Youth leaders in disaster education from Japan and ASEAN visit Tacloban after almost a year since typhoon Yolanda
Almost a year has passed since super typhoon Yolanda devastated the Visayas and other regions in the Philippines on November 8, 2013.
Since last year, tragic natural disasters kept on hitting different parts of the world and causing tremendous loss of lives and assets.
In response to the need of building much stronger resilience, the Japan Foundation has organized the HANDs! Exchange Program from September 25 to October 5, 2014 in Indonesia and the Philippines. The Hope and Dreams (HANDs) Project is a bi-annual youth exchange project, aiming to nurture a sense of common feeling and coexistence as a community shared by the people in Asia. The project provides platforms to have dialogues and exchange of ideas among youths in India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand; and, to further promote the development of a network among young leaders as well as collaborative efforts among them, especially in the field of disaster education.
The HANDs! Exchange Program, composed of 23 youth leaders from Asia will conduct site visits to disaster-affected communities in Indonesia (Yogyakarta – Mt. Merapi eruption affected site) and the Philippines (Tacloban), and have dialogues with local people as well as people involved in the relief and reconstruction efforts / operations in the area. It also aims at providing fundamental inspiration for the youth leaders to think creatively in tackling related social issues.
At the end of the program, the participants will develop proposals on projects relevant to disaster education and will be given seed funds to implement the plan in 2015.
Theme: “Disaster Education – Bringing Knowledge through Creativity”
Duration: September 25 – 30 (Indonesia), October 1 – 5 (Philippines)
Participants: 23
(5 each from Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and Thailand, 3 from Malaysia and 1 from India)
Philipine HANDs Participants
