Summary of the lecture given by Professor Tajima - He prepared handouts written in both Japanese and English, and gave a lecture based on them.

Nature of Volunteer: He distributed questions to the young participants and picked up their views through question-answer style instruction and categorised the views. One category was ‘independence’.

History of Volunteer: He introduced three categories with concrete examples and made explanation for each style of activity. The categories introduced were �@supportive Activities for domestic problems�Asupportive Activities for international problems�Bsupportive Activities for governmental policies.

Contents of Volunteer Activities: He introduced six categories

and explained each category has a wide range of activities for participation. The categories introduced were �@medical treatment�Aimprovement of hygiene and nutrition for children�Bimprovement of life environment�Cpersonnel training�Dsupport for women’s self-help�Esupport for community development(e.g. development of farming and fishing villages)

Concrete Examples of several volunteer activities: He introduced several volunteer activities, including Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and members of local UNESCOs.

When this lecture almost came to its end, we got a happy happening. At the time, Mr. Maung Sai Non Nutt, a Myanmarese youth, a repeating participant of retreat, talked about the project currently building an elementary school in his home country. He said that many retreat-OBs support this project, and that this must be a great volunteer activity. He mentioned Mr. WaiKeung Luk, a youth from Hong Kong as a contributor of this project. Then, we saw a figure outside the hall, and found that this was the Mr. WaiKeung himself. He took a day off from his company, left Nagoya early morning and drove to the retreat camp place in Nagano. He joined the campfire at the night before leaving for Nagoya. The small flag, which is in the third from the left in the picture, is the Hong Kong’s city flag. This is following the custom of the retreat, which represents the participants’ identities by their flags. Including him, people from 7 countries and one city participated this time. This incident conveyed how retreat-OBs took part in various activities, responding to the appeal of the current retreat members. I hope such contribution by retreat-OBs will continue forever.

By the way, all 15 retreats including this time were held at Meguro Citizens' Nature Village in Wada-mura, but this camp place is to be closed this year. Wherever the next retreat will be held, I hope, it will be as successful as ever. Although the retreat had fewer participants this year than usual, many of them showed their willingness to take part next year or wished to support retreats as a staff. This was absolutely impressive. Planning and running retreats is the responsibility of the Youth Activity Committee - youths under 35-year-olds as a rule, while retreat OBs and many advisers including lecturers help them.                                             Report: Public Relations Committee

~Reports from participants~

Mr. Moonki Cho (from America)

I was very happy to attend the retreat of Meguro UNESCO. I met a lot of people there and discussed a variety of problems in the world. I felt it very impressive. I am always complaining of tiny things, but understood afresh that there are a lot of people struggling with their living in the world.

Ms. Sutung Lin (from Taiwan)

I attended the Meguro UNESCO’s retreat for the first time, and gained a lot of experience to keep in my mind. The theme this time was ‘Volunteer Activities’ and we shared various opinions and ideas through discussion. This reminded me of my experience partaking in volunteer activities for the earthquake victims in Taiwan.