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Happy New Year!

We hope that the New Year finds you in good health.

Meguro UNESCO Association is taking a new step for the year. We appreciate your continued cooperation.

Our long cherished dream of opening a bureau for the Association came true last year. We will have the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Association in two years' time. Now that we have a center for our activities, it's high time we start engaging in substantial work toward the coming half-century.

This issue features our committees, so members can see the current status of the Association. We should reflect on the past year and then think about how we can move forward. We asked each committee to submit a manuscript, written in a way as forward-looking, ambitious, and constructive as possible, to address the following points and to infuse new passion into UNESCO movements.

● The activities of Meguro UNESCO Association are wide-ranging and its overall picture is difficult to grasp.
● Even people who are enthusiastically engaged in certain activities might not know of other activities.
● People wishing to do volunteer work might not be positively asked to do so.
● A clear reaffirmation of the purposes of activities to revitalize old, stale ideas with an original and fresh 　approach.
● Lately more overseas people have been visiting our site. An English guide about each committee will help people know about Meguro UNESCO Association as a whole. The New Year issue itself will be　an introduction too.
　

I would like you to read carefully about the ten committees' activities to see the extensive and significant work that Meguro UNESCO Association pursues in a very low profile, quiet but prideful manner.

UNESCO was established out of the pains of two world wars. Now, we could never imagine a third world war breaking out, but we realize we are still far from having real peace. What can we do about this? At the beginning of the year, we are expected to make a fresh determination for peace. That feeling directed our decisions in arranging this New Year's issue.

We have completely changed the design of our Web pages. Please visit the site. The pages are full to the brim with pictures of various Meguro UNESCO Association activities.　The cover page may look discursive and inexplicable at first glance, but it represents wide-range of activities of Meguro UNESCO Association.

http://www.unesco.or.jp/meguro/ Mirror Site; http://www.meguro-unesco.org/

Each committee is introduced in the following pages or the next issue.

Page 3: Youth Activity Committee; regular meetings will be held starting this year. We are planning to hold more and more lively programs.

Page 4: International Support Activity Committee; you can attend various types of activities. “Let's make the year a bright one through taking up one volunteer activity.”

Page 4: Scholarship Program Committee; just the cash you might spend on a cup of coffee, would go far.

Page 5: Cultural Activity Committee; “UNESCO Art Exhibition” and “UNESCO Charity Concerts” both have an indescribable history.

The following committees will be introduced in the next issue.

UNESCO School Administration Committee; children are treasures for our future.　“UNESCO School” had been set up before the inauguration of Meguro UNESCO Association.

Japanese Language Education Committee; attended regularly by 120 to 130 people from about thirty different countries.

Ｔｏ　No.193-3