May 2009

Members Travel to See Results of Donate-a-Meal Movement in South Africa

Ten Rissho Kosei-kai members, led by Rev. Kozo Kubota, minister of the Meguro Dharma Center in Tokyo, returned from South Africa May 10 after seeing the results of projects supported there by the Donate-a-Meal Movement, one of Rissho Kosei-kai's peace activities.

From April 29 to May 3, they visited the Cala region of Eastern Cape province and observed the results of a joint rural development project conducted by the Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC) and Rissho Kosei-kai's Donate-a-Meal Fund for Peace from 2001 to this March. The project provided training in "ecological agriculture," an improved lifestyle that achieves sustainable food production with sustainable organic farming.

South Africa still suffers the effects of its past apartheid, in the form of economic and education gaps between people of different races. The nearly fifty years of apartheid, from 1948 to 1994, have left serious social problems.

On April 28, the group of Rissho Kosei-kai members visited the region of Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg, and the provincial capital of Gauteng, the country's wealthiest province. In June 1976, black youths protested against the government's decree that classes in black schools must be taught in English or Afrikaans, and clashed with police in the Soweto uprising. Many students as well as children were reportedly killed or injured. In front of the Hector Pieterson Memorial, the Rissho Kosei-kai members held a memorial service for victims of the uprising.

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