Unleash the Potential of Young Changemakers

Hello from Japan! 

We hope you are all doing very well with the summer approaching! In our last report, we introduced you to one of our Youth Venturers, Yuuki. Besides the Tohoku region, there are other disaster affected areas in Japan. One of them is Kumamoto, where a huge earthquake hit in 2016. In this report, you can get to know Seiichi, a university student supporting youths in Kumamoto through his passion for basketball.

An earthquake occurred in Kumamoto in the spring of 2016. Many people became victims. At the same time, there are many that lost their very own ‘basketball’: students who were excited about their club activities, professional athletes that were making a living from the sport and elderly people who were looking forward to practicing it as a hobby.

Sports are indispensable in our lives but they were taken from us by the earthquake. The gymnasium of one elementary school was closed after the disaster. As a result, the basketball team was forced to train outdoors. Worse, there were no balls, so they had a practice without one.

I did not want to give in to this reality just because the situation was “resulted by the earthquake”. I could not let the disaster deprive the people of basketball, deprive them of the excitement and happiness we feel when playing, deprive them of the fantastic circle of friends. Sports are a treasure for a lifetime and I want to keep this treasure for the children of the earthquake victims so that soon we can hear the lively voices of children that exhaust themselves in their play with all their heart.

We hope to continue to support more changemakers like Seiichi!