April 2009

Rissho Kosei-kai Offers New Joint Project for UNICEF and Religions for Peace

On April 18-22, the first meetings elaborating a new joint project, by Rissho Kosei-kai, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Conference of Religions for Peace, to support assistance to children on the Philippine island of Mindanao, were held at a Manila hotel and in places in Mindanao where the project is to be carried out. The joint project, Children Affected by Armed Conflict, will be launched this fall. Representatives from UNICEF headquarters in New York, its Manila Office, the Japan Committee of UNICEF and the International Secretariat of Religions for Peace were present at the meetings. Rissho Kosei-kai was represented by Rev. Koichi Matsumoto, director of its Youth Department.

During the plenary gathering at a hotel in Manila, both Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, assistant secretary-general of the International Secretariat of Religions for Peace, and Mr. Stephen Hammer, a UNICEF partnership manager, spoke on the significance of promoting the project in the near future on a global scale. They also emphasized the importance of realizing that more effective protection of children can be achieved only by sharing the ideas and experiences they had accumulated and by making the most of the particular genius of each organization involved in the project. Ms. Amanda Melville, a UNICEF child protection specialist, expressed her view that religious organizations could contribute directly to the project and that at the same time it would be possible to educate children and adults, including parents, through cooperative activities with local faith leaders. She expressed hope that this kind of education would contribute not only to conflict prevention but also to conflict resolution in the participating communities. She also said that promoting the project would be a challenge for UNICEF to strengthen partnerships with faith communities.

The participants in the meetings, including Dr. Lilian J. Sison, secretary-general of Religions for Peace the Philippines; leaders of faith communities in the Philippines; and representatives of local nongovernmental organizations, agreed to develop the new project as a way to support and care for afflicted children worldwide, by encouraging and strengthening associations and partnerships with local faith communities in areas of conflict around the world.

UNICEF's Manila Office and Religions for Peace the Philippines have started to work together to investigate the plight of a number of internally displaced people, including children, on Mindanao and their actual situation. They also have started contacting leaders of local faith communities so that they can make necessary preparations for the project's action programs.

Rissho Kosei-kai has supported UNICEF since 1979 through its UNICEF fundraising campaigns across Japan. The funds collected from members and well-wishers are transferred to UNICEF headquarters through the Japan Committee of UNICEF and are now being used in Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, and East Timor to support assistance to and care of children, especially through the promotion of educational programs there. Religions for Peace, on the other hand, has also worked closely with UNICEF in assisting afflicted children around the world since 1990. Because of these backgrounds the three organizations, including Rissho Kosei-kai, decided last year to plan a pilot project in Mindanao that aims to support the relief of children, many of whom are placed in severe conditions as a result of the armed conflict.

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