Monday, March 19, 2012

UNWRA kids fly kites to to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan

In a message from Japan, Akihiko said, “it is really, really a wonderful festivity that you are flying 'kites of hope' . Amazing! I am sure that your kiting today will greatly encourage Japanese people living in the area stricken by disaster. Let's fly kites high up to the sky to let sorrows and fears turn to hope”.
Palestinian children fly kites to show their solidarity with the Japanese people
near a Japanese-funded housing project in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip,
March 18, 2012. The event was organized by the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency to mark the first anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and
tsunami that killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis in Japan.
(Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=468981
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian refugee school children in Gaza gathered to fly kites on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the UN refugee agency said.

Around 1,000 children flew kites at a Japanese-funded health center in the southern Gaza town Khan Younis, UNRWA said in a press statement.

Japanese founder of the kite-flying commemoration Akihiko, which has been held in 23 locations in Japan, and 5 countries worldwide, said the Gaza event "will greatly encourage Japanese people living in the area stricken by disaster."

Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, Christer Nordahl said, "It is typical of the children of Gaza who experience so much hardship to think of children suffering elsewhere in the world. It is a wonderful and creative symbolic act of solidarity."

The quake in March 2011 unleashed a 10-meter tsunami and risked a nuclear meltdown in Japan, leaving some 25,000 people dead or missing.

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Kites of Hope, Commemoration for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami
One thousand children attending UNRWA schools in Gaza have flown kites in a symbolic show of support or “kizuna” the Japanese word for solidarity, with the children of Japan and victims of the earthquake and tsunami a year ago.

UNRWA delivers relief and social services to over a million refugees in Gaza. The Agency receives generous funding from the government and people of Japan, and since the devastating earthquake and tsunami and today, Japan has contributed US$ 23 million to UNRWA.

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Help UNWRA provide education, medical care, food and other essential relief services to Palestine refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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