Hands On Tokyo Youth Impact Project

This summer has finally felt like the COVID-19 pandemic has come to an end. Despite the long and hot summer in Japan, we have finally been able to meet face-to-face often and host many volunteer activities. 

We would like to express our gratitude to all of our supporters and donors. Your continuous support has enabled us to sustain recurring projects as well as create new volunteer opportunities for the youth in Tokyo. Through such projects, the youth have been able to put their innovative project ideas in action to serve the needs of our community. 

Among the many Youth Impact volunteer activities that we hosted this summer, we would like to highlight our senior home visit. 

On Saturday, July 29, five Youth Impact members visited the senior day care center located in Kita-Aoyama. The aim of this project was to spend time with the elderly who frequently come to the senior center on the weekends from nearby neighborhoods. In this activity, the youth members introduced themselves and chatted with the senior citizens. Many of the senior citizens were happy to have the opportunity to interact with young high school students. The youth members then participated in an interactive game that the senior members were playing. In the game, they passed a ball to each other using a towel to balance the ball. The youth members and the senior citizens worked together to pass the ball. The senior citizens felt very encouraged and positive to have some form of engagement with the youth. This has also allowed the youth to develop their communication skills with members of different age groups and generate new project ideas to help and support our community. 

These volunteer activities would not be possible without your support. Through your generosity, we will continue to empower the youth and give them more opportunities to make a difference in our community!

Even after Japanese government has announced the end of the Covid era, comparing to some other countries, Japan still keeps cautious measurements towards Covid-19. May be half of the people have their masks on even if they are walking outside in the city. However, most of our partner organizations are  opening up to the ideas of having more face-to-face interactions. We are truly excited to actually meet and spend more time together with elderly citizens from senior homes and doing activities together with people with special needs. 

We deeply appreciate your continuous support to help us keep addressing the needs of our community. None of our services would have been possible without your generosity, commitment, and trust towards our organization.

The Hands On Tokyo Youth Impact Group continuously strives to find unique ways to interact with a wide range of partner organizations. We have regular discussions with youth members to explore creative ideas that help promote volunteerism and encourage our youth leaders to continue serving for the inclusivity of the community. 

Among many of our Youth Impact activities, we would like to do the report on this activity that happened on Sunday, May 21st.

Since 2022, Hands On Tokyo has been working closely with Pirika Inc. Pirika aims to solve environmental problems with the power of science and technology. In part of that mission, they have  developed the street cleaning app, Pirika. This app is designed to encourage people to pick up trash from the streets. When you upload pictures of the trash you pick up form the street, you will receive many thumbs-up from the people in the community through the app. To be able to see the amount of  trash you picked up in actual numbers and receiving thumbs-up from the others really change the motivation of the people.

Thirty two youth members gathered on Sunday morning at Shibuya station. Our Youth Impact members had arranged tongs, gloves and trash bags prior to the event. After all volunteers received their tools, they all spread out to clean up Shibuya streets for an hour and gathered back in front of the shopping mall called Miyashita Park. We then walked to the designated area where we were instructed by Shibuya City ward office to dispose the trash we picked up.

Below is the report from one of the Youth Impact members about her experience doing Pirika street cleaning activity.

 “The most recent HoT x Pirika trash clean-up was hosted in Shibuya this past Sunday. These clean-ups are held almost once a month and give people the opportunity to volunteer and help the community while also using the Pirika app, which allows people to post the trash they clean up and get thumbs-up from other people in the community. It’s always rewarding to see all the trash people have picked up from the clean-ups all piled together. It really shows the impact of the work we’ve done cleaning up Tokyo. Through this experience I’ve learned how to lead volunteer initiatives and how to make a difference big or small within Tokyo.”

-- L.F. Youth Impact High School Member

Hands on Tokyo Youth Impact Program guides young leaders to design, plan and execute their own projects. To make these projects practical enough for them to carry out, youth members need to see and learn what is going on in the society. In order for youth to actually learn and grasp the reality, it is extremely important that they go out and dive into the communities themselves. This street clean up activity in Shibuya, which is the area that many young students hang out and enjoy, was one of the best chances for youth members to get in touch with the environmental issues that this country faces in a very real way.  

All of the work we do would not be possible without the support from you, our donors. Through your generosity we will empower more youth, and together, continue to make a difference in our community!

Thank you for your continued support and trusting our organization.