Ms Nishikata and family, Fukushima City evacuees

A Single mother of two, Ms Nishikita and her family left Fukushima city for the mountain town of Yonezawa in July 2011, after it became clear that radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had contaminated the city.

She has two children; Kaito, born in 2000, and Hu, born in 2002. She has worked hard to protect them and others from the radiation. Since the disaster, she has volunteered at the ‘Fukushima Network to Protect Children from Radioactivity’, and counselled people affected by the evacuation. In addition, she has talked about her experience in seminars in various places. She also launched an NGO called ‘Kids Voice’ to collect responses from children of Fukushima, has called for the evacuation to friends and neighbours. She has asked the government to implement a policy of ‘satellite’ evacuations of schools and community groups.

She has been working to rebuild the life her family, and the lives people had in other communities had before the disaster.