We, the International Committee, started our project this year with four first grade girls from the Esperanza Venezuela project. Last Wednesday we hosted our first international forum, with speakers from students in Nodai who are studying abroad from various countries.
I decided to create this International Committee because I believe that people in Japan aren’t really aware of all the problems that are happening in the world these days. To name a few, Britain is struggling with the whole problem of Brixit, LGBT people are suffering from discrimination, and there are tons of refugees and immigrants who want to start a new life in a new country, but they can’t. Those people are desperate, and they want change. Some people, like Juan Guaido in Venezuela, are already standing up for those people. However, many others are suffering in this world, and the truth is, the world isn’t really changing for the better.
I believe, however, that those people need OUR strength, OUR voice, OUR action in order for problems to be solved. The change comes not only from politicians, but it comes from us, the people. It doesn’t come from just one president or one leader; it comes from whole groups of people.
And the first step to achieve this is to first understand the world. If those people that are supposed to create the change don’t know that they are the ones creating the change, how are they going to ever start action? And how do we start action if we’re not aware of what is happening in the world?
In my opinion, the world isn’t changing because the people don’t know what is happening. They don’t know what the problems are, they don’t know why they’re a problem, they don’t know HOW to create change.
And that is our goal, our mission, our duty. We are going to stand up for those people and take action, first in our school. Our first International Forum was a fair success, but I think our next goal is to persuade more and more people to come to our events. I learned a great deal in the forum: our guest speaker, Ms. Higuchi showed us Simon Sinek’s most famous TED talk, Great Leaders Inspire Action, and I realized that if I wanted more people to participate, we had to be clear on WHY we are doing this. I realized, I couldn’t go on blabbing about the facts because that won’t attract people’s attention. I had to think about WHY I was doing this.