Mar 2008 Newsletter: Yumi's Monthly Note
Hello Everyone,I am writing this newsletter on an airplane, heading for Paris via Amsterdam. I am going to be a loner business woman in Europe for a week. Well, I have a long list of topics to share.
In January, we presented our report regarding this year's activities to the Tsu City Board of Education. The huge room was packed with a lot of people. After our presentation, one of school principals, supporting our projects, raised his hand to share the following stories with us. The school principal had been anxious about his students who are very playful, since he found out that those kids have joined Pangaea activities. A few months later, he recognized some changes in those children's behaviors: the playful children became attentive listeners. The school principal also observed that some students came to active from passive by participating in our activities. They now comfortably initiate conversations with others. Because the significant changes caught the school principal's eye, he came to our activity site to figure out what's going on with those students. I am very aware that those kids learned very critical skills for living in a diverse world through our activities: they now know how to listen to and interact with others. It may be a bit premature to say that it takes only a few months for children to develop appropriate behaviors. However, I've seen many children who learned basic social skills by attending our activities for 6 months.
The members of the Tsu City Board of Education have amazed me
in many ways. These are what I usually see during our activities
in Tsu city. Whenever we provide our activities there, a number of
school teachers enthusiastically visit our activity site, in spite of
the bad weather. Kids show up and exchange greetings with guests,
including school teachers. They seem to be a bit destructed with
visitors until the first activity begins. Yet, once an activity
starts, those children are fully engaged in the given activities:
it appears that they don't care whether or not there are audiences
watching their activities. On the other hand, school teachers show
their warmth and caring toward kids in the course of activities.
I have been completely blown away by school teachers in Tsu city,
as well as the members of the Tsu City Board of Education.
In Tsu city, I have seen many children who are very open-minded.
It is obvious that arduous work by school teachers in Tsu city has
enabled children to develop their positive attitudes.
My next topic will bring you up to date on the situation in Kenya. UNESCO/Kenya staff members informed that the current situation in Kenya has slightly improved since the last month, but they need to reevaluate conditions to implement our projects. After conducting reassessment, they will let us know whether or not we can carry out our projects in Kenya. We were collecting pictogram messages for these two months, and sent them out to Kenya. Jane(The manager of Pangaea Kenya) emailed me back from Kenya with the following message.
A Message from Jane:
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I have seen all the messages from Pangaea and they are so beautiful and encouraging. I went through them over and over again and late into the night. To see all those children who care about us and are reaching out to help us in healing gives me joy & strength, more than I can express. Tell them from us we are so grateful. We are encouraged. We know we have true friends.
There is no denying the huge effect on Kenyans and especially on our children, innocent victims.
Efforts by Kofi Anan are helping, but it will be a while before we settle again.
One of the amazing things we have seen is while there is terror on one end, there is also lots of genuine love from fellow kenyans. People have generously donated and supported all those in need. This is the Kenya we know. People have given shelter to complete strangers, provided food and clothing and sent children to different schools. Pray with us for complete healing.
Jane Gatonye
The manager of Pangaea Kenya
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Some pictogram messages was uploaded to here.
Please go and read it.
The writer of Pangaea Ring of this month is Ms. Aya Fukuda, a Program Officer of Peace and Conflict Studies Global Campus Program Office of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She is a volunteer staff at Pangaea Activity in Tokyo, and translation volunteer.
See you next month!
Yumi
My next topic will bring you up to date on the situation in Kenya. UNESCO/Kenya staff members informed that the current situation in Kenya has slightly improved since the last month, but they need to reevaluate conditions to implement our projects. After conducting reassessment, they will let us know whether or not we can carry out our projects in Kenya. We were collecting pictogram messages for these two months, and sent them out to Kenya. Jane(The manager of Pangaea Kenya) emailed me back from Kenya with the following message.
A Message from Jane:
--------------------------------------------------
I have seen all the messages from Pangaea and they are so beautiful and encouraging. I went through them over and over again and late into the night. To see all those children who care about us and are reaching out to help us in healing gives me joy & strength, more than I can express. Tell them from us we are so grateful. We are encouraged. We know we have true friends.
There is no denying the huge effect on Kenyans and especially on our children, innocent victims.
Efforts by Kofi Anan are helping, but it will be a while before we settle again.
One of the amazing things we have seen is while there is terror on one end, there is also lots of genuine love from fellow kenyans. People have generously donated and supported all those in need. This is the Kenya we know. People have given shelter to complete strangers, provided food and clothing and sent children to different schools. Pray with us for complete healing.
Jane Gatonye
The manager of Pangaea Kenya
--------------------------------------------------
Some pictogram messages was uploaded to here.
Please go and read it.
The writer of Pangaea Ring of this month is Ms. Aya Fukuda, a Program Officer of Peace and Conflict Studies Global Campus Program Office of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She is a volunteer staff at Pangaea Activity in Tokyo, and translation volunteer.
See you next month!
Yumi
Posted by: kumakinoko | 3. Newsletter
