February 10th, 2006, student council at Aoba International School (hereinafter: Aoba) gathered their elementary and junior-high students and their parents for their grand opening of hurricane Katrina relief campaign. Executive Director Mr. Tsukamoto at Habitat Japan and two of our staff attended as well to represent Habitat and its disaster response program called Operation Home Delivery.
Since Habitat is based on volunteer participation at building houses, we explained our belief that there are something we all can do to help, only if you are creative enough to come up with your own way of supporting those in need. Student council encouraged the school to get involved as they present example class projects such as building house models with recycled materials around home. Each class was also assigned to fill up Habitat’s little house-shaped paper coin box with their change from lunch and snack. The campaign goal is set to collect 3000000 yen by April, but they also had another big “kick-off”of 1000000 yen donation prior to the opening. As I realized of such a warm support from the whole school and the parents, I imagined the successful closing ceremony being held in April with big smiles on the council members’ faces.
There also was a 2 meters high skeleton of a wooden house on the stage. I saw a little giggle and glair in those elementary students’ eyes, when Mr. Tsukamoto was inside this skeleton house to explaining how a person needs walls, roof and windows to have a family in a house. For a while, I watched the young students comparing their happy family pictures with flattened houses in hurricane-hit areas. Later on the day, Mr. Tsukamoto encouraged junior-high students to think of what Aoba students can do, telling them a story from a developing country far away from their peaceful daily lives. Then, I felt them looked at the skeleton house, and its significance to be on their own school’s stage, with opened eyes and minds. This house will be completed by the hands of the preschool students as the collected donation approaches the goal amount.
The donation will be transferred to Habitat US through Habitat Japan once the campaign is over. It will be used for disaster response project called "Operation Home Delivery".
Aoba Japan International School: http://www.a-jis.com
Habitat for Humanity International: http://www.habitat.org