Meguro UNESCO International Exchange Summer Youth Program
“What Can We Do Now? – International and Social Contributions”
Date: August 15(Fri)-17(Sun), 2008 / Participants: 48 people, from 8 countries
Place: YMCA Tozanso, Gotenba, Shizuoka / Sponsored by NPO Meguro UNESCO Association
Supported by Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), Meguro City, Meguro Board of Education,Meguro International Friendship Association, and National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan
“Summer Youth Program” Shotaro Kimpara, Chair of Summer Youth Program Committee
Last year, in the spring, I joined Meguro UNESCO Association and attended “Summer Youth Program”. This year, I found myself being the committee chair of the program. Because we wanted to study about social and international contributions, we decided this year’s theme as shown in the title. But what we can do for social and international contributions?
The mission statement of Meguro UNESCO Association says “to make this world brighter, we are ready to serve local community”. I think this spirit is very important when we think of social and international contributions. If local actions lead to the betterment of the world, there must be many things we can do. Let’s think about global issues from a small local daily life.
“Group Work” Mai Ito, youth member of Meguro UNESCO Association
On the second day of the program, we separated into groups and held group talks, crossing lines of nationality and generation.
At first, we did a “show and tell”, showing photos of places where each of us was proud of in his or her home country or region in order to understand each other’s culture. All of the members’ faces were shining when they talked about their hometowns. Then, each group selected one photo. Those were the photos of cherry blossoms, a peace monument, woods, a river, a pagoda, old stores, tideland, etc. After that, we talked what we would be able to do to preserve those places for the next 100 years, and each group made a presentation to illustrate problems and resolutions. At this moment, in the minds of every one of us, was kindled the awareness that “we are living together with the unborn”, a phrase from the speech Mr. Okusawa made on the 1st day. That was the awareness of the need to conserve nature, to hand down the cultural heritage from our ancestors to our next generations, etc. In this camp, various kinds of awareness was born in our minds, and I would like to say that the defences of peace, which the constitution of UNESCO aims for, were already built in our minds even if we were not conscious about it.
