The 1H and 5W of this movement
How, what, where, why, when, to whom
Q Why the education aid?
A At the root of the misery in poor countries are
The education aid began in 1980. This kind of aid is different from material aid which appeals to people's emotions and calls to people for food for those who are starving and clothes for those who are unclothed, in that it requires understanding, vision, and perseverance. It is true that people who are starving need assistance urgently. However, we wondered, does that kind of temporary material assistance translate to true resolution of the problem? Our answer was, NO.
At the root of the misery in poor countries, on the one hand lie the monopoly of wealth by a small part of the population and the egoism of developed countries, but on the other hand lies the ignorance of the mass, who as a result cannot stand on their own feet. Although we may not be able to do too much, we can assist them in learning to support themselves. When they fully learn to do so, they will no longer need our assistance, and will solve the problems of starvation and misery themselves, and perhaps will even do for others what was done for them.
In order for them to stand on their own feet, education is key. In assisting people's education, the results are not immediate, but we became convinced that even though it may seem like a detour, it is the right way to resolve problems at their roots. Thus, we decided to lay our hope there.
The school attendance rate in Sierra Leone is 40% at the elementary level, but 0.3% at the secondary school level. After the drastic changes due to the civil war, it has most probably gone down even more.
Our education aid in Sierra Leone was intended for students in secondary school (a 7-year system,) and we prioritized students who could not continue school for economic reasons despite their ability and will. We continue the assistance through the Japanese Scholarship (JSS) and a foster parent-child system, and were able to expand the assistance from just O.L.G. School to both O.L.G. and Murialdo schools. Unfortunately, after the violence of the civil war became severe in 1995, assistance in education in this way became impossible, and is continued in a more irregular manner within the urgency aid.
On the other hand, since 1994, we have been providing education assistance at Floresilla secondary school in San Cristóbal De Las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico. This is another school run by the Clarissan Missionary Sisters and thus can be trusted, and the students are indigenous youths who we found out are socially disadvantaged in Mexico. The assistance in sum is a lot smaller than that to Sierra Leone, but is the equivalent of 8 scholarships each year, and because there is no civil war, students who graduated with the scholarships are going back to their mother school as teachers to instruct the younger students.
Q Why school meal aid?
A Because it was urgently needed.
The school meal aid began in 1980, seven years after the education aid began. In the summer of the same year, Sister Negishi temporarily returned to Japan and traveled all over the country, telling people, "The situation in Sierra Leone is constantly getting worse, and 70% of the children there eat only one meal a day. Is there not a way that we could help at least elementary school children to eat two meals a day? If one person in Japan gave up one cup of coffee a month and contributed 200 yen, one child in Sierra Leone would be able to eat school meals everyday for a month."
Hearing this, we joined her in collecting contributions and decided to become the 'window' for the collection of contributions. Our plan was to collect money that would buy a dish called 'burgoo' that costs 7 yen/serving; then 2,500,000 yen would be enough to feed 1,000 school children for one year. But because of high inflation and other factors, the sum needed doubled by the end of the year. However, thanks to people's good will and sympathy, the contributions ended up surpassing the amount needed. When the school meals began, people of Lunsar said as they danced and sang, "Sanki, sanki, momoyo, momoyo, Japan people!!" Sanki and momoyo both mean "thank you" in Krio and Temne language respectively.
But as we have mentioned before, this too has been made impossible to continue since 1995, due to the school having been forced to close numerous times under rebel attacks.
Q What is the necessity for the education aid?
A In order to become self-reliant, it is necessary to raise local talent.
The foundation of this movement is education aid, but in order to provide education, people who can teach are needed. If they remain reliant on foreign missionaries or volunteers, they will never become self-reliant. Thus, since 1990, as an extension of the education aid, we have decided to grant scholarships to promising students who wish to go into teaching, in order to raise local talent. This is the Aid for Raising Local Talent. Of course, a very careful selection is a prerequisite, since it is more costly than elementary or secondary school level scholarships. This process is left in the hands of the sisters.
The child who had the hand cut by the rebel army
This aid, like the school meal and education assistance, has been damaged by the civil war, as we have become unable to contact the students who were learning at universities or training schools to become teachers. This program is being interrupted as a result because we cannot find a secure way for the scholarships to reach the students.
However, assistance is being continued to the young Sierra Leonean Sisters who escaped to Nigeria. Furthermore, assistance has started for young Nigerian sisters. These Sisters are now studying in Onitcha, Nigeria, in order to become teachers and nurses.
Q What is the Urgency Aid?
A It is aid that we provide when an emergency arises, according to the urgency of the need.
Initially, we called this type of assistance 'the emergency support.' After 7 months of being closed down since the rebel attack in January of 1995, the schools in Lunsar reopened in September of that year, but due to the months of work without pay, many teachers had been forced to change jobs to earn their livings, which disrupted the school system. Responding to the SOS, Lend A Hand Movement called out to the teachers to continue teaching and decided to put aside money from the 1996 budget to provide them rice. This was intended for about 80 teachers and staff, in order to make education possible.
Since we wanted to make this assistance more flexible, after needing to pool money to schools within Japan due to the great earthquake of Hanshin, we renamed this aid to 'urgency aid.' We used this aid to assist in the flood disaster in Tabasco, Mexico (2000) and the school-building effort in Obosi, Nigeria (2000.) At this moment in the year 2001, the 'urgency aid' is providing for the internally displaced citizens of Freetown (which include 300 students) through our alliance with Father Bruno. It remains the most typical, because money is being used to pay for education, food, shelter, refugee need and other emergencies.
