Child Protection Japan Project #13568

School of Fun for Children in Fukushima

by Academy Camp

Project Report | Oct 15, 2014
Activities Go On at Academy Camp

By Kenji Saito | Representative Director

Smiles at dragon boat exercise at Lake Inawashiro

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

Our busy summer was over, but activities go on at Academy Camp for the communities of Fukushima.

We held a workshop on October 4 in Yokohama at Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University, for families with children who have taken refuge from Fukushima after the nuclear accident. The workshop was held in collaboration with Mamoritai Kodomo Mirai (wanting to save children and future) Project. We learned together the mechanism of earthquakes and how to reduce the risk of severe injuries from them, and made a 100 millionth model of the Earth each to understand the scale of the planet and its surroundings. We were also consulted by parents for their children's proceeding to the next stage of education as they are settling in Kanagawa prefecture where Yokohama is. We may want to continue building supportive and friendly relationships with those families from Fukushima now living in Tokyo metropolitan area.

On every weekend until the end of October, we are exercising paddling dragon boats at Lake Inawashiro, Fukushima prefecture, with our camp-member children and their parents. The exercises come with frequent barbecue opportunities with families that we also enjoy very much. The weekly exercise is part of what we now call "Fukushima Dragon Boat Academy", the first registered dragon boat team in Fukushima founded by Academy Camp, whose main members are children in Fukushima. We see paddling boats as opportunities for both physical and mental exercises, and we are building a scientific methodology together for improving our skills for this relatively new sport.

We will participate in dragon boat races to show the strength of children in Fukushima, beginning with Japan Dragon Canoe Championship to be held in Saitama prefecture in November. We would like to raise funds for the purpose, and we would like to ask for your help.

BONUS DAY WITH 30% MATCHING

GlobalGiving is offering a chance on October 15 in which all your donations will be matched 30%, up to $1,000 per donor per project. Matching begins at 9:00 am EDT and lasts until funds run out or 11:59 pm EDT.

On this day, your support will make a bigger impact. We would really appreciate if you could spread the word about this opportunity!

Making a 100 millionth model of the Earth

Talking with parents is also fun

Our Dragon Boat at Lake Inawashiro

Experiencing the nature and physics

With children and their parents, we are the team

Links:

Academy Camp Facebook page in English

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Oct 1, 2014
Academy Camp 2014 Summer Term 2 (Aug.17-21)

By Kenji Saito | Representative Director

From the improvisation workshop

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

In August, we held three camps for children living in Fukushima. The last one was held from August 17 to 21, 2014, in Tokyo, largely funded by GlobalGiving donors and Fukushima Kodomo Ryoku Project. Elementary and junior-high school students from Fukushima participated in the camp. We also had some high school students from Fukushima as supporting staff members.

The following is a report by a high school student in Fukushima who had participated in our past camps. She participated in this camp as a public relations staff.

"The term 2 was educational five days. A large number of children participated in the camp for the first time, and it reminded me of my own experience of being nervous, worried and excited at the same time upon participating in Academy Camp for the first time. We studied joyfully with Game De Education (Note: a project by Future University Hakodate) where studying and gaming were mixed, sweated by dancing with W+I&S (Note: a students' circle at Keio University), made many bubbles with special liquid by Mr. Yazaki, and discussed with young government officials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) about our closest society: schools. In "Us and the Earth" by Prof. Shinichi Takemura, we touched "Tangible Earth" to experience the environment of the Earth and big and small aspects of the world, which made me realize how small I am.

Many of us must agree that we enjoyed the workshop by 6-dim+, an improvisation group, the most. Through games in the workshop, we learned how and why we trust others. The live performance by 6-dim+ made even the one who were quiet and did not smile much open her mouth wide laughing. I thought how wonderful it was to laugh.

Both the terms 1 and 2 provided us with successive discoveries and surprises. Thank you very much indeed for letting me experience the wonderful things, brilliant smiles of children from my Fukushima, and kindness and warmness of university student leaders."

BONUS DAY WITH 30% MATCHING

On this day, your support will make a bigger impact. We would really appreciate if you could spread the word about this opportunity!

Using EEG to control a game

Dance, dance, dance

A big and long bubble

At the share office where we learned about Earth

Talking with a government official on education

Links:

Academy Camp Facebook page in English

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Sep 30, 2014
Academy Camp 2014 Summer Term 1 (Aug.10-14)

By Kenji Saito | Representative Director

Playing tag in an extreme fashion

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

In August, we held three camps for children living in Fukushima. The second one was held from August 10 to 14, 2014, in Tokyo, largely funded by GlobalGiving donors and Fukushima Kodomo Ryoku Project. Elementary and junior-high school students from Fukushima, plus students from Vietnam participated in the camp.

The following is a report by a high school student in Fukushima who had participated in our past camps. She participated in this camp as a public relations staff.

"Academy Camp 2014 Summer Term 1 for me was stimulating five days, not only with children from Fukushima but also with junior-high school students from Vietnam doing activities together. Vietnam and Japan are different in many ways. We use different languages, and more over, we are culturally different. That may have made both of us nervous at first, and we did not talk with each other much. But on the second day, as we played "sport tag" together, we made plans together, and we got closer in each group. We enjoyed a lot dancing in a Vietnamese way at the workshop hosted by the Vietnamese children. This direct encounter with the Vietnamese culture made such an impact on the Fukushima children's minds that many of them said "I want to go to Vietnam!!"

Other activites included learning about weather forecasting from Ms. Yoriko Kato and actually preparing a "seasonal topic" by ourselves, learning about interviewing and wonders of words from Mr. Jun Hori, and going out where we have wanted to visit in Tokyo to actually interview people on their ideas of cool adults as part of "digital orienteering". All were educational to me, but the one impressed me most was an a cappella workshop by "amoroso", a students' circle at Musashi University. We placed our arms around one another's shoulders and made our own choreography to sing "It's a small world" together. It was a moment in which all our minds became one, regardless of languages or cultures."

BONUS DAY WITH 30% MATCHING

Your support will make a bigger impact on the day. We would really appreciate if you could spread the word about this opportunity!

Shooting pictures representing the season

Singing "It's a small world"

A group photo after singing

Interviewing on "cool adults"

Mr. Hori tells the secret of pursuing knowledge

Links:

Academy Camp Facebook page in English

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