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Global Festa 2009 Report!
On October 3rd and 4th, the GLOBAL FESTA 2009 was held at Hibiya Koen Park in Tokyo.
Despite the rain on the first day, about 100,000 people have visited this two-day event. Thanks to more than 50 student volunteers, Habitat booth had hosted some 1,000 guests to learn about our work against the world's poverty housing. We have welcomed Ms. Kurara Chibana, who is the former Miss Universe and also known from the ODA information show on TV!
(Left: Habitat Japan's booth; Right: Kids folding origami cranes, symbol for peace and hope)
Volunteer's Comment:
Many members of student chapters and staff at Habitat's Tokyo office worked together to plan for this booth installation. We wanted to stand out in the ocean of booth, many of which are informational ones by non-profit organizations like ours, so that we propped a real size poster of a house building volunteer with "I'm building a house!" message right in front of the booth as an eye catcher. Also, we decorated the booth and furnished it with chairs so the guest can sit down and talk with the volunteers as if they are inside one of Habitat's homes. Diverse participants of all ages could easily participate and have fun by folding origami cranes to be gifted to the home owners in Thailand by next year's Japan Hope Builders teams.
I was glad to see our volunteer staff was diverse as well. We have had helpers not only from the Kanto region but also the Kansai and all the way from Kyushu area. The Habitat booth has became the place for OBOG of Habitat student chapters, who came as the event guests, to "drop in" on these student volunteers and catch them by happy surprise; as if it was a home for them to come and rest after moving on to be the work force in the society. (Ayako Tabei, student volunteer)
=======================Proceeds at the GLOBAL FESTA 2009============================
Total of 21,200 yen was raised by sales of Habitat USB, T-shirts and Calendars.
* This proceeds will be used towards the house building projects by Habitat for Humanity.
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