Sarajean's notes

Am posting links for several of the materials I referred to in recent workshops Find info on Grant proposal writing Community organizing and teaching materials on http://activist-resources.blogspot.com

Everyone should check out the AERA interview with 2HJ's Charles McJilton. ( AERA , July 30, 2007, no. 34, p. 64). He is a such a charismatic person and it really comes through in the article. For those of you who don't know, Second Harvest Japan distributes food to soup kitchens, orphanages, the elderly, emergency shelters, single mothers, the homeless, migrant workers, and many others. Check out the 2HJ site for more info about they do : http://www.2hj.org/

Satoru (from JACO) and i have been talking about putting together a publication on advocacy for about one year now. We have finally been able to get several people together to do some group discussion on some of the key themes such as what is advocacy and why it is necessary. So much is taken for granted in the English word: 1. people can/should/have the right to speak out * 2. speaking out is not "anti" government * they represent us, they work for us, we pay thier salary, etc 3. people and citizen's groups can/should affect policy change * we should be monitoring government, wathc dogs are important, so too are is our input for social change policy development 4. policy affects us whether or not we realise it. * even small things like prioitising things like swimming or criteria for text books... cathc more later once things come together

The Tokyo Distance Learning Center has info for an international micro finance training program http://mftot.jointokyo.org/ Microfinance Distance Learning (MFDL) package developed by UNCDF is available online at http://www.uncdf.org/mfdl/ .

An interesting article from the NYTimes by Nori Onishi About the new jury system planned to be implemented in 2009 * interesting for anyone interested in democratic development and citizensﾕ involvement Japan Learns Dreaded Task of Jury Duty By NORIMITSU ONISHI Published: July 16, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/asia/16jury.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fNews%2fWorld%2fCountries%20and%20Territories%2fJapan&oref=slogin

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707140073.html Kirill Konin was recently interviewed in the IHT/Asahi on July 14 - have a read about the Film Festival taking place here in Tokyo. For more information on the Refugee Film Festival, including film times and venues, visit www.refugeefilm.org >

I was told recently that I was " the most positive anti-establishment person X had ever met." I guess I could not be involved in this line of work if I did not believe that 1) we can make a difference and 2) there is a potential for real change. I get into a discussion that often goes negative - when my aim is to be positive! I see the fact that certain things many not be happening in a high profile manner - - Advocacy, individual donors increasing, corp. community programming etc.. to be an opportunity - a chance to do something new. No, this does not mean that things can be cut and pasted from other contexts from other countries. It does mean that we have many models from which to pick and choose and we can do new things by learning from others mistakes.

Today i am posting some on line readings for people at Tsuda's intenrational development skills course. I am teaching this course on TU nights. Since others might be interested in these i figured posting there here might be a good idea ... July 10 - focus on refugees and related issues Basic info on refugees - read any two http://hrw.org/doc/?t=refugees&document_limit=0,2 http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~take-waya/main_refugee/japan.htm h ttp://www.unhcr.org/basics.html http://www.issj.org/english/Intercountry/ic18-2e.htm Refugees International http://www.refintl.org/ Refugees International Japan http://www.refugeesinternationaljapan.org/ July 17 - focus on Microfinance for poverty alleviation Basic info http://www.cgap.org/about/faq01.html http://www.waterberry.org/articles/Introduction%20to%20Microfinance.htm http://www.planetfinance.org/EN/microfinance-entreprise/microfinance-presentation.php www.ids.ac.uk/ids/pvty/pdf-files/SocialImpactMicrofinance.pdf http://www.grameenfoundatio...

on Saturday i completed my last training for the CGP nonprofit Fellowship. It has been fun and useful for me too to meet new people and share ideas in order to help them with thier fellwoships. Sad that this is the last Fellowship program. I think we could still use more study and intenraitonal collabroation support but i am not sure of the environment for this now. When JUCEE finished its 6th NPOP and 7 th IP programs it was sad but the numbers of people still communcating and working in the nonprofit sector here are quite large. The last time we talked about this was in 2005: http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/business-building/international-grassroots-collaboration/ FYI - don't bother looking atthe JUCEE website - it is a mish mash of old info. sadly JUCEE closed down in 2005.

On July 29 we did a preview of one of the films for　UN refugee agency and it was really moving - almost 30 people from very different backgrounds and lost of good discussion afterwards. will post some photos later on. i would encourage everyone in tokyo to make to at least one film this summer - but get there early - it gets crowded! July 18-26 *** 2nd International UNHCR Refugee Film Festival 2007 Locations: Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo: (Iidabashi Station) Goethe-Institut Japan: (Aoyama Itchome Station) Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tokyo: (Kudanshita Station) Embassy of Sweden: (Kamiyacho Station) For more information: http://www.refugeefilm.org/

This training today was very interesting - very different to work with government people from so many different countries. some were doctors - some were from the health ministries and others were in health care supprot services. They came from Uganda, Bolivia, China, Tanzania, Cambodia, Jamaica and many others. What a great experience. I am used to NGO people who have less confidence and are less sure about thier position in society. I hope that I was able instill in them some positive ideas about working with citizens and NGOs in order to make their projects more effective. And if they could see any hope for changing or molding policy in their countries then it was worth me doing the workshop.

I just finished working on this project - JICa training program focused on PWDs (person with disabilities) I did 2 1/2 days focusing on action plan development - writing it out and presenting it. today they did practice presentations - they were much better than i expected. have a look at the group: http://www.jicafriends.jp/vocational/gi2007/training/v0612.html interesting idea ... bringing groups of people to japan to train them in different skills sets and then send them back home to get new projects off the ground. some people are able to do good - even just by seeing some new things and/or sharing ideas with participants from other countries.

Join the PSC for a special preview People for Social Change in collaboration with Democrats Abroad Japan, the UNHCR and RBR Center for Creative Arts present: Refugee Film Festival Special Preview "Invisible Children" * A film about children who are internally-displaced in the Northern part of Uganda. * The film is in English and has Japanese subtitles. Friday, June 29, 7-9:00pm Venue and access information: RBR Center for Creative Arts in Roppongi/Azabu Juban Approx. 15 min walk from both Roppongi and Azabu Juban stations. http://www.rbr-art.com/Moving 1-23 Moto-Azabu 3-Chome, Minato Ku, Tokyo 03-5770-7401 Advanced registration by June 27, requested but not mandatory. * Due to space restrictions, attendance is limited to the first 40 people who sign up. FREE but donations will be encouraged

I went last year and there were 300 people - lots of fun! NetTokyo 3 Summer Charity Networking Event » Saturday, July 21, 2007 » 12:30 pm - 4:30 pm » 4,000 Yen in advance, 5,000 Yen at the door. http://www.nettokyo.jp/

Good to share some links - shows it is not all bad news - many people are doing good things everywhere. Women’s Human Rights Net http://www.whrnet.org/ MADRE http://www.madre.org/ SVRI http://www.svri.org/ CSVR http://www.csvr.org.za/gender/ Rape crisis cape town http://www.rapecrisis.org.za/ Amnesty Stop Violence Campaign http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/index-eng Resilience - Japanese only http://www.resilience.jp/index2.html Freedom 21 - Japanese only http://freedom21.jp/index.php?cmd=read&page=DV 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence - NGO Campaign http://www.whrnet.org/days_activism_en.php Family Violence Prevention Fund http://www.endabuse.org/ PATHS http://www.abusehelplines.org/ Clothesline project http://home.cybergrrl.com/dv/orgs/cp.html Clothesline project Japan http://www.purple.dti.ne.jp/tshirt/index.html

i never think of my self as a feminist - but maybe i am just because i feel so stronly about being equal. read a few of these articles and get motivated to do something ... Local issues - info in English about Japan: Domestic violence in Japan . www.unifem-eseasia.org/resources/others/domesticviolence/PDF/Japan.pdf Domestic Violence in Japan www.tokyoprogressive.org.uk/gale/articles/dv-in-japan.html II Journal: Japanese women confront domestic violence www.umich.edu/~iinet/journal/vol3no1/jpndv.html These resources have info on a lot more than gender based violence but good references for details and stats: UNIFEM Articles and resources http://www.unifem.org/resources/listing_by_section.php?WebSectionID=3 The World’s Women 2005 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub.htm.unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/ww_specialRep.pdf

I rarely see this type of stuff locked in my very Japanese world .... there are many people involved in law suits. Debito is keeping track of cases and incidents and these records will help us all in the future. Interesting for anyone wanting to know what is going on with anti-discrimination work in Japan. "THE COMMUNITY" ISSUES AND PROPOSALS CONCERNING NON-JAPANESE IN JAPAN http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity/communityissues.html

Any international groups or others coming to Japan for the G8 summit in summer 2008? I know NGOs and progressivess are planning a shadow forum but i am interested in knowing who might be coming over and how the PSC. Drop the PSC a line at skillsbuild at gmail.com if you or your group is interested or just wants to share ideas.

i have been looking for some useful websites for people interested in finding out more about PCM - here is what i found - some are in English and some in Japanese. share yours in the comments section: http://www.change-management -toolbook.com/tools/pcm.html http://www.fasid.or.jp/kenshu /pcm/index.html http://www.reliefweb.int /training/ti1375.html www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~gakuhoku /PCM-Handbook-J0406.pdf www.pref.okinawa.jp/kenzou /sukoyaka/pdf/79p_81p.pdf http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wb /fukud/glossary.htmA http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wb /fukud/hyousijp.htm http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wb /fukud/hyousi%20eng.htm http://www.ipma.ch/Pages/IPMA .aspx http://www.aidworkers.net/?q =node/252 http://www.apo-tokyo.org/cgi /apo_p-glossary.pl?record=79 http://www.env.go.jp/policy /assess/1-3sanka/3/mes/mes _sim033i.html http://www.worldbank.org /aidsecon/toolkit/project.htm

Art exhibit: June 1st - June 31st Shibuya, Tokyo www.thepinkcow.com Artists promote peace through their individual artwork / paintings / VJ / digital / photography / music / fashion June 1 - Artist Reception for PEACE ART EXHIBIT Open: 20:00 ~ * Come early and Invite your friends to Join us for a delicious dinner buffet (2625 yen) Door: 1,000 yen w/ free drink