April 2009

Family Volunteer Group Visits Philippines for Little Bags of Dreams Campaign

From March 27 to April 2, a volunteer group of young Rissho Kosei-kai members and their parents visited the Philippine island of Mindanao to hand out gifts to children that were collected through the organization's Little Bags of Dreams Campaign. It was the first time Rissho Kosei-kai sent volunteer members of the campaign to the Philippines.

In Mindanao, due to demands for local autonomy, disputes among Christian residents and Islamic former inhabitants have provoked conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government. Furthermore, violence between two parties has frequently broken out since the 1960s, and according to a report, more than 200,000 people were driven from their homes, becoming "internally displaced persons."

 In cooperation with the Mindanao Children's Library (MCL), a local nongovernmental organization, the volunteers visited two mountain villages and handed out 209 bags to children. In these villages they had cultural exchanges with the children, in which they sang songs and read picture books. They also stayed for two days in a dormitory operated by MCL and talked with some of the 60 children living there.

April 2, 2009

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