Living Together in a Global Community Study Group Volunteers Give Presentations at the Kiin Festival

2013年11月9日更新

At the Kiin Festival (annual Ochanomizu University student festival) held November 9-10, 2013, members of the Living Together in a Global Community Study Group held a panel presentation of “Field Study of Convivial Global Society” and four volunteer groups presented reports, sold goods, and introduced their activities at the Ocha-coop (Ochanomizu University Consumers’ Cooperative Association) Cafeteria Marche.

（AIT Reports）

AIT Workshop Reports
The AIT Workshop is a research training exchange program which consists of Ochanomizu University master’s program students’ participation in a workshop held at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and field investigations, and AIT graduate students’ training in Japan and research exchange with Ochanomizu University graduate students. This year’s theme was global justice, women’s health, and prostitution, which is linked to the themes of the graduation theses of the five participants from Ochanomizu University.

The reports were presented at the Kiin Festival this year in an effort to more broadly publicize the AIT Workshop. The five participating students were responsible for the planning and preparation, with a total of four reports presented over two days at the Global Collaboration Center booth inside the Marche.

The reports focused on the results of field surveys conducted in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. One example was the report on the NGO Education Means Protection of Women Engaged in Recreation (EMPOWER) which provides support and education to sex workers in Thailand. The report presented slides introducing facilities skillfully designed so sex workers can enjoy learning language and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and explained the need to respect the privacy of interviewees when conducting interview surveys with sex workers. The slides also showed scenes of sightseeing in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, as well as exchange activities with AIT students. A friendly atmosphere prevailed during the presentation of reports from start to finish.

（Chizuru Nakamura, Master’s Program, 1st year
Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences）

Okun Chraun Reports
Okun Chraun is a student organization engaged in activities aimed at spreading emotional development education in Cambodia. It was created from sadness over how the children of Cambodia lost the opportunity to foster self expression and imagination from the civil war and hope for the vision of imaginative youth who have received emotional development education building the future Cambodia. Over the two days of the Kiin Festival at the Global Collaboration Center booth, the group presented reports on the workshop held at a Cambodian elementary school this summer, with explanations on what members actually saw and felt there and about traditional Cambodian culture.

The workshop in Cambodia took the form of having friends draw portraits of each other and exchange them as presents. It was held for 6th grade elementary school students who engaged in the task earnestly and joyously, and I had a great time. Okun Chraun hopes the workshop will become some sort of catalyst for their future growth.

About 10 people came to visit our booth over the two-day festival. Those included high school students who asked us many questions after listening intently to the reports, such as how we planned and advanced the workshop and what made us hold the workshop. Their questions made the two days of presentations a learning opportunity for us as well.

（Tomoe Ishigami , Division of Human Life Studies, 1st year,
Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences）

（East Timor Reports）

East Timor Study Group Reports
This was the second year that the East Timor Study Group had an exhibition at the Kiin Festival, following our first presentation last year. This time in addition to a panel exhibit and presentations, we also made our first try at selling coffee, jewelry, and accessories from East Timor in collaboration with the NPO LoRoSHIP.

We were anxious at first, but people of all ages visited our booth ranging from high school students to senior citizens, and they gained interest listening to stories about East Timor while browsing the goods. For us, it was a significant opportunity to convey information about East Timor to a wide range of people in a more relaxed atmosphere than the report meeting. We gave a report entitled “East Timor-Travel for Women” for participants to learn cultural aspects of East Timor, which have a remarkably surprising number of factors that attract women including the colorful traditional weaving called “tais,” cute accessories, the clear, beautiful ocean, music which resonates in the heart, and delicious foods. LoRoSHIP is actually planning a tour for next summer, so anyone who is interested should check LoRoSHIP’s Facebook page.

（hiori Maruyama, Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation, 3rd year
Faculty of Letters and Education）

（Panel display on the “Field Study of Convivial Global Society”
and booths by Living Together in a Global Community Study
Group volunteer groups. The booths introduced their activities
through the sale of goods.）

Association of Following Wind Reports
The international cooperation NGO Association of Following Wind (Kazenokai) is a group providing educational support to Cambodia run by university students at Waseda University, Ochanomizu University, Meiji University, and other schools.

Our works can be broadly divided into domestic activities and overseas activities. The overseas projects include support for English language and science education at Cambodian orphanages and school construction and auditing. The domestic activities include presenting classes on international understanding at high schools and arranging sister schools exchanges between middle schools in Miyagi Prefecture and Cambodia.

About 300 people visited our booth at the Kiin Festival, where we presented displays and sold goods.

（Midori Kobayashi, Division of Human-Environmental Science, 2nd year
Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences）