2021.07.21
English Day – June 25
As you may know, here at Eiwa we have ‘’English Day’’ six times a year. On these days, teachers and students try their best to use English all day long. This starts in the morning with some small talk in English as the students come in the front door and continues throughout the day in classes and in the hallways. One of the main events is the morning service which is held in English and conducted by Stuart or me. What do we talk about in those services? Well, important cultural events, like Christmas, are an obvious choice. But in this globalized world, we also often look to the United Nations’ World Days for inspiration. This past service was no exception. June 21 is “World Refugee Day” and so that became the theme for the English Day service on June 25.
There is so much to talk about when it comes to refugees that it was (and is) hard for me to focus on just one or two main points. There are about 26 million refugees in the world right now, and half of them are children. Many of them have had to leave their homes because of war and violence. Syria, for example, has six million refugees. Refugees have no home, so they often live in camps in other countries. How can the world take care of these people? Sometimes it seems impossible to find a solution. But even though 26 million is a big number, there are almost 8 billion people in the world. Surely by making an effort, 8 billion people can do something to help 26 million people?
Growing up in Canada, I did a little bit to help Vietnamese refugees. After the end of the Vietnamese war in the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families left their country in boats. They lived in camps in such countries as Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In the early 1980s, many Canadian churches, including my family’s church, sponsored Vietnamese refugees to come and start a new life in Canada. As a sponsor, we had to make sure that the Vietnamese families had a place to live and money to survive for a year. I remember that a bread factory, where my uncle worked, gave some of the refugees jobs. I also remember driving around with my father to pick up furniture, like tables and chairs, that people had donated for the refugees’ apartments. These were not hard things to do. And so, little by little, people and governments around the world helped the Vietnamese refugees to start new lives in new countries.
More recently, the world has reached out to Syrian refugees. In 2016, about 40,000 Syrian refugees came to Canada thanks to the help of small groups, like church groups, and government programs. During the morning service, I told the students about the Almasalmeh family from Syria. Once again, my parents’ church sponsored them. After they arrived, they discovered that their small child had cancer of the eye. What a shock that must have been. Luckily doctors in Canada were able to operate and their little boy is fine now. They now have another baby and have been able to start a new life in Canada.
As a country, Japan has not accepted as many refugees as some other countries. However individually, a Japanese woman has had a big influence in getting many countries and people to help refugees all over the world. Her name is Sadako Ogata. She passed away in 2019, but from 1991 to 2000 she was the head of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). She worked very hard to get the world to help refugees in such places as Bosnia and Kosovo during those ten years. In fact, her whole life in incredibly inspiring, from her pre-war childhood spent in various countries, to her work as a teacher at ICU and Sophia University, to her becoming the first female head of UNHCR and finally to her years as head of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). I would encourage our students to learn more about this motivational woman’s life as they think about goals for their own lives.
As a country, Japan has not accepted as many refugees as some other countries. However individually, a Japanese woman has had a big influence in getting many countries and people to help refugees all over the world. Her name is Sadako Ogata. She passed away in 2019, but from 1991 to 2000 she was the head of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). She worked very hard to get the world to help refugees in such places as Bosnia and Kosovo during those ten years. In fact, her whole life in incredibly inspiring, from her pre-war childhood spent in various countries, to her work as a teacher at ICU and Sophia University, to her becoming the first female head of UNHCR and finally to her years as head of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). I would encourage our students to learn more about this motivational woman’s life as they think about goals for their own lives.
Speaking of goals, it is almost time for the Tokyo Olympics for begin. I see that almost 11,000 athletes from countries all over the world will compete. But what about people who are refugees, people who have no country to compete for? Well, actually they will also be taking part as of the EOR (Refugee) team. The EOR team started in 2016 at the Rio Olympics with 10 athletes. At Tokyo 2020, there will be 29 members taking part. So, on that note, I hope you will have a lovely summer and have the chance to cheer on some of the Olympic athletes, clapping not only for Japanese and other athletes that you may know but also for members of the refugee team who have fought so hard to make it Tokyo. See you in September!
