Unleash the Potential of Young Changemakers

Hi again from Japan!

On Oct 6th-8th, we held the Youth venture Retreat 2018 in Tsuwano. Tsuwano is located in the Shimane Prefecture and is one of Ashoka fellow's fields in Japan. We were staying in a small lodge in the forest, where we were preparing workshops to improve each one's activity. The Ashoka fellow - the social entrepreneur / systemic changemaker selected by Ashoka - came to our venue, so that youth venturers could present him their projects and ideas. They were inspired by his feedback and got confidence through the retreat. We use the part of your donation for this retreat, for which we are really grateful, thank you very much.

Uruka

Uruka is a 17 years old high school student and is committed to improve the dialogue between teachers & students.

She has studied from home during elementary school, and in junior high school she was not able to join the same classroom as her peers. This experience began to give her doubts about the education system. She felt that schools had become an environment only for tests and raising academic skills, where rules are forced upon students just because “these are the set of rules”. She considers this not to give students the time and space to think about the actual meaning of studying. In addition, because she was a so-called “troublesome student”, she often raised questions about education. For instance, “why do teachers impose their thoughts on students?” At that time, she was criticizing teachers, but through various activities and learning, she has realized that this is caused by the environment surrounding teachers. She has also noticed that she as well had been pressing her ideals of education on teachers, without listening carefully enough.

Now, she has been trying to seek a way where teachers and students acknowledge each other’s presence, interact and learn from each other. She has set up the 'Teacher & Student Dialogue Project', where elementary, junior high and high school students with various thoughts and backgrounds, engage in discussions with teachers. They exchange questions, thoughts and agenda regarding education. Uruka hopes that this initiative will encourage understanding among each other and that it will lead to a better education system where diversity is embraced.

Genta

Genta is a 18 years old high school student and his project turns around 'building together with bamboos'.

He first encountered bamboos two years ago when he moved from Hokkaido to Tsuwano, Shimane Prefecture. While living in Tsuwano, he learned that bamboos are traditionally used in various areas of life, such as eating bamboo shoots and creating bamboo crafts. He also learned that recently, the bamboo forests are deteriorating as a result of being abandoned without the people’s management. Bamboo forests are now neglected because of their lack of economic profitability due to the spread of plastic products and decrease in demand for bamboo workers. However, while talking with the local people, he learned that the issue of neglected bamboo forests is not only caused by economic factors but also because we are giving up on sustaining the culture of Tsuwano. Currently, many elderly people manage bamboo forests, and young people who could succeed their work is lacking greatly. That is why he decided to create opportunities for high school students to engage with bamboo forests.

Genta feels it is important to continuously manage and sustain the bamboo forests by the community. For example, we use bamboo to create gates and tents with high school students, work on primary school students and high school students, and worked with regional people in creating bamboo dumplings. In the early years of activities, we conducted educational activities. From this year, he has been working on bamboo forest maintenance, involving high school students around him, with bamboo forests leased from the local people.