I participated in KOBE Ukrainian Refugee Support Activity- the second day

2022.04.24

On April 10th , Kobe Foreigners Friendship Center held an event called KOBE Ukrainian Refugee Support Activity at Kobe International Community Center (hereinafter, this is called KICC). Study meeting was held there from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Rummage sale and fund-raising activity were held there from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Fund-raising activity was also held in front of JR Shin-nagata station. I participated in these activities as a volunteer. In this time, three students of Osaka Kyoiku University put on a concert in KICC from 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Ms. Hashimoto Naoko gave a lecture on support of displaced person in Ukraine and neighboring countries.  She is an associate professor of Hitotsubashi University. The most impressive things I learned from this lecture was that neighboring countries provide generous support to displaced person from Ukraine. I was surprised to know that those countries’ people provide meals and house as shelter for free. Also, she taught us the differences between displaced people and refugees. I learned that displaced people get shorter support and protection than refugees. Since I originally had thought that displaced people and refugees were almost the same, this knowledge was new and very helpful to me. I also learned that the definition of refugee is narrower than I thought and determined by treaty. I found that the definition of refugees is difficult for me and I did not know it very well, so I will study about it more.

After study meeting, Rummage sale and fund-raising activity were held. Funds raised in these activities will be donated to UNICEF. I was in charge of rummage sale. I was happy because I was able to sell more items compared to last time. Moreover, a concert was held in KICC. Three students who play the violin, piano and sing songs came and played songs. They played famous songs such as “Ue wo muite arukou” and “ai wa katsu”, and a lot of people enjoyed listening to the songs. They performed very well and it gave me chills. Other people seemed to be moved and some people talked to the students to say “Thank you. I enjoyed listening to the songs very much.”

KOBE Ukrainian Refugee Support Activity is going to be held on April 17th at the same place and the same time. If you are interested in, please participate in.

University Student Volunteer   Mao Yamamoto

If you want to know specific information on this event, please check this article.(written in Japanese)
→≪https://social-b.net/baiyu/kobeukrainianrefugeesupportjp/≫