Stop Child Abuse and Bullying Project

Dear supporters,

As we mentioned last time, we were able to host our first diversity and inclusion workshop summer series in Kyoto City!

Over the two sessions (sadly the third was cancelled due to a typhoon), children discussed themes of unconscious bias. Participants from many schools attended, which we were able to really use to our advantage, as most children had never met before.

To begin, I gave the children a quiz about myself, addressing simple topics such as my favourite colour, hobbies/interests, and my future goals or dreams. Before revealing the answers, I asked the children why they had chosen those answers, and slowly introduced how they might have been showing unconscious biases based on my looks, background or previous answers. I was able to share how during this quiz, their unconscious biases were fairly harmless, however there are many instances when these unconscious biases could lead to situations like bullying.

Parents/guardians in attendance really helped to facilitate these conversations. Without much prompting, they happily shared their own experiences of how others unconscious biases had made them feel, or even instances where they had also had unconscious biases of others.

This type of open dialogue is crucial to create a healthy diversity and inclusion learning environment - our goal is to have children openly discuss without fear of judgment, and even if they are not comfortable sharing their thoughts, take those conversations and apply what they have learnt in daily life, acting as "active bystanders".

We openly discussed ways in which we could stop or prevent unconscious biases, and ended the series with a strong sense of self, celebrating our own differences that make us unique! Some students even attended alone, which made me excited to know that some students are willing to step outside of their comfort zones to learn more about such an important topic!

We are hoping to continue this series throughout the winter and spring holidays, and even on weekends.

As always, we appreciate your continued support!