Walking along the streets of Tokyo, you would not immediately notice that down an alley is a building which houses a women's shelter. The stairs have bells which ring as you walk up so that the women may hide when guests approach. One never knows when a husband or the yakuza may come searching for a woman sheltered at HELP so precautions must be taken. The place must be safe and the location confidential.

HELP which means "The House in Emergency of Love and Peace" provides such a place for Japanese and foreign women (and sometimes their children). Here they can take refuge when escaping an abusive situation. HELP used to primarily house women escaping the sex trade and of course those who were victims of violence from husbands or employers but now since the recent passage of the Domestic Violence P.revention Law, HELP has also been serving as a DV Supportive Center and are now taking in homeless women, the elderly, and disabled women.

Many of the women have been terrorized, psychologically and physically. If the woman is a mother escaping with her children, then HELP will help her to move on to a residence facility for single mothers, or to a NGO shelter where there is a clinical psychologist to provide care. Over the past year HELP's residents were from Japan, Thailand, Colombia, Burma, Korea, China, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Peru, Philippines, Brazil, and Mexico. The foreign women primarily come to escape the sex trade or to escape an abusive husband. The Japanese women come to escape an abusive husband or to avoid being homeless. There is also a HELP hotline to counsel women who may not need a shelter but have problems with their husbands, family or immigration.

HELP started 17 years ago by the KYOFUKAI, the Japan Women's Christian Organization, established in 1886. Near the HELP shelter, the KYOFUKAI also started a place called Step House which is a short -term boarding house for single women. The women may stay for up to six months. Unlike HELP, which has women sharing rooms and eating in a communal dining room, at Step House the women each have their own room and cook for themselves. But it also provides a kind of cooperative living as the women do support one another and there are caseworkers available. The wornen pay a small daily fee for staying at Step House. The women thus far have mostly been Japanese women. The women receive help in going to court to get their children back, finding a job, going to the hospital, and working on their mental health.

If you wish to help HELP, please volunteer once a week or send monetary donations to HELP through their account number for postal transfers OOI 1-5- 1 88775. The residents at HELP also make small handicraft items, which can be sold at church bazaars to raise money. Donations and prayers are greatly appreciated. As the location of HELP is kept secret, contact Claudia Genung-Yamamoto at NCCJ on how to reach them, RevClaudia@ aol.com