May 2009

Youth Members Conduct UNICEF Fundraising Campaign on Annual Youth Day

As a part of Rissho Kosei-kai's annual Youth Day in May, youth members took the opportunity of a national weeklong holiday called Golden Week to raise funds for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

On May 2, forty-four young members of the Ofuna Dharma Center in Kanagawa Prefecture conducted a Donate-a-Meal UNICEF fundraising campaign in front of the Fujisawa railway station. They displayed panels illustrating the lives of children around the world forced to live in poverty under severe conditions created by regional conflicts. They showed charts to passers-by outlining the uses of donations collected in the campaign. One youth member said, "I was very impressed by junior high school students who donated from their small allowances."

Other Dharma Centers in various parts of Japan also raised funds at tourist sites, local railway stations and malls in their dissemination areas. The money raised in this year's campaign will be used for educational programs conducted by the UNICEF in Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, and East Timor. They will also support the project Children Affected by Armed Conflict, operated jointly by UNICEF and the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

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