As reported by GRACIEMAG.com, Enson Inoue will walk across Japan in an effort to raise money for the country’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami victimes. In the video above, the former UFC and Pride fighter discusses what to expect from the walk, which will begin on Sept. 11, 2013. Check it out.

Former Pride and UFC veteran Enson Inoue will walk across Japan in an effort to raise money for those affected by the country’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami, representatives for the fighter confirmed to GRACIEMAG.com late Tuesday.

Inoue will begin his walk on Sept. 11 and cover approximately 1,360 miles, going through cities including Sapporo, Fukushima, Osaka, and Hiroshima. The entire journey, Inoue said, will take approximately three months.

“The walk is for the people in North Japan that are still struggling every day, so I decided to use whatever I could in the walk to benefit the people,” Inoue said in a statement. “The people of the world have forgotten about how many Japanese people are still struggling, lacking the funds for basic necessities. Suicide is a big problem with the elderly that have been left homeless and feel they have no reason to continue living.”

A representative for Destiny Forever LLC, the company involved with Inoue and his walk, told GRACIEMAG.com that pledges for the walk will be based on each mile completed. Funds raised will go towards food, clothing, gifts, and other items as part of an annual Christmas Day festival.

“A penny a mile will obligate you to only $13 when the walk is done,” Inoue said. “That’s enough to provide a family with water for a month or give them two weeks worth of rice.”

During the more-than-1,300-mile walk, Inoue will only use whatever food and water he can carry, according to representatives. The fighter plans on sleeping outdoors, unless strangers along the way offer supplies or a place to sleep.

Inoue said that some may look at his attempt to raise money for charity as too much of a sacrifice, but his belief is his efforts will save lives.

“I know many of you think I’m crazy or feel that I may be taking on too much this time,” he said, “but I believe this will help these people and possibly save some lives.”

More information on Inoue’s journey can be found on his Facebook page.

Aoki at Dream / Photo: publicity

On March 14, while Japan fell victim to earthquakes and tsunamis, Jiu-Jitsu black belt Shinya Aoki (26w, 5l) cried.

But there was joy and the hope of better days in his tears. On that day of woe, the Strikeforce fighter made a touching post on his blog, which in loose translation said:

Some years ago, I was just a little person of 22 or 23 years of age, and Dream Stage Entertainment, the company that owned Pride, hired me to become a great fighter. From there on, many people helped me. Now, I am the father of a little person. I’m here, very happy and crying as I look into my son’s eyes. Today I am a fighter, and I must fight for all those people who supported me,” wrote the Yuki Nakai black belt.

On March 14, while the world cried and felt lament for Japan, the baby Aoki was born. It is for him – and for the other inhabitants of the country – that Shinya Aoki plans to put on a gala exhibition this Saturday, against Lyle Beerbohm.

So far Shinya has only has one fight at Strikeforce, a 2010 fight he lost to Gilbert Melendez by judges’ decision. It’s time to be reborn. That’s why it would be a good idea to keep an eye on him. The father is ready to put on a Jiu-Jitsu show this Saturday.

Strikeforce – Diaz vs. Daley
Valley View Casino Center, San Diego, California
Saturday, April 9, 2011

Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley

Gilbert Melendez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

Gegard Mousasi vs. Keith Jardine

Shinya Aoki vs. Lyle Beerbohm

Preliminaries

Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Robert Peralta

Brett Albee vs. Virgil Zwicker

Joe Duarte vs. Saad Awad

Herman Terrado vs. AJ Matthews

Rolando Perez vs. Edgar Cardenas

Casey Ryan vs. Paul Song

Marcos Souza at Asian Open / Photo: Kinya Hashimoto

Winner of the Asian Open black belt division Marcos Souza, the brother of brown belt world champion Roberto Satoshi, has been living through all the tension and anguish of the Japanese people ever since the devastating earthquake that caused the greatest natural disaster in the nation’s history.

“Things are bad, but thank God here, where I live, nothing serious happened. I was dieting for a fight and, for a few moments, I thought I was getting sick from hunger. Only when I saw the lamp shaking did I realize that shaking was an earthquake,” he recounts.

“I tried to talk to my brother Roberto, but the phones didn’t work. Worried, I went looking for him in the street, followed the path to the academy and found him returning home,” adds Marcos.

In Japan, many have rallied together to help deal with the tragedy, and Jiu-Jitsu is there showing solidarity too.

“Thank God nothing happened at my house nor at my academy. But things here are ugly. There’s no more water in the markets and in many regions gas stations no longer have gasoline. The Jiu-Jitsu folks here are rallying to collect food and clothing to donate to the most affected regions. Those interested can contact me by email (marcossouzajiujitsu@hotmail.com). Any help is welcome,” he says in closing.

Recently, Dr. Steve, a “2nd degree” blue belt, showed his usual “black belt attitude” when the earthquake hit in Haiti. He didn’t think twice about it – he knew he had to go and help. Dr. Steve is an Internist and has his regular medical practice in San Clemente, but he is also part of a charitable organization called “Operation Rainbow.” Operation Rainbow is based out of San Francisco and is comprised of six different medical teams that travel to Central and South America to perform orthopedic surgery on children with crippling injuries and congenital deformities.

Once a year, each Operation Rainbow group travels to a given destination. Once there, they evaluate 500 people and pick 50 to 80 to do surgery on, “My role as an internist,” Cullen says, “is to run the recovery room and hold clinics for high blood pressure and diabetes. I’m also the doc for our team, should they get sick. This emergency trip to Haiti was the first ever of its kind for Operation Rainbow. It was a strike-force for the earthquake victims. We’ve never put together a trip like this on such short notice.”

In fact, the whole team only had 16 hours notice to get time off from work and collect the medical and surgical supplies needed for a trip like this, let alone pack for a week in a foreign country. That was followed by a 3am drive to LAX, a flight to Miami, a second flight to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and finally a 6-hour bus ride to the Haitian border.

Cullen didn’t eat any food during the day because he didn’t want to use the camp’s food supply”

Cullen says it was chaos when they arrived on the scene, “We drove into a refugee camp in Jimani, in the Dominican Republic. It was two miles from the Haitian border. We didn’t know what to expect. We were responding to a natural disaster greater than what we’d ever seen before. Our surgeons quickly took leadership of the surgical community that was down there, and probably a hundred docs and nurses from all over the world worked together to orchestrate medical care.”

The refugee camp was at a site where there was a hospital, a chapel, and an orphanage. Those buildings and a number of tents quickly became hospital wards, “There were hundreds of patients in need of emergency medical care and surgery,” Cullen says, “They were laying everywhere – on mattresses inside the buildings and outside in the dirt. The 40-bed orphanage that we converted into a hospital housed 300 patients. It was busting at the seams. All in all, we had about 500 patients. We immediately started triaging them to different areas depending on their medical needs and we began to operate on people. Patients were put on antibiotics and pain control meds.”

What complicated matters was that there was no medical testing available, “We usually have access to medical testing, like blood tests and x-rays, but we didn’t have any of that. Doctors fixed fractures by guessing if bones were aligned correctly,” Cullen says, “Most of the victims had crushed bones, so we performed surgeries, put them in casts, or amputated limbs, but in war zones you’re not supposed to close wounds. You’re supposed to come back a week later to do formal amputations. Unfortunately, initial medical teams did amputations quickly and that led to post operative complications that we also had to deal with. Many victims got infections, so we ended up with bigger amputations. We had to remove many arms and legs.”

What makes it more tragic is that many children operated on had no family left, “Kids woke up from anesthesia crying for their moms and dads, but they weren’t there. They were probably dead. Their homes collapsed after the earthquake. They were built into the sides of hills, staggered, one on top of each other with no support, so they didn’t stand a chance.”

Cullen was busy working when a 6.1 earthquake aftershock hit, “The Haitians were so traumatized from their initial earthquake experience, the aftershock sent them over the edge. One guy got so scared he threw his clothes and mattress over the 2nd story balcony and jumped. He broke his back and paralyzed himself. I tried to explain to everyone that the building we were in was safe, but none of the 300 patients would go back into the building after that. They pulled their mattresses outside and stayed there, regardless of their medical condition.”

Cullen’s wife, Cathy, is an R.N. and was also on the scene with him, “Cathy saved one man’s life. He was a burn victim with 40% of his body covered in 3rd degree burns. He sat outside of a hospital for six days with no medical care before he came to our camp. Cathy found him sitting outside. She brought him in and found a surgeon to perform surgery on him. Most would have died from infection. We kept him alive and we had him airlifted to the USS Comfort, where I hope he’s still alive today.”

In fact, Cullen was instrumental in getting patients airlifted to the USS Comfort, a floating Naval Hospital, sent to help the earthquake victims, “On our 5th day, there was a rumor that the USS Comfort was going to start airlifting patients out. The US Navy sent a helicopter to our camp and the Dominican Republic decided to do the same. I was introduced to a Dominican general and I spoke with him in Spanish about the situation. I told him about some of our patients who desperately needed to be in a regular hospital to be treated for things we couldn’t do at the camp, and he initially agreed to one trip, then I got him to agree to multiple trips.”

Cullen went on to say, “No matter what your profession and training, nothing prepares you emotionally for seeing a US Navy Black Hawk helicopter dropping down from the sky and whisking patients away in minutes. There was no better feeling than knowing my patients were going to a US Naval hospital that could house 1000 patients and give them the effective medical treatment they so badly needed.”

Cullen says he worked from 7am until 10pm at night. He didn’t eat any food during the day because he didn’t want to use the camp’s food supply. Cullen says the trip was an unparalleled experience, “It was crazy, heart breaking, and chaotic. Every second was amazing.”

What Cullen wants people to know is that although the earthquake is over, Haitians have an uphill battle ahead, “These people will have to go back to Haiti. The Dominican Republic won’t let them live there. There is no prolonged care in Haiti. These patients will need more operations and they have no means to get them or prosthetics. Haiti is now a country filled with amputees and orphans. They had no belongings to begin with, but now they have no belongings, no money, and no homes. So, if people want to help, they can donate to charitable organizations that have already shown up like Operation Rainbow, and earmark their donations for Haitian relief. My team’s committed to going back in April to see what more we can do.” There’s that black belt attitude again…

If you want to help, go to: http://www.operationrainbow.org/

Victor Bobadilla and Portuño. Photo: Personal Archive

The earthquake that shook Chile on Saturday, reaching a magnitude of 8.8, killed hundreds and affected the lives of more than 2 million people, according to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

A well-known referee from official IBJJF competitions, GFTeam black belt Alvaro Bobadilla narrowly escaped tragedy.

“I was in Chile, where I taught a series of seminars and returned on Friday, shortly before the tragedy. I was in one of the cities most affected just a few days before the earthquake. My mother is in Chile, but, thank God, everything is fine with her,” says the fighter who, while living a long time in Brazil, is Chilean.

Alongside with Bobadilla came Victor Portuño, the fighter’s representative in Iquique, one of the areas threatened by tsunamis.

“Luckily, he came to Brazil to train and brought the family. He’s worried, but he even competed at a tournament and won,” he said in finishing.

The 7.0 earthquake turned Haiti in to ruins

We followed the link and came across this piece of news in the academy website:

(…)Black belt Dr. Anire Okpaku and blue belts Dr. David Farcy and Dr. Peter Romano traveled to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to assist and provide care for earthquake victims. A plastic surgeon, an ER doctor and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon respectively, they volunteered to aid the victims in Haiti.

Victims need all the mediacl help they can get

Dr. Okpaku’s brother and blue belt, Temi, is also in Haiti aiding victims. Black belt Dr. Gaetano Scuderi also volunteered to assist the victims and is scheduled to travel to Port-au-Prince next week.

Valente Brothers joins the rest of the nation in their concern and support for the survivors of the Haitian earthquake and prays that everyone will do their part to help relieve the burden of these victims.

Your donation goes a long way in Port au Prince

The GMA Blog and GRACIEMAG.com also joined the efforts to help Haiti. Click here and know how you can aid.

For more info on Gracie Miami, go to graciemiami.com.