#Syria #volunteer #student #event

One of the current issues in the world today is the Syrian crisis. Unfortunately, many Japanese people seem to be indifferent to the issue due to the distance between the two countries.

For this reason, some students held a support event for Syrian refugees in January 2016 in order to raise awareness.

This is Chisato Namatsu, one of the student organizers.

Q Why did you decide to organize this event?

It was my friend who proposed the idea of holding this event. She worked at CARE International Japan (an international NGO) as an intern and came up with the idea. At the same time, I heard the news that many Syrian refugees evacuated to European countries. Because Japan is so far away, I felt that Japanese people, including me, had little understanding of the crisis. I agreed with her proposal right away and started to plan for the event.

Q What did you do?

1) ATSUMETE KOKUSAI KYORYOKU (Collected used goods for International Corporation)

Instead of a fundraiser, we asked students and teachers to donate gently used items that CARE International Japan could sell. The money will be used for supporting the Syrian people.

2) Created and displayed panels about the Syrian refugees at our university library 

Displayed panels

If you get permission from the library staff in advance, you can display panels at the Career Cafe that are related to study or current issues. The Career Cafe is on the first floor of the university library.

The title of the panels was “Do you know the current situation of the Syrian refugees?”. They were displayed for about two weeks.

3) Sold sundry goods made by female Syrian refugees

We also sold sundry goods made by female Syrian refugees. The goods were brought in by a volunteer group called IBURA WA HAITO, meaning needle and thread in Arabic.

Additionally, one of the founders of this group was an alumna of Ochadai.

Because all the products were hand-made, every item was unique.

Q How did it go?

It went very well. As you can see, we collected many postcards, stamps, foreign currency, books and CDs in only 4 days.

You can get more information about ATSUMETE KOKUSAI KYORYOKU here.

http://www.careintjp.org/support/internationalcooperation/

The handmade goods from IBURA WA HAITO were very popular among Ochadai students.

Even in the cold of winter, many students, professors and other university staff gathered around our stand. It took some students more than 10 minutes to decide what to buy because all the items were so cute.

Our stand

You can get more information about IBURA WA HAITO here.

https://www.facebook.com/Iburawahaito

After all, if you give enough time and effort to something, all of Ochanomizu University will support you.

Writer & Photo Credit: Chisato Namatsu