The UBS Securities Company, which currently sponsors the "Kids in the Arts" program for Pangaea, has begun a fun and creative new undertaking on its company website.
By just submitting simple messages about art, you can contribute to Pangaea for FREE!
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"Your message will become art.
And you'll be supporting children."

"What is art to you?" UBS opened a new website on February 18th at which visitors are asked to submit messages answering this question. UBS will then make donations based on the number of quotes submitted to NPOs(=Pangaea) that support children's development through art and culture.
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Just visit the site below and submit your thoughts on art, then click "Pangaea" for the organization you want to support.
It's totally free, and all donations will come from UBS.

http://www.artcollection-japan.ubs.com/

This site will be available for a limited time only!
To submit a message, no email address or user ID is necessary.
Let's all take advantage of this opportunity while we can! And tell all your friends about it too!

Hello Everyone,

The situation in Kenya has not improved since I mentioned it in the last newsletter. Pangaea has discussed with UNESCO/Kenya the possibility of launching Pangaea activities in Kisumu in mid-February. We have both agreed to postpone our plan. Mr. Kofi Annan, the chairperson of the Commission of African Union, has mediated a continuing crisis in Kenya, but so far there seems to be no solutions found. We explained to children in our activities what has happened in Kenya. We decided to send our messages, written using Pictons, to cheer their Kenyan friends up. I heard their conversation talking about which Pictons they might want to use: "I want to tell them that I hope they don't die in the violence." "But when they know you are talking about 'death' from your Picton message, it will probably make them sad."

Some children shared their stories: since they watched television news, reporting violence in Kenya, during the New Year holiday, they have been worried about their Kenyan friends. We have been helping with children to cultivate compassion for others, regardless of geographical distance, as the first step. I realized that those children showed their sympathy toward their peers. They have been bonded as Pangaeans, and tried to understand what their friends are going through. We will send as many messages as possible to Jane, who is working with Pangaea in Kenya.


We canceled our trip to Kenya, but have not changed our schedule, visiting Europe in March. We will hold our Webcam activity, connecting between Vienna and Mie, Japan, next month. We are getting used to webcams; we can prepare for webcam activities without hassles. Anyway, I pray for a quick recovery for Kenya.

The writer of Pangaea Ring of this month is Ms. Oriana Gatta, an Assistant of Language Teacher of Tsu city, Mie Prefecture, Japan. She is a volunteer staff at Pangaea Activity in Mie University.

See you next month!

Yumi

When my supervisor at the Tsu Board of Education told me about the Pangaea program and asked me if I would like to participate, I couldn't conceive of the kind of positive experience participating in the program would be for me or for the children that the program supports. But, as I have told both my supervisor and Yumiko Mori, I consider Pangaea to be one of the best experiences I've had in Japan.

The program exemplifies diligent, detailed pre-planning and the connection to a larger purpose that many other non-profit organizations and similar endeavors could learn from. The Pangaea program activities bridge children's individual creativity with their natural interest in others. All of the artwork that the children do serves to communicate something to others about themselves, and they therefore seem to both really enjoy it and take it seriously. The program also offers the children a positive model for interaction with new people and new ideas, and the other facilitators do a great job of paying careful attention to the way the children interact with each other during activities.

Therefore, I hope it becomes possible for Pangaea to open sites in more locations because others should also have the kind of opportunities that Pangaea provides.

Oriana Gatta