Kiana Pigao and seven other Junior Ambassadors from Hawai‘i left for Japan Thursday afternoon. “Kiana was very excited,” Joy Pigao said in an e-mail. “Despite the typhoon which hit Okinawa and is on its way to the island of Kyushu,
Kiana Pigao and seven other Junior Ambassadors from Hawai‘i left for Japan Thursday afternoon.
“Kiana was very excited,” Joy Pigao said in an e-mail. “Despite the typhoon which hit Okinawa and is on its way to the island of Kyushu, the bad weather has not dampened the spirits of any of these individuals.”
Kiana, a student at the Elsie H. Wilcox Elementary School, was one of eight 11-year-old students selected by the Japan-America Society of Hawai‘i to attend the 19th Asian-Pacific Children’s Convention in Fukuoka, Japan.
The four girls and four boys selected will take part in the two-week convention from Thursday to July 27.
In a letter from the JASH to Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan Baptiste, the APCC was created by the Fukuoka Junior Chamber as part of the Asian-Pacific Exhibition, an event celebrating Fukuoka City’s 100th anniversary in 1989.
The purpose of the APCC is to promote international cooperation between children so they will become adults with a strong social responsibility for the world, the letter continues.
According to the APCC Web site, children from more than 40 Asian-Pacific regions and countries are invited to Fukuoka for the two-week international exchange event.
During this time, the students take part in a variety of activities including home-stays with Japanese host families and school visits with the intent of exposing the children to other cultures and promote feelings of mutual understanding, the Web site states.
APCC aims to tear down barriers of prejudice and racism through these cultural understanding, and hopes that by promoting international understanding among young people around the world, they will mature to become “Global Citizens” in the 21st Century.
Since 1989, more than 6,000 Junior Ambassadors have traveled to Fukuoka, and the APCC alumni have formed an organization known as The Bridge Club with Fukuoka as the focal point of its activities.
Pigao’s agenda includes participating in a Global Exchange Camp during the first week of the conference, the letter to Baptiste said.
She will be interacting with 350 children from the different countries participating.
Her second week will be spent with a Japanese home-stay family.
The JASH is a non-profit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization whose mission is to promote understanding and friendship between the peoples of Japan and the United States through the special and unique perspective of Hawai‘i.
JASH was founded by a group of visionary leaders in 1976, and has almost 1,200 members and offers about 50 educational programs each year for its membership and the community.
JASH said Kiana is the only Junior Ambassador from Kaua‘i. The other seven are from O‘ahu.
