A small bridge between the elementary school students of South Sudan and Miyagi Prefecture

In the past few days, elementary school students of Miyagi Prefecture, and those of South Sudan have enjoyed a small cultural exchange. Miyagi Prefecture’s Hirobuchi Youth Club (Ishinomaki City) and FC Impulse (Higashimatsushima City) participated in a soccer class held by former J-League player Teruo Iwamoto, and also paid us a visit at JEN’s Tokyo headquarters. Here at the headquarters, the children learnt about JEN’s activities, classes focused on sanitation in South Sudan, as well as performing the ‘Handwashing Dance’. Before the end of the visit, each of the children kindly wrote a letter to their counterparts in South Sudan.

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Everyone’s warm messages, all the way to South Sudan!! The letters were safely delivered to our friends in Jaba Primary School, located in Morobo County. Jaba Primary School is just one of the schools JEN has worked with in the past, with the excavation of a well, installation of toilet facilities and promotion of sanitation workshops; something which still continues to this day.

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We were then treated to a song about sanitation, performed by the students of Jaba Primary School. With the “hygiene club” leading the stage, everyone joined in the song.

The lyrics included messages such as “Let’s go to school. There, let’s learn about sanitation. Let’s cook and eat properly, and live healthily.”

In actuality, the sanitation song is a piece put together by the teachers and “hygiene club” members of different schools- therefore the lyrics and dance slightly vary depending on the school.

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In South Sudan, soccer is loved by children and adults alike. As expressed in the letters, should a day come where they could all enjoy a game of soccer as representatives of Japan and South Sudan, it would be a day enjoyed by all.