First of all, Toshi (Vice President) introduces new PangaeaNet. As you may know, the PangaeaNet is like "another house" for us and for the children, so this renewal is so intriguing, isn't it?

And second of all, we're delighted to announce the Pangaea 10th Anniversary Symposium, which is one of the biggest 10th anniversary events, we have frequently mentioned about. Yumi (President) will introduce this memorial event.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PangaeaNet 2.0 release!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"PangaeaNet 2.0" will be released in this month!
PangaeaNet is a safe Internet system that the children participants of Pangaea
have their own "House" on the Internet and communicate each other with sharing
their works and exchanging messages. In terms of the purpose of activity and Internet security, they can access only from Pangaea activity locations.

The key concept of PangaeaNet is "Four clicks to the Earth!" PangaeaNet consists of four hierarchy; "House", "Village", "Country", and "Earth". They can reach House" of their friends by four clicks to both in the different domestic location and the foreign one on the other side of the world.

There are new enhanced features in PangaeaNet 2.0. Let me introduce two big
highlights here. The first enhancement is that the participants can create messages, combining "Pictogram" with "Text". Previously, the participants could use only pictogram messages. From now on, the messages combined pictogram and sentence will be posted to the partner through the machine translation by the cute character
called "Gengoro." "Back translation" mechanism is introduced in order to enhance the machine translation quality. Our past activities, children tried machine translation. It revealed the tendency that they can enjoy machine translation even when it is improper translation result, which is different from the adults. Also, based on our understanding gained through previous R&Ds, design of Pictons (pictograms) has been updated. And users can enlarge a size of Picton so that they have wider range of expression in their messages.

The second enhancement is the upgraded contents in "Village." The "Village" in PangaeaNet is compatible with the actual physical activity location where children gather. For example, "Kashiwanoha Village" is in Kashiwanoha city in Chiba, Japan, and "MIZY Village" is in Seoul, Korea. One of the most important factors in international understanding education is to exchange international people with the knowledge of "Myself" and "My community." I had been in the U.S., and at that time my friends asked me a lot about Japan such as history and culture. However, I could not answer to many of them because I did not know much about Japan actually.
In PangaeaNet 2.0, children introduce "Village", which is their own community,
through the creation of the contents, such as sound/music, video, picture,
animation, and statistical information. Compared with the previous PangaeaNet, which had more personal activities, the current one can accommodate the activity menus that children enjoy working together cooperatively. For instance, this can be applied to the tool for the exchange between sister cities.

Although I leave out the details, new technologies are employed in PangaeaNet 2.0 such as Web-serviced Picton access, HTML5 for rich client, Git for source code management, and cloud server deployment. Some demo movies of PangaeaNet 2.0 will be released in our website in the near future. We will let you know via Facebook and Pangaea Blog pages. Don't miss it!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea 10th Anniversary Symposium!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we have already announced before, 2013 is the 10th anniversary since NPO Pangaea was established in Japan. On 21st September, from 13:00, we will hold a 10th Anniversary Symposium in Kashiwanoha, Chiba. Many Pangaeans and the supporters are expected to show up to celebrate. Let's have the great event together!
Mr. Walter Bender is coming who is the former executive director of MIT Media Lab. He gave us a lots of advices before the foundation of Pangaea, and also joined kick-off event in Tokyo 10 years ago. And some are coming all the way from National Museum of Kenya. Those who are reading this news letter, you are also welcome to join us!

10 years seems long time but I felt short. The passage of those years has also happened to many volunteer stuffs, supporters, and youth participants and their parents. With the help of those people in various fields and the various countries, we could make it to celebrate 10th Anniversary.

In May, we will post further information of the event on the Pangaean website. You will also see the application form on the website. We are looking forward to your active participation in the event! After the 10th Anniversary Symposium, we will hold a get-together. There will be many facilitators from Kyoto, Mie not only from Kashiwanoha (UDCK) or Tokyo (HONEST Co., Ltd.) We truly hope at the get-together, many Pangaean involved come to know each other and their relationship deepens. The get-together is no-host, but all-you-can-drink. You can enjoy BBQ, which is so like Pangaea.

For the 10th Anniversary Symposium, we will compile a memorial Pangaea Book. We hope as many companies as possible will run an ad on the book. We will also collect contributions from individuals. All the info will be e-mailed in May.

Let's enjoy this memorable anniversary event together!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ This newsletter is delivered to:
* Registered Pangaea support members
* Registered Pangaea volunteer staffs
* Other Pangaea supporters who are in contact with us
+ To unsubscribe or to change email address:
http://www.pangaean.org/common/english/newsletter/change.html

Published by: Non-Profit Organization PANGAEA
Website: http://www.pangaean.org
Email: info@pangaean.org
Tel: +81-(0)75-741-8877 | Fax: +81-(0)75-741-8876
Zou Bldg. #301, 509 Kyogokucho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8035, Japan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) NPO PANGAEA. All Rights Reserved.

Cold winter seems finally disappearing and warmer winds come in Kyoto.
Beautiful cherry blossom season has just arrived.
Kyoto held the last activity of fiscal year last month.
Handmade Pangaea Playing cards were delivered to participated youths and facilitators.
Please check out photos of last month’s activity.
We are happy to hear that 13 facilitators and 3 technical staffs joined as new Pangaeans in Korea.
We are very excited and welcome them.

Please read on to find out more.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea Ring -Message from Linh-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea Ring: Mr. Vu Duy Linh - Reflections of a technical coordinator of the YMC Viet Project in Vietnam.

Hello everyone,
My name is Linh, an information technology official from Center for Statistics and Informatics (CIS) – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Today, I am really happy to write my feeling about NPO Pangaea. At the beginning, I actually had no idea and any information about Pangaea even though I knew about Japan a lot until I met Yumi and Toshi 3 years ago in 2010, following the suggestion of my colleague, Ms. Hoa who also worked with us after that in Pangaea’s Project in Viet Nam so called “YMC Viet.” We had a meeting at that time to hear Yumi and Toshi introduce Pangaea, its mission and activities in Vietnam. I was really impressed and amazed on the working that Pangaea brings to children in particular and the world in general. Since then, I had studied much more about Pangaea’s activities and its history through the web page. I gradually understood that Pangaea is an organization that is playing the role of the connectivity among people each other no thanks to the barrier in the language and distance.
Now, I am back to my work when I participated in YMC Viet Project as a local technical coordinator. The concept of YMC Viet, or Youth Mediated Communication and Viet, is that it is deploying at Thien My commune, Tra On District, in the southern province of Vinh Long, Viet Nam. It is basically an attempt to communicate with illiterate farmers through their literate children who go to school. But one of its innovations is the application of Language Grid, which enables the communication between Japanese agricultural specialists and Vietnamese farmers transcending the language barriers with its multi-lingual environment. Another point is the use of children in place of sensors to collect such meteorological data as temperature and humidity and to observe and record the status of rice growth including its height and the color of leaves over time, and use them as source information to give appropriate agricultural advice. Especially, thanks to Pangaea’s technologies, children can use PCs and mobile phone successfully and smoothly to connect with their adult population despite current ICT (Information and Communication Technology) constraints and language differences between Japanese and Vietnamese.

For me, a local Tech Coordinator responsible for generally all project’s coordination relevant to technical issues, directly take part in dealing with big troubles that occur during the process of project, take over all recommendations and petitions and inquiries from local tech staff, agriculture specialists, and bridgers of Viet Nam site in using equipment, YMC web system, and the related others, inform to YMC Viet management board if they are beyond one’s reach.
Actually, this activity attracted me so much they brought me much more helpful and meaningful things than I had imaged. Through it I learned by much experience from the way which Pangaea prepares for and run its project abroad in a very professional manner and after that it also helped me a lot my daily work in my office. In line with the project and after finishing my each task within the project time I had a big opportunity to contact with Yumi and Toshi in daily life they are very, very close and social people. I am just able to talk a real story to partly describe themselves is, in 2010 on our way of a paid business trip to the northern province of Bac Giang in order to look for a place to deploy the YMC Viet project when we visited a family where there is a child’s father who is a chief of an office of the department of agriculture and in line with a liaison for us. At the first time when this child met Yumi and Toshi, he looked really strange and silent and this is also his nature and in very natural way and by Yumi and Toshi’s close instinct and as their work, Yumi and Toshi made friends with him easily through many communicative ways and step by step his nature changed a lot, from a quiet and silent child, he became an active and open one before the astonishment of his parents and us. Although the YMC Viet project has not been deployed there afterward, his family always remind Yumi and Toshi of the things which brought to their child and family whenever they met Mrs. Hoa and me in Hanoi. And for me, I feel luckier because I frequently keep contact with them, sometime they have visit Hanoi and at least via internet. Now and in the future I am always up-to-date mission and activities of Pangaea and I am very ready to become a faithful volunteer in Viet Nam whenever Pangaea needs. Everything belongs to Pangaea could be my hobby. I know that this is the 10th anniversary year for the NPO Pangaea. I wish Pangaea family all the best wishes to continue contributing and bringing Pangaea to fly faster and higher in the future. Personally, I am very much looking forward to contributing to Pangaea in the future.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity Report in Kyoto University
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This month, we distributed Pangaea Playing Cards to children.
They were very excited because they were their original cards containing self-made design.
As soon as they got cards, they opened the package and looked.
Please take a look at pictures that take the scene and other Village’s ones

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.463391740398663.1073741825.130325790371928&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=463671990370638&set=a.141268505944323.33092.130325790371928&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=463455223725648&set=a.141268505944323.33092.130325790371928&type=1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tokyo Activity will move to new location in May.
It will be held at Honest Co., Ltd. located at Hongo-3chome, Tokyo.
If you are interesting in joining our Activity, please let us know early from below URL.

info@pangaean.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ This newsletter is delivered to:
* Registered Pangaea support members
* Registered Pangaea volunteer staffs
* Other Pangaea supporters who are in contact with us
+ To unsubscribe or to change email address:
http://www.pangaean.org/common/english/newsletter/change.html

Published by: Non-Profit Organization PANGAEA
Website: http://www.pangaean.org
Email: info@pangaean.org
Tel: +81-(0)75-741-8877 | Fax: +81-(0)75-741-8876
Zou Bldg. #301, 509 Kyogokucho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8035, Japan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2012 NPO PANGAEA. All Rights Reserved.

Link

We like to inform you that this newsletter will be distributed on every 1st Tuesday of the month from this issue. If you were wondering why you did not receive our NL this month, we apoligize for a delay in notification.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
＋Please click "LIKE!" :Clothes for Smiles
＋Yumi's report for Official Trips in Vietnam, Kenya and Korea
＋Activity Report for January 2013: Webcam Activity

I introduced Pangaea to “Clothes for Smiles" project that UNIQLO promotes, and I am making the proposal now.
I hope you click "LIKE!" on Twitter or Facebook here:
(You can enter the page from below URL).

http://clothesforsmiles.uniqlo.com/ja/idea_detail.php?idea_key=641356942580

If our project is accepted, UNIQLO will support us and our activity will be in progress much faster.

Let's make Pangaea move on together!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yumi's report for Official Trips in Vietnam, Kenya and Korea
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Vietnam]
Month of January opened as Rocket Start. Toshi and I traveled to Ho-Chi-Ming, Vietnam on January 2nd, and had meeting with Vietnam National University, HCM Professor Quan Vu to prepare for the 2nd Vietnam-Japan YMC Workshop. We had 15 guests joined from overseas. It was a pleasure to have site visit to show YMC in operation at Tien My Community in Vinh Long Province, little over 4 hours by car from HCM. For those of us who had been working on this project, site visit was a great joy to see participating youths, then visited their houses and interviewed parents, as well as visiting paddy. I and another person, a professor, fell in deep mud. I was lucky to wear my slippers which were easy to wash as kind stranger family nearby let me wash my feet and slippers at the back of their house. But a professor wearing sneakers and jeans were not so lucky, as it was very difficult to wash them. Workshop at HCM focused on “Sustainability” and “Scalability”. There were about 50 people including Mekong Area's local government, not only Vinh Long, but 4 other province joined the workshop. At academic side, Prof. Ishida led the afternoon session, Prof. Ninomiya presented agriculture perspective of YMC,
Prof. Morikawa gave a invited speech. Workshop challenged to find ways and discuss the direction for YMC in 2013. What is good, and what seems difficult in YMC as we are running this second season. We felt this workshop was very serious but open, and it gave everyone an opportunity to think about each responsibility and tasks for coming season.

[Kenya]
I report you about Kenya and UNESCO Kenya as Toshi will write about Webcam later. We have been coming Kenya many times in last 10 years. Rapid development of infrastructure is amazing. Every time we visit Kenya, internet is getting faster, more people using mobile, roads have less bumps and garbage, cars in city are getting cleaner. Many new business buildings are built even around the area we stay which is nearby National Museum of Kenya. Kenya will have Presidential Election this March. Every five years, they have the election, and the last time, it ended up with many lost lives and refuges due to after election riots. During this visit, as I spoke to many Kenyans, everyone mentioned that they really wish things go peacefully this time, yet they will watch out carefully to protect their family for safety. Pangaea planned to have next webcam in April or May. Youths who have connected with Kenyan youths and who are waiting to connect both are wishing that no one gets hurt. Kenya has many wonderful resources, as the world knows its national park with full of animals. Also beautiful landscapes, and unique cultural heritages from such a diversified tribal groups offers travelers to eyewitness and experience memorable trips. If security for travelers is improved, Kenya will be enjoy lots of incoming travelers from all over the world.
Visiting UNESCO Kenya, we had a meeting with ICT Director and his staff who happened to be Japanese. We did have very close contacts with former ICT Director, and we intend to keep a good relationship with new Director, Mr. Jaco.
He mentioned about International Democratic Day cerebration taking a place in Kenya this year. We discussed that Pangaea activity taking some part this year.

[Korea]
Visiting Seoul, after warm Vietnam and Kenya, we suddenly experienced 40 degree difference in temperature, and felt very cold. Yet Mizy Center's warm welcome kept us in good conditions. Mizy Center and NPO Pangaea now signed MOU at this visit. Mizy will now take a role as Pangaea Korea Branch. Mizy has been with us almost 8 years, and had been an excellent partners, had great facilitator training courses which had given trainings to Korean Pangaea Volunteers and numbers are over 150 members. Mizy always provided excellent project managers, and I keep close contact with her. Toshi does the same with TL, and he provided training for Technical volunteers at this visit.

Link

----------------------------------------------------------------------
＋Activity Report for January 2013: Webcam Activity
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We had a Webcam Activity between children in Kenya and Japan on January 12th. The venue in Kenya was "NMK Village", National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi.
And the venue in Japan was "OK Village" in Ebisu, Tokyo. OK Village is in a building of OKWave Corporation where we have conducted monthly Pangaea Activity for two years. Kenya and Japan has 6 hours difference in time zone. Japan side started at 3PM whereas Kenya side started at 9AM.
Japanese participants learned greetings in Swahili language, and Kenyan participants learned greetings in Japanese language. Those two languages have similar pronunciation system. So, the participants were so surprised that the counterparts pronounced greeting words very fluently.

They played Koetsuna, Color Matching Game, and Q&A session.
At the local preparation session for Color Matching Game before the real-time webcam connection, Kenyan participants were asked "What do you associate with
the color of 'red'?" And all children answered "red" reminds me of "blood." (Not
only children but adults in Kenya answered "blood" for red color.) In Color Matching Game, participants need to consider what their counterpart teammates will draw for each theme color. When a drawing of a Kenyan participant and a drawing of Japanese participant match, their team gets score points. In the end, there were no "blood" in the Kenyan drawings and they drew other things such as chili and tomato. They said it is because they didn't think the association between red color and blood is familiar to Japanese children. In general, children are facilitated to think of others and feel empathy in Pangaea activity.
At Q&A session, they use multilingual text chat system. When they exchanged questions about food, Kenyan participants were very surprised when they got to know that Japanese people eat RAW fish. One of the girls shouted "You eat raw fish? Unbelievable!!" It was one of the impressive moments.

By the way, we tried to webcast the Webcam activity by "Ustream" for the first time. It is one of the Pangaea 10th anniversary campaigns. The audiences of the webcast were not only from Japan but also from international viewers such as Korea, Austria, and the U.S. One of the Japanese audiences watched the webcast clearly when he was on Shinkansen, a bullet train that run over 250Km/h. I felt the further possibilities of the borderless and scalable Internet. Lastly, we would like to thank "Ogya", a technical volunteer staff in Tokyo. In the last more than two onths, he worked very hard in technical survey, connection test and implementation, and website production. Thanks a lot, Ogya!

Please check out the following photos of the Webcam event!

A Happy New Year to you!

At Pangaea, excitement is in the air as we enter 2013
because this is a very special year for Pangaea.
We are celebrating our 10th Anniversary!

2013 looks set to be another exciting year for us at Pangaea
as we are gearing ourselves up for a series of activities
that will make our 10th year milestone in Pangaea's journey
even more meaningful.

Read on to find out more!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ New Year Message from Yumi, Chairman of Pangaea
+ Pangaea opens new branch office in Seoul, Korea
+ Pangaea's First "Live" Webcast : Catch the 12, January, 2013 Webcam
between Nairobi and Tokyo "live" via U-stream!
+ Pangaea participates in 2nd Vietnam-Japan Workshop on Youth Mediated
Communication
+ Activity Report for December 2012

These 10 years have gone by very quickly.
So many things have happened and
so many people have helped, supported, and worked together with us.
Pangaea has touched many youths, volunteers, and supporters.
Among those who participated in Pangaea's activities
as youths when we first started out in 2003,
many have reached their 20’s.
To date, the number of participants have reached 6,000,
while activities have reached 570, and volunteers over 600.
I thank all of you who share the vision of Pangaea
to create a Universal Playground
to bridge youths regardless of differences, culture, religion,
economic background, physical distance, and languages.

As part of our Pangaea family, we would like to share our excitement
with you this year.
First, we open this year as a member of the Committee
for the 2nd Vietnam-Japan Workshop on YMC (Youth Mediated Communication)
from January 5th, 2013 in Vietnam
(view this website for more information: http://www.ailab.hcmus.edu.vn/ymc/).
We will have academics from both Japan and Vietnam,
as well as representatives from the Vietnamese government and local government
to take part in this event.
This year, our focus is on “Sustainability” and “Scalability”
of the YMC model.

After Vietnam, we will go to Nairobi, Kenya
to co-host Pangaea's Webcam Activity between Kenya and Tokyo, Japan.
I am very happy to announce
that this event will be broadcasted via U-stream.
It is the first time Pangaea will be sharing a Webcam Activity publicly.
If you have never seen one before, this is the great chance!
It is planned on January 12th (Saturday), and broadcast will start
around 4 PM (Japan time) and 10 AM (Kenya time).
I would like everyone, especially those of you who live outside Japan
to mark your calendar and witness our activity.
Please give us your support and click “Like”
on our Facebook Pangaea page!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea opens new branch office in Seoul, Korea
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pangaea will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) w
ith the MIZY Center, also known as the Seoul Youth Center
for Cultural Exchange on 18 January 2013.
This is yet another important milestone for Pangaea
as it means that we will have a new branch office
in Korea, at MIZY Center, from 2013!

MIZY Center has been partnering Pangaea since 2006
to promote cross-cultural exchanges
between the children of Korea and Japan.
As a Pangaea Activity Site, MIZY Center has run numerous activities
ranging from Webcam to PangaeaNet activities
which have benefited many young participants from both countries.

It is a great privilege for Pangaea
to be able to deepen the collaboration with MIZY Center
and to have such strong supports
from the staff and volunteers from the center.

Together with MIZY Center,
Pangaea will work to connect children all over the world
to promote cross-cultural understanding
and respect for cultural diversity.
We will seek to bring our mission to greater heights!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea's First "Live" Webcast : Catch the 12 January 2013 Webcam
between Kenya and Tokyo "live" on Ustream!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pangaea will be holding our first "live" web cast
which will feature the Webcam Activity
between our new Pangaea site at the National Museum
of Kenya in Nairobi and Tokyo on 12 January 2013!

The "live" web cast will be available at 4pm (Japan Time) via Ustream
at this URL.

We invite you to join us in watching this activity on the internet
so do mark this date and time down on your diary!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea participates in 2nd Vietnam-Japan Workshop
on Youth Mediated Communication
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>From 6 to 7 January 2013, Yumi and Toshi will be in Vietnam
to participate in the 2nd Vietnam-Japan Workshop
on Youth Mediated Communication
(YMC) held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The workshop brings together researchers
in informatics, agriculture and education who will discuss
how to sustain the YMC Viet Project and support rural development
for the benefit of the farmers in Vietnam.

Since the second round of the project implementation in October,
the YMC Viet Project has been going on according to schedule until now.
The Pangaea team is looking forward to contributing further
to help improve this project.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity Report for December 2012
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The children at Kyoto University
had a good time making Pangaea Playing Cards
from last month on and they have finally completed them!
Children made them in the excitement more than usual
because the day was near the Christmas Day.

December is a busy time at Pangaea. Our homely little office is bustling
with activities as we prepare our plan for the new year.

Next year, Pangaea will start webcam activity in National Museum of Kenya,
Nairobi and our children will get to participate in cultural exchanges
with children from this new site. Then Pangaea's participation in the
Youth Mediated Communication (YMC) Model project is currently running
in Vinh Long Province in Vietnam and will continue into the 2013.

Read on to find out more.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Activity Report for November 2012
+ Pangaea to launch activities in new Kenya site in January 2013
+ YMC Viet Project Special Feature
+ Office Warming Party at the new office!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1090443&l=606f9041af&id=130325790371928

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea to launch activities in new Kenya site in January 2013
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>From 2013, Pangaea will be launching activities at the National Museum
of Kenya in Nairobi. This new Pangaea site at Nairobi, Kenya will start
off with a Webcam Activity with Tokyo on 12 January 2013. It will be an
exciting day for children from both Nairobi and Tokyo!

The National Museum of Kenya is already in the process of promoting
Pangaea's activities to schools in Kenya. We are looking forward to
meeting the Kenyan participants in the first Webcam Activity between
Tokyo and Nairobi, which is an important milestone for Pangaea!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
YMC Viet Project Special Feature
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In our last issue, we updated everyone about the Youth Mediated
Communication (YMC) Viet Project. The project taps on the potential of
Vietnamese children to help parents who are rice farmers in Vinh Long Province,
Vietnam, to address their agricultural challenges. The project leverages on
the use of a special kit developed by Pangaea, and participation of
agriculture experts, and service science researchers.

The recent trip concluded on a high note, proving once again that
the hard work for everyone involved in this project is worth it.
In this issue, we bring you behind the scenes of the YMC Viet Project.
Read more here.

http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2012/11/ymc_viet_projec.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Office Warming Party at the new office!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On 17 November 2012, Pangaea held an Office Warming Party in our cozy,
new office. And we had a very good time with having delicious dinner
and funny talking.
Despite the cold weather, the office was filled with warmth and good cheer
of the team which has made Pangaea's journey a great one so far.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1100894&l=1a4408a417&id=130325790371928

---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ This newsletter is delivered to:
* Registered Pangaea support members
* Registered Pangaea volunteer staffs
* Other Pangaea supporters who are in contact with us
+ To unsubscribe or to change email address:
http://www.pangaean.org/common/english/newsletter/change.html

Published by: Non-Profit Organization PANGAEA
Website: http://www.pangaean.org
Email: info@pangaean.org
Tel: +81-(0)75-741-8877 | Fax: +81-(0)75-741-8876
Zou Bldg. #301, 509 Kyogokucho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8035, Japan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2012 NPO PANGAEA. All Rights Reserved.

]]> There were 15 Vietnamese children participating in the project this time, half the number of participants in the previous project. One of the aims of the present project was to improve the communication between the children and the Japanese experts, an area which was identified as one in need of improvement from the previous project.

Professor Ishida from Kyoto University, Professor Ninomiya from Tokyo University, Professor Ikeda from the Tokyo University of Agriculture, as well as Mie University again lent their expertise and support for the project. The participation of these experts enabled the specialized knowledge and information in agriculture to be shared with the local community through the children.





Four activities have already been carried out in October. The YMC Viet Center is busy with participants sending activity reports from the field. At the Center, a multilingual communication platform developed by Pangaea over a period of seven years with the support of Kyoto University is being used. We use this platform for communication every week with the local staff who do not speak English at all to solve problems in the field.

Pangaea will be celebrating 10 years of its founding next year. We will continue to build on the platforms we have established for children's activities, with the aim of supporting the activities in the community and society at large.

On 7 January next year, a gathering is scheduled for those involved in the project to discuss how to best perpetuate this project. We look forward to everyone's support for this project.

]]> 2012-11-23T09:18:10Z 2012-11-13T07:50:31Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2012:/blog/english/4.1124 2012-11-13T07:50:31Z

]]> The children were divided into 3 groups and visited places such as the Shimogamo Shrine, Imperial Palace and the Kumano Shrine. Take a look at some of the photographs taken by the children!

]]> 2012-10-30T11:25:34Z 2012-10-30T09:03:09Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2012:/blog/english/4.1118 2012-10-30T09:03:09Z

http://www.pangaean.org/Download/UDCK_Pangaea2011.pdf

]]> 2012-09-28T16:11:23Z 2012-09-09T15:47:01Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2012:/blog/english/4.1110 2012-09-09T15:47:01Z

Pangaea trains our volunteers and equips them with the necessary knowledge and skills to help them create an enjoyable environment for our participants.

In September, we conducted two training sessions for our volunteers. The first session was conducted on 2 September. The session was aimed at equipping our new volunteers who will be running the activities at the Kashiwa-no-ha campus (Chiba) with facilitating skills.

Yumi sharing the basics of facilitating with our new volunteers.

]]>

Volunteers getting to know each other in the "interview game". They then had to introduce the person whom they interviewed to everyone else.

The second session was conducted on 8 Sep for existing facilitators in Tokyo to upgrade their skills. It was an opportunity for facilitators to discuss and clarify any questions they might have regarding facilitation. These questions ranged from how to deal with difficult situations during facilitating, to how to better communicate with children. 　It was a fruitful session with many learning points for everyone.

Yumi sharing with the facilitators the importance of communicating Pangaea's golden rule to the children i.e. do not do to others what you do not wish to be done to yourself.

]]> 2012-09-12T08:02:35Z 2012-09-01T07:19:24Z tag:www.pangaean.org,2012:/blog/english/4.1102 2012-09-01T07:19:24Z

Hello everyone, August seemed to have passed quickly and we are now towards...

kyotohq info@pangaean.org 3. Newsletter Hello everyone,

August seemed to have passed quickly and we are now towards the end of summer! We hope everyone has had the opportunity to watch the fireworks and enjoy some quality time with your loved ones.

As the summer vacation comes to an end, Pangaea will be resuming the activities at our Pangaea sites in September. Our participants can look forward to more fun soon.

In this newsletter, we have a few updates to share.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Activity Report for August 2012
+ Recruitment of participants and volunteers for new Chiba location
+ Volunteer of the Year 2011 Award Presentation
+ Pangaea Ring: Reflections of a Singaporean volunteer

]]> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity Report for August 2012
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A webcam activity was held on 28 July connecting Mizy at Seoul, Korea and Mie, Japan.

We have uploaded some pictures from the activity. Check out what fun the children had !

http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2012/08/july_28th_webca_1.html

On the same day, Kyoto University participants gathered to make a village that best represents Kyoto, which they could then introduce to participants in other Pangaea sites. View the children's work of art here!

http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2012/08/impressions_of.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Recruitment of participants and volunteers for new Chiba location
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From 2 Sep 2012, Pangaea activities at the Urban Design Center Kashiwa-no-ha (UDCK) in front of the Kashiwa-no-ha campus in Chiba will begin!

The recruitment drive for participants and volunteers has begun too. For more details, click on the link below.

We look forward to more people joining Pangaea!

http://www.pangaean.org/Download/UDCK_Pangaea2011.pdf

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Volunteer of the Year 2011 Award Presentation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In our last issue, we shared with everyone that the Volunteer of the Year 2011 Award has been awarded to Mr Kohei Kadowaki, known to the staff and children of Pangaea as "Kadoppe". Yumi presented the award to Kadoppe on 25 Aug 2012 at the Pangaea headquarters.

View the photographs of the award presentation here.

http://www.pangaean.org/blog/english/archives/2012/08/volunteer_of_th_1.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pangaea Ring: Reflections of a Singaporean volunteer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The words of Ms Yumiko Mori and her vision for Pangaea resonated with me after I attended her lecture at my university two months ago. How many of us, engrossed in our daily routines of life, would pause to think about what we could do for the world? I thought. But Pangaea's founders, Yumi and Toshi, did just that.

My name is Sheau Huei and I am a Singaporean exchange student in Kyoto. Growing up in multi-ethnic Singapore, I have experienced how cross-cultural understanding built up over the years has contributed to the social cohesion and peace that Singapore enjoys today. Therefore, I can identify with Pangaea's mission of connecting children across cultures and promoting respect for cultural diversity. As I wanted to contribute to this important cause, I started to volunteer for Pangaea.

At Pangaea's activities, the atmosphere was always friendly and encouraging. I was impressed by the creative drawings and animation done by the children within the duration of an activity. It was very motivating to feel the children's excitement as they talked about their art works which would be shown to children in other Pangaea sites across the world, or their anticipation of interacting with other children overseas through the webcam activities.

I had the opportunity to introduce my country to the children at an activity at Kyoto University a month ago. I was asked by my young audience if Singaporean children had alot of homework and how long the school vacation was in Singapore. It occurred to me that Pangaea provided a good respite for these children away from the demands of school. At Pangaea, the children could focus on unleashing their creativity, building bonds and increasing their cultural awareness.

With every step that it takes, Pangaea is nurturing young minds and contributing to a better world. It is my privilege to be able to contribute to this organization. And I hope more will come on board to help further the mission of Pangaea.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ This newsletter is delivered to:
* Registered Pangaea support members
* Registered Pangaea volunteer staffs
* Other Pangaea supporters who are in contact with us

+ To unsubscribe or to change email address:
http://www.pangaean.org/common/english/newsletter/change.html

Published by: Non-Profit Organization PANGAEA

Website: http://www.pangaean.org
Email: info@pangaean.org
Tel: +81-(0)75-741-8877 | Fax: +81-(0)75-741-8876
Shijo Hirano Bldg. #402, 716-1 Shin Kamanzacho, Shimogyo-ku,
Kyoto 600-8471 Japan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2012 NPO PANGAEA. All Rights Reserved.

]]>