What can we do for Rohingya children? Soma Suzuki (age 12), his younger sister An Suzuki (age 10), Taiki Chokki (age 10), and his younger brother Yuki Chokki (age 7), students at the Gunma Kokusai Academy Elementary School, crowdfunded donations to support Rohingya children. Rohingya are a minority Muslim ethnic group from Myanmar living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

It began in April 2020 when Soma became aware of the Rohingya through a conversation with his mother and learned that there were many Rohingya people living in his town, Tatebayashi, Gunma. After detailed research, the four pupils visited Aung Tin, the Vice President of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan. Ting told them about the severe situation the Rohingya children were facing. His explanation surprised them very much. Ting explained that education and sports would save children, even in such terrible circumstances. This further motivated the students to help the children.

One day, reading an article about a 100-year-old man who collected 4.4 billion yen in donations, Soma had the idea of raising funds to donate stationery and soccer balls. However, it was difficult to collect money on the street in the midst of the pandemic. Crowdfunding enabled them to collect donations without face-to-face contact with others. It also enabled the donation project to be nationwide, beyond only Gunma. So, he decided to do it.

They started crowdfunding with the Bokutachi Watashitachi ni Dekirukoto (What We Can Do) We Are All the Same project on August 25. On that same day in 2017, armed conflict began, forcing many Rohingya people to escape overseas. Their first goal was to collect 100,000 yen in two months. 1118 people donated a total of 3 million yen, and some visited their school to bring the donations personally. The four pupils told that while they were happy to have collected a good amount of donations, the best thing was that many people had become aware of the Rohingya.

Because the donations far exceeded their expectations, they had to reconsider what to send, and how and where to send it. Accordingly, they sought advice from many different people about the use of donations. They received a lot of different advice from journalists, the ambassador of Bangladesh, and the nurses working in the refugee camps. Eventually, they decided to send relief supplies four times, rather than sending a large amount of supplies at one time, to help the refugees through continued support. In addition to stationery and soccer balls, they decided to send blankets, flashlights, and for girls mainly playing indoors, colored pencils and origami.

The first relief supplies were delivered to the refugee camp at the end of December 2020. The pupils received a video of the Rohingya children playing soccer. More relief supplies will be sent in April, August, and December in 2021. Besides the supplies, they are thinking about supporting by repairing the school building damaged by the monsoon.

Over 200 Rohingya people are living in Tatebayashi. By paying attention to an issue in their community, the elementary school children developed an interest in the world. They thought of solutions, did research, and took action to solve the issue. Their power of implementation is amazing. They very thoughtfully considered their practical and effective support project. We look forward to seeing what young children who have had such a meaningful experience will become in the future. We also hope that children like this will change Japan.