Message to the NDYS Kobe Forum 2011

It is my great honor to have an opportunity to greet you today. Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to NDYS Kobe Forum, 2011. How fast time flies!  It痴 hard for us to believe that 16 years have already passed since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred. The Natural Disaster Youth Summit started in September 2004, commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Japan.

OKAMOTO Kazuko The Founding Chairperson  of the NDYS Committee

 We, from the young to the old, learned the importance of human lives and being prepared for disasters.

Then the first gathering was held in Kobe, Japan in March 2005.

The children and the youngsters who were brought up in Hyogo Prefecture especially wanted to share their knowledge and information about the earthquake to reduce the possible impact of natural disasters with their friends worldwide.

Up to now, we have already had 6 annual gatherings----2006 in Taiwan, 2007 in Aichi, Japan, 2008 in Trin-i-dad and Tobago, 2009 in Taiwan and 2010 in Turkey.

In today痴 forum, we壇 like to express and share our studies, knowledge, skills for  disasters risk education and to co-operate and connect with the youth around the world to build a safer place to live for everyone through a live Video-Conference.

Today痴 forum has two points

The first one is to present the studies that the high-school students in Kobe studied on ・Climate Change and Disaster Reduction of Our Town・  You値l find the 妊isaster Safety Map・of their schools・surrounding areas after their research on their environment near their schools and put information in the maps such as where is safe, where is dangerous.

  The second one is the reports made by the students who participated in the NDYS, Turkey in 2010 last summer.  NDYS Committee Japan sent 6 high-school students to Bursa, Turkey, August 2010 to attend 典he 6^th NDYS in Turkey・ 21 delegates from Japan, 129 from 17 countries, 150 from Turkey.  In total, 300 delegates participated in the conference. During their stay in Turkey for 7 days, they learned a lot from the presentations of other schools from various countries around the world. Even the better, they had a mutual understanding of each other and deepened their friendship and had a very impressive, pleasant time with them.

Needless to say, there are various disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, floods, typhoons, landslides, tsunamis, droughts and so on throughout the world and it is necessary for us to co-operate and support each other more than before.

Here, I sincerely wish that the awareness of disasters will spread from children to families, communities, from Kobe to the world・and through these activities we can help and respect each other when we are affected by natural disasters.

Thank you for participating in today痴 forum and for listening to me.      

OKAMOTO Kazuko
Kobe
January 29, 2011

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