Spread the word

from Asahi

BY TARO KARASAKI, STAFF WRITER

Japanese nonprofit organizations are using walks, talks and shocks to raise awareness of Africa's plight ahead of the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) in Yokohama on May 28-30.

The groups, engaged in assistance and relief work in Africa, are devising eye-catching methods, such as holding charity walks and setting up thought-provoking exhibitions and workshops, to direct attention toward problems on the other side of the globe.

Organizers say they also hope to win much-needed Japanese aid, which has recently declined.

The Japan Association for the U.N. World Food Program will hold a charity walkathon in Yokohama on May 25. The nonprofit organization, which promotes and raises funds for the WFP, will donate 500 yen from each participation fee to the WFP's school lunch program in Africa. The group hopes to draw 2,000 participants for the 5- or 10-kilometer walks near the TICAD venue.

The program, offered in at least 40 African countries and lauded as providing nutritional meals for children while encouraging them to attend school, faces a crisis caused by soaring food prices.

"Through the event we hope to call attention to hunger and poverty as well as the crisis at hand," Kuninori Tanabe, managing director of the association, said.

The Japanese branch of international relief organization World Vision has arranged an exhibit that allows visitors to "experience" the harrowing life of an African child struggling under the specter of AIDS.

Visitors walk through the labyrinth-like exhibit while listening to pre-recorded, real-life stories of four children between ages of 3 and 17 who are affected by AIDS or who were orphaned by the disease.

Near the end of the exhibit, visitors are given the results of an HIV test in a room resembling an African village clinic.

"We want people to understand about the situation in Africa, not through statistics and learned knowledge, but through their senses, and make a lasting impression, which will encourage them to take action," said Nobuhiko Katayama, World Vision Japan's national director.

To date, more than 5,200 people have taken part in the Step into Africa exhibit, which toured Kobe and Tokyo in April and will move to Sapporo in June before the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.

A group of university students organizing mock U.N. sessions has arranged a series of workshops on Africa.

On April 20, the group invited former U.N. Undersecretary-General Yasushi Akashi to talk about African conflicts, an event that drew more than 200 participants. The group will hold several workshops ahead of the TICAD meeting on topics such as the Millennium Development Goals and Japan's ODA in Africa.

"While most people are aware that the (G-8) summit will be held in Japan, few are aware of, or have even heard of, TICAD (IV)," said organizer Yoichi Suzuki, a 22-year-old senior at Gakushuin University and member of the Japan Model United Nations Society.

The Japan branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is currently holding a photo exhibition in the Omotesando district of Tokyo's Shibuya Ward documenting life in Kenyan shantytowns.

"For the average person in the industrialized world, it is difficult to imagine what life in the slums is like," said German photographer Matthias Steinbach, whose works are being displayed. "My hope is that through my photos people will think."

Mitsugi Endo, a professor at the University of Tokyo who specializes in African studies, said interest in Africa has grown considerably over the last 20 years due to increased media coverage and study tours organized by nonprofit groups.