For the senior students who finished school in January, this lecture was the last class of this course. After the course, they were encouraged to write comments on post-it notes and stick them to a poster paper.
This time, Ms. Ariko Toda, who worked with the United Nation Volunteers and the International Fund for Agricultural Development came as an instructor. She now addresses in poverty and international cooperation as a JICA specialist. She spoke about how she became involved in such work, what she has felt during these experiences and about the current situation of “rural development.”
She started by saying “so far, I have been impressed with a lot of my encounters and the wide variety of ideas. Let me talk about what I have been through in my life till the present.” The gathered students were drawn in by her calm voice, straight words, and her interesting story from the beginning of the lecture.
Ms. Toda watched a movie, “Lawrence of Arabia,” when she was in high school and since then she has been interested in international issues. From the scenery in the movie she developed an interest in the Middle East, notably the Palestinian issue. The more she learned, the stronger her feelings grew. “In the future, I want to do things which could save the people who suffer from poverty.” She said.
She spoke about an incident when she was a university student. She learned about the concept of “structural violence” from a lecture on the “definition of peace” by peace scholar Dr. Johan Galtung, which said that the relationship between developing countries and developed countries has, overall, resulted in more poverty. After that she realized that she was also involved it. From that shock, she strongly thought about if there was anything she could do herself to help the situation.
Right after she started working at a community service organization, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake hit. After this, Ms. Toda studied about community development at the University of Toronto, learning things such as how the supporting side and supported side are related and how international cooperation should be in real life.
“The ‘present me’ is made by the accumulation of little things. The important thing is to cherish every single feeling in ourselves in each moment.” Ms. Toda chose “rural development” as the “highest priority problem to be solved” in poverty. This came from remembering and valuing the feelings she felt in high school being further developed by her experiences.
She thought she would like to help rural communities which are closely related to one of the essential needs of humanity; “food”. She then joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), engaging in projects focused on rural development. By listening to the stories of each of three different parties, “government” “aid organizations” and “the teams that run the projects” she coordinated efforts to develop rural areas.
Showing pictures of Mongolia and Malawi, the places where Ms. Toda was in charge, she introduced data on world wide “rural” situations. She showed information on things such as agricultural economic contribution and the agriculture budget in each country. With her easy-to-understand explanation, the students seemed to understand the current situation and the importance of rural areas.
“The world is connected as one, and will move when you move. If you change your actions by little, that can become a force to change the world. Even if 99% is wasted, there is still a 1% chance to move the world in a better direction. Bet on that” She expressed this idea at the end of the lecture.
The students happily received Ms. Toda’s message of believing in your own senses.
Many messages were written on to the heart-shaped post-it notes such as “I learned that to cherish my own feelings is very important,” “first of all, I would like to start to volunteer in my neighborhood” “I want to remember that my small actions can grow into big things.”
