By Andy Anderson | Project Leader
TAMF Board Meeting - The TAMF board met in Tokyo on November 5th to review 2016 programs and plan 2017 programs. We reviewed requests from organizations still helping with Tohoku recovery and made decisions on which to support in 2017. Please see the "TAMF 2016 - 2017 Activities" booklet attached to this report to find out more about the projects we work on together.
TAMF Conference - Our first TAMF Conference was successfully held at Ishinomaki Senshu University (ISU) on November 8th. TAMF family organizations made great speeches about their activities and provided information for the booklet. We are very fortunate tto work with these wonderful people. Thank you all!
Kama Elementary School Taylor Anderson Reading Corner Dedication - We were very pleased to have the 10th Taylor Anderson Reading Corner (Taylor Bunko) dedication ceremony at Kama Elementary School (ES) in Ishinomaki. Kama ES lost many students in the tsunami. We provided bookshelves made by Endo-san (who has made bookshelves for all ten) and the students gave us a warm song and a nice speech by one of the student representatives. We also gave the school book coupons so they will be able to purchase their choice of books. We are very fortunate that the vice pincipal who was previously at Watanoha Elementary School (which has a Taylor Bunko) requested a Taylor Bunko. We also were able to see the garden where students planted flowers TAMF provided for Big Up Ishinomaki to oranize the planting with the students .
There is a TBS (Sendai TV Station) story link below about the Kama ES Taylor Bunko dedication ceremony. The girl student says, "I'm so glad to meet Taylor-sensei's parents and want to learn more about Taylor-sensei.". The boy student says, "I want to read many books and use them for my studying and pleasure." The students were very excited and we hope they enjoy their new Taylor Bunko!
The Ishinomaki Kahoku News paper pictures include the 10th Taylor bunko dedication ceremony at Kama ES and Taylor readers at Mangokuura ES (explained below). A 6th grader from Kama ES in the story said, "It is difficult to study English, but I want to learn more English as a way to touch other cultures of various countries and to interact with people. I think that's what Taylor wants."
Taylor English Speech Competition Trophy Presentation - We presented the Endo-san made Taylor trophy to the 9th grade boy who won the Ishinomaki English Speech Contest. He repeated his memorized speech in bold English in front of two principals and the Ishinomaki Board of Education Superintendent! We were all impressed with his story of overcoming hardships to become the student he wanted to be.
Taylor Readers Hour at Mangokuura Elementary School - Soyokaze and E-kids had a special reading hour for 2nd graders at Mangokuura Elementary School. The volunteers set up four reading stations at each corner of the gym and the 60 2nd graders ran from one to the other to experience all four. The student in the 2nd news story link below says "It's my first time to listen to children's books in English, so I'm very happy!" Everyone was happy!
Please visit our Facebook page regularly as we continue to report on our projects! Please see the link below..
#GivingTuesday on November 29th- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match up to $1 million in donations on GlobalGiving for #GivingTuesday! This means there will be an unprecedented 50% match with $500,000 in matching funds! This is the most matching funds GlobalGiving has ever had in one day to match more donations than ever before! To take advantage of this generous match please use the "donate" button at the bottom of this report. We do not expect the Japan Match program in 2017 so this may be the best opportunity to have your donation matched.
GlobalGiving UK Christmas Giving Campaign: 50% match - If you miss #GivingTuesday please conside giving through Global Giving UK which has a 50% match program through 12/31. Please use this link http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/help-students-families-and-schools-recover/.
Thank You! - We can't thank you enough for the donations you have made and will continue to report progress on these projects which could not happen without your generous support.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
