The 8th ASHINAGA International Summer Camp

for Orphans Successfully Concluded

ˇˇIn the year of 2000, orphaned children by the Great Hanshin Earthquake (1995) in Kobe, Japan delivered donations to the earthquake orphans worldwide, in return for the contributions they received from the world. Moreover, in the summer of the same year, we invited earthquake orphans from Colombia, Turkey and Taiwan as well as War orphans from Kosovo to Japan to meet the Kobe earthquake orphans. That was the start of the International Summer Camp for Orphans.

ˇˇIn the summer of 2005, orphans from 16 countries, such as orphaned children by the Indian Ocean Tsunami and 9/11 Terror in New York City, War in Iraq, and AIDS in Uganda, joined the summer camp in addition to those earthquake orphans. The orphans worldwide met 1000 Japanese high school and university orphaned students. They shared their grief, encouraged each other and moved a step forward to achieve their dreams. We hope that this ASHINAGA camp will spread to the world.

ˇˇIn the next summer, all the participants drew their feelings at the opening ceremony ("before") and the closing ceremony ("after"). Their drawings indicated a dramatic change inside the children. It was evident that the 2 weeks of sharing time with other orphans made a big change in their lives, and that a tie between Japanese orphans and orphans worldwide became stronger.

ˇˇDuring the summer camp of 2007, we put together "the 2007 Declaration of ASHINAGA Children" at the children's conference. After the Camp concluded, a Kobe orphan and 9/11 orphans directly submitted it to the United Nations in New York City. The summer camps have successfully concluded, however, we will continue working hard to make stronger of the tie among orphans around the world.