Three staff members from Habitat Japan were invited to the closing ceremony for Aoba International School's Hurricane Katrina Relief Campaign. From the stage in the ceremony hall faces of junior high and elementary students of various cultural backgrounds were visible. Once the slideshow presentation, prepared by ex-GV participant Mr. Kyle Shahan, started the lights were turned off and the children started to giggle. As the song started to sing "Let's build the world with our own hands..." he showed the photos of the students building a miniature house, decorating the school with Habitat's house-shaped coin boxes and learning in class about a hurricane and its capabilities. Students smiled and laughed when familiar faces show up on the big screen. Along with Mr. Shahan, who led this campaign with student council, other teachers attended the ceremony smiled as the light from the screen reflected on the kid's smiling faces.
"Who can tell me the meaning of the word 'Charity'?" Aoba's CEO Mrs. Rogers asked the students. I turned to the stage wondering how to answer the question. She took a pause for kids to think and continued, "It can be translated into the Japanese word 'feeling,' don't you think?" She explained that charity is having a feeling of their ability to take action on the world's need for help, and the ones who have such a feeling end up with actual results to make difference in the world.
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The last slide showed the grand total of \2043786 (about $18000) as the result of this campaign. It isn't quite what they aimed for, but regardless Habitat will utilize the donations for Katrina victims to deliver actual results to their lives. It might take a while for the kids to understand the value of such an amount of money, and likewise, it seems that the impact this campaign made on the kids may take time to prevail. Mrs. Rogers emphasized that kid's growth takes time, and how this opportunity was important for the students to learn about Habitat. It didn't seem that all the students there would remember the poverty housing issue when they grow up, however they might remember their class projects when they hear Habitat's name and decide to support Habitat someday in the future, just like Mr. Shahan did. This is exactly how Habitat spreads around the globe, and how the feeling of charity grows over time. The campaign, which reminded many of us the importance of awareness-raising at younger ages, had its ending on May 22nd, 2006.
Aoba-Japan International School: http://www.a-jis.com
Report on the kick-off ceremony: HERE
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2006.02.22　Aoba-Japan IS: "Kicked-off" Campaign for Hurricane Katrina Relief !