第１０回Online workshop報告（１月２３日）

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《今回のworkshop　》
○What should we prioritize to make our society better?
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＜Agenda＞“What should we prioritize to make our society better?”  

Our life has been changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began, now we have less freedom and have to follow regulations regarding COVID-19 by the governments.

Since then, some of you might give priority to your daily life because many things are restricted in your activities nowadays.

However, this time I would like you to think about the priority for “our society”.

The reason why I would like you to discuss this is that I met two Japanese ladies in October and December last year. They made me think about our better society.

I met Ms. Natori at “Hoshihana Village”, where we stayed in Chiang Mai. She has supported there Thai orphans who got HIV from their mothers for over 20 years. Most of their mothers used to work as prostitutes because they were poor and needed money.

She has devoted her life to supporting the Thai kids to have decent education and independence.

Her enormous effort was meaningful for the Thai kids, and everything was getting better until the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Now the situation has been changed.

Since then Hoshihana Village had to close for over 6 months because there were no overseas or domestic visitors who wanted to to learn about her activity. (The profit is used for the support.) and support the kids by the way to stay in Hoshihana Village.

Now the Thai government is very strict about allowing foreigners to come to Thailand.

Given the situation, she had to fire all her employees so that they could get unemployment insurance and compensation from the Thai government. But still, the kids need support, of course.

So my friends and I decided to visit and stay there for two nights to support them. (It is not fundraising, they could make some money at least if we stay there )

I also met Ms. Nakano at Rung Arun(ルンアルン)/Akatsuki no Ie (=It used to be the dormitory for children of ethnic minorities) in Chiang Rai.

She came to Thailand in the late 80’s and started working as a manager for the dormitory as a Japanese volunteer.

Most of the ethnic minorities live in their own villages (There are several ethnic minorities in Thailand). So they had to leave their village to go to school if some kids want to go to school.

She has devoted her life to supporting the Thai ethnic kids for over 30 years. 

In March 2015 she closed the dormitory and started a new project on the job training for the Thai kids at the same place.

In addition, she planted coffee trees in the mountains to make money with the Thai people together.

She taught them how to grow coffee trees and beans to make money.

Actually, most of the funds used came from Japanese NPO or Japanese students who were interested in their lives or self-sufficiency.

She started to sell the coffee to make money since she also thought that they needed to become independent. 

However, the funds were getting fewer since there have been no visitors from Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So my friends and I decided to go there. We joined the coffee beans-picking activity and learned about their lives. Also, we bought some coffee. 

These ladies’ long-term efforts inspired me a lot. They made a lot of effort much more than I imagined.

They changed the Thai kids’ lives and their society became better. Whereas I think they get something important from the Thai society.                                                                                                                                         

<Reference>

Hoshihana villageについて 

https://www.hoshihana-village.com/about_hoshihana_village/

ルンアルン暁プロジェクト 

http://www.rungarun-akatsuki.ednet.jp/

<Question>

1.    Have you ever met someone who inspired you or others and changed your or their life for the better?

If not, did you inspire someone? Please share your experiences or stories.

2.    Have you ever thought about what you can do to support other people whom you don’t know?

Or have you ever supported or helped other people before?

Please share your experiences or opinions. If your answer is no, please share why you didn’t think about that.

3.    What should we prioritize to make our society better?

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