This Global Career Course lecture was held for 9th, 10th, and 12th grade students separately.
The lecturer, we invited this time was Yu Yamakami, who is doing research and development in order to spread the “Ecological Sanitation System” in Kenya.
“I love toilets.” She said, attracting the students attention from the beginning.
“There are four things that I want to tell you all today. One, have the courage to talk about your dreams. Two, it is a good thing to change your dreams as you grow. Three, do your best to capitalize on the next dream. And four, dreams are not your occupation but it is what you want to do through your profession.” She started her lecture by clearly stating the main points.
“My dream is to make a world where people can use toilets safely at any time.” She followed her words with an explanation of her own dream.
Ms. Yamakami’s tone showed her passion for toilets as she went on. Since “toilets” do not usually appear in the topics of daily conversations, the students curiosity began to raise as she spoke..
In the slums of Kenya where Ms. Yamakami is currently working, there are no toilet facilities in many homes. She asked what students thought people do instead.
“I will now throw the toilet.” Ms. Yamakami said and started to throw plastic bags that are as small as the palm of the hand from the box she brought with her.
The students received them with surprise and screams.
“Well, I sad “toilets”, but they are actually tea from Kenya. Do not worry.” when she explained the trick, a laugh of relief spread out around the room very quickly.
“What I threw now is tea, but in slums the contents of bags like this human waste. People throw them outdoors like I just did. This is called a “Flying Toilet”, and this has become a serious health and environmental issue”.
Ms. Yamakami told the students about this dumping human waste which has been contaminating the living environments and it is causing a lot of children to become sick, and even lose their lives.
In order to solve this problem, she is continuing her work to make her dream come true; creating and spreading the use of “Ecological Sanitation System” which can be used even in places with little or no infrastructure.
The achievement of her initiatives was recognized as she won the Nikkei Woman of the Year in 2014. However, she said “I had lots of dreams and gave many of them up at a young age. It was not all smooth sailing.”
During the time between primary school and university, she tried her best and also changed her dreams to becoming an interpreter or an architect. However, she broke down and concluded to herself that they were not her true dreams. Moreover, even though she entered a company which involved itself with creating the toilet she dreamed of, she was assigned to work as a system engineer for factory management. She considered changing her career.
Surprisingly, she was able have fun with it and noticed a new charm of toilets. Through this, she learned more about toilets, thought about troubles and various possibilities to creating a new type of toilet, and came up with her real dream of “making a world where everyone can use the toilet anytime anywhere.”
“I will not hesitate to take any job or work in any capacity to make my dream come true.” She researched various types of skills and found research and development to be the most useful place at her current company. She immediately took action to change to that department.
“In order to move, I looked back at what I had done until then and presented the skills I have aggressively. Study of architecture helped in designing the toilet. Even the experience I got as a systems engineer, which I did not want to learn also became one of my strengths “.
Her hard work paid off, and Ms. Yamakami was able to get a research position in Kenya, and now is dedicating her work to fulfilling her dream.
“Facing challenges and making the best effort to what you are working on at every moment will help you gain an element which you will need in order to achieve your dream even if it takes 10 years. I even believe things you think are useless can help you fulfill your dream. Please do your best all the time and chase your dreams. ”
The message of Ms. Yamakami, who never stopped doing her best to chase her future, was full of confidence and passion, and inspired the students.
When the lecture was over, a lot of students gathered around Ms. Yamakami and asked questions not only about Kenya and ｔｈｅ ｔｏｉｌｅｔ but about dreams; “How can my dream come true?”, “How should I find my own dream?” were examples of the questions.
In this lecture, students learned the importance of having a dream and doing their best to make it to come true. They also learned that obtaining the courage to pursue individual dreams is very important.
