ASHINAGA, an organisation that was started in 1961, is involved in extending its emotional support to orphans and provides financial support to the children in the form of loan to continue their higher education, which is repayable on completion of the same.

The opening ceremony of the camp was organised at Olympic Centre, Tokyo in which children of all the participating countries introduced themselves, interacted with each other, expressed their concern for tsunami affected children and decided to organise a fund raising activity for the same during their stay in Japan. They organised a fund raising activity, for the tsunami affected children, in Tokyo.

Children, during their stay in Japan, visited Niigata town that had experienced earthquake tremors before few days of their visit. In Niigata, they visited a local school, which was the central place to coordinate the relief operations in response to the calamity. Children shared their experiences with the local children, had an informal interaction with each other through various games and also presented mufflers to each other as a mark of friendship.

An International Orphan’s Conference was organised in the premises of Olympic Center, Tokyo in which children participated and shared their experiences. Children from Uganda whose parents died of HIV-AIDS and children from the United States who had lost their parents during the World Trade Center tragedy shared their mental agony. Simultaneously, children from Iraq and Afghanistan expressed their anguish on war. Children from India, Iran, Algeria, Columbia and Taiwan shared their memory and feelings about the havoc of earthquake. They also extended their solidarity with the orphans of the rest of the world.

During their stay in Japan, Sneh Prayas’ children also met the Prime Minister of Japan and expressed their feelings for the tsunami affected children.

Most exciting for them was the visit to the Rainbow House managed by ASHINAGA in Kobe. This house is a day care center, which was constructed from the funds collected by orphans and volunteers of ASHINAGA.

During their visit to Kobe they also participated in one of the functions organised by a local organisation in the memory of the souls departed during the earthquake in Kobe in the year 1995. Moreover, ASHINAGA had also organised a fund raising campaign in Kobe in which their National President remained present. Volunteers and children appealed for donations in spite of severely cold and windy weather.

Thus, the visit of our children to Japan was not only exciting but also knowledge giving. They had very good interaction with the children of other countries who had also passed through the same mental trauma like them. Moreover, they had a very good exposure to a country with different type of people, different language and above all different culture than that of India.

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