to his work on the ground, Mike has also been putting his photography skills to good use by tirelessly documenting the efforts of the various aid groups and volunteers he works with. His Facebook page is full of updates on current and upcoming restoration projects, highlighting volunteers while recruiting new ones and the plight of those still caught in limbo since the tsunamis. He has been trying to bring attention to the stagnant pace of reconstruction in the region. Those who have made the effort to try and bring life and business back to their communities are struggling. Three years after the disasters, many communities are still in the planning for reconstruction phase with actual reconstruction only a dream. Almost 300,000 residents are still in temporary housing, and will most likely be there for at least another three years. And sometimes, he stops to add an update about himself as well.
To learn more about some of the different organizations Mike is involved in (and how you can help), please use the following links:
It’s Not Just Mud: www.itsnotjustmud.com
Foreign Volunteers Japan: www.foreignvolunteers.org
Habitat for Humanity Japan: www.habitatjp.org/index_e.html
All Hands Volunteers: www.hands.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karaoke.mike
Photos by Sabine Taras Thompson, Michael Martin, and Michael Connolly
