The facility reopened on January 18, though it has had to adapt to challenging conditions in the wake of the disaster. It can no longer serve lunches due to the ongoing water outage so it asks parents to provide their children's meals. But nursery staff say that they would like to help as much as possible so that everyone in the quake-affected area can move forward.
The city's three nursery schools were forced to temporarily close after the temblor struck on New Year's Day. Staff from all three schools gathered at the Tsubaki Nursery School in the center of Nonoe Town and resumed temporary childcare services there.
Any child who had been attending a nursery school in the city is eligible to receive daytime care there on weekdays.
On January 19, about 50 children spent the morning playing indoors. Due to the water outage, the children had to use portable toilets and use wet wipes to clean their hands. If their clothes became soiled, they were changed into spare clothing donated by evacuation centers.
At noon, some children were seen eating rice balls with their parents who visited the school to bring food.
A 45-year-old father employed in the fishing industry said, "I had to leave my child here while I was at work because I needed to prepare for going out to sea again. It may be different from normal childcare, but I am very grateful for it."
Kago Kiyomi, director of Tsubaki Nursery School, said, "Most of our staff members were also affected by the disaster, but we're managing to do this by consolidating our manpower and supplies."
She added, "I know there are many inconveniences, but we would like to help in any way we can to move forward together with everyone in the community."
