Millennium Villages Blog

Amitie donating a soccer ball to Ryamiyonga Primary

Through sports, we can connect without words, and it is upon this belief that Japan-based NGO Amitie was founded, and they use this idea as a means of realising their vision of promoting development and cross-cultural understanding. The main reason for Amitie’s visit week was for them to inspect the Ryamiyonga Primary School which is due to soon be rebuilt. Thanks to a group of the 6,000 Amitie Sports Club members, each of whom are donating $1 each per month, the organisation has now collected close to $70,000 with which they wish to build a new school in Ruhiira, with hopes for this to become a yearly occurrence. As they arrive at Ryamiyonga, the Amitie representatives are greeted by a welcome song sung in perfect Japanese (but thankfully with an African sense of rhythm) by the grade 4 pupils. The Japanese group’s amazement is unanimously with how wonderful the pupils’ Japanese pronunciation was; ‘They are sharp - they pick things up and they’re hungry to learn about things outside of their village!’ replies Francis, Education Sector facilitator. As Amitie donate footballs emblazoned with their logo and skipping ropes to some of the pupils, there is obviously the obligatory Japanese photo taking pause, before Amitie pledge to the school that they will be given a new building, with the kind of facilities that they deserve. Although Ryamiyonga has already benefitted from the interventions of the Millennium Villages project, there is much work which still needs to be done; the grade 4 classroom doubles up as the headmaster’s office and kitchen storeroom, for example.

Embracing the theme of connection, Amitie’s vision does not end with donating schools. Rather, they are most keen to begin building partnerships between the schoolchildren in Japan and those in Africa. Therefore, ideas such as summer exchange programs, video and Skype conferencing, as well as other forms of social networking in order to allow for connection and education to go both ways were just a few of the ideas flying around after the school visit. ‘The phrase that comes to mind is “child stars”‘, says Mr. Honda later that day, ‘to think that kids would get that excited over a 50 cent skipping rope, it really made me think how kids in Japan need to reshuffle their priorities and open their eyes to what’s out there.’ Japan, which successfully managed to modernise whilst retaining its cultural identity, certainly has a lot to be proud of in that respect, but this has led to a tendency towards insularity, and for all the advantages granted them by state of the art technological advances, are only just now beginning to think with a global perspective. Organisations such as Millennium Promise Japan and Amitie are invaluable instruments by which to help raise awareness and encourage Japanese young people to think outside the box.

‘Sports are great because they transcend language and allow people from opposite ends of the world to connect very easily’, continues Mr. Honda, and by utilising this connection we can work towards the 8th MDG: Create a global partnership for development. Suddenly Japan doesn’t seem so far away at all…

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