STEAMing AHEAD...with DAA
Thanks to funds raised by COLT in the 2018 Bike ride in Europe, we have paid for the venue of our summer Designing Artists Academy (DAA) Art Camp. We are adding A to STEM education and STEAMing ahead.
Every April we do assessments of the homes and are in the middle of compiling the data. We endeavor to collect as much BIG data from all of the 600 homes this year with the summer interns who have arrived and will be with us this summer.
We look into the population by age, the gender breakdown and how many are still supported by the homes after 18 years old..
We ask who is interested in the career assessment tests and mentoring program. If they have part time jobs, aspirations to go on to university and if they have sports or arts programs.
So far, almost none of the homes have Arts programs.
We are using NightZooKeeper in many ways including the drawing element of it. This is digital but a way for the kids to be creative while writing, participating in contests and connecting through the YouMeWe Schools we have set up in Philippines, Ghana and other countries as the children in our homes are multi cultural and this allows them to meet kids online from their other cultures, leave comments.
The NightZooKeeper curriculum we are completing as the new school year starts for other countries but summer quickly approaches us in Japan is around
PRIVACY AND SECURITY
DIGITAL FOOTPRINT & REPUTATION
SELF IMAGE & IDENTITY
CREATIVE CREDIT & COPYRIGHT
RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNICATIONS
INFORMATION LITERACY
CYBERBULLYING & DIGITAL DRAMA
INTERNET SAFETY
While we encourage the children to have Digital PenPals from the other countries, we will continue to teach the curriculum kicking off in June and then each quarter have a Conference Call with all of our Digital Citizens and facilitate conversations with the children about the above subjects which transcend borders, age, race and gender.
We have new volunteers and the interest in NightZooKeeper ebbs and flows depending on the interaction our children have with each other and the volunteers who help us. We want to keep a constant flow of writing and drawing going. We want this to be a way for the kids to interact with each other THROUGHOUT the year and now just when they meet once a year at DAA which they have been doing for a decade now with us.
Please consider helping us send kids living in children's homes in TOKYO to our 10th annual summer arts program. This is a unique, memorable and impactful experience for these kids. They love the camp, the home staff love the camp, and they make memories that last a lifetime. We want to rally our DAA community and reach our funding goal.
日本では、現在約3万人の子供達が児童養護施設に住み、数少ない職員達によって支えられながら暮らしています。彼らの中には、過去の虐待や貧困等からくる複雑な精神的問題を背負い、進学に必要なお金に不足したり、塾などへ通うお金が無く、大学に進学できなかったり職に就けない子供も少なくありません。NPOユーミーウィーは、アート・セラピーを通してこれらの子供達を支えるための夏季アートキャンプを１０年前に始め、毎年４０人の参加者を迎えてきました。是非、募金サイトReadyforを通して、日本の将来となる子供達を支えていただけますでしょうか。宜しくお願いします。
DONATE HERE: https://readyfor.jp/projects/DAA2019
Child Safety Program @ YouMeWe NPO
We decided to create a Child Safety Policy because it’s important for us to know what to do when we come across any situation of Child Abuse, and to take action. So the policy that we created basically asks for details on the case of abuse including information about when it happened, the location and the child's information. All these steps are really important to act upon the incident in a timely manner to make sure the child has a voice.
Background from Global Giving:
Introduction The first Child Safeguarding Standards were launched over 12 years ago by a coalition of relief and development charities that later became known as Keeping Children Safe. Since then there has been a growing recognition that, as well as risks to children from staff and associates, inappropriately designed programmes and poor operational management can also create the possibility of risks to children. Keeping Children Safe represents a commitment by those working in this sector to ensure that their organisations “do no harm” and that they meet the responsibilities set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of experts, Keeping Children Safe developed the Keeping Children Safe Standards, which was supported by a comprehensive Toolkit for implementing the Standards. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, then independent expert for the UN study on violence against children, acknowledged the importance of the Toolkit, stating that: “It offers an excellent opportunity not only for the improvement of the quality and professionalism of those working with children, but most importantly, it will help to achieve a greater impact for children.” Since it was first published, hundreds of organisations and thousands of professionals worldwide have used the Toolkit. The increasing demand for the Toolkit reflects the growing recognition by organisations, which work with, impact on, or come into contact with children, that they have a responsibility to keep them safe. What is child safeguarding? Child safeguarding is the responsibility that organisations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children, that is that they do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse, and that any concerns the organisation has about children’s safety within the communities in which they work, are reported to the appropriate authorities. “Do no harm” is a principle that has been used in the humanitarian sector but can equally be applied to the development field. It refers to organisations’ responsibility to minimise the harm they may be doing inadvertently as a result of their organisational activities.
CHILD SAFETY POLICY
Dear Volunteer,
Thank you for volunteering at YouMeWe NPO today. As we are a group focusing on youth living in group homes, it is important to express and read the following:
The 30,000 children living in Japanese families do so for a variety of reasons. Some are abuse, financial constraints, parental imprisonment or other situations.
For this:
We never ask children any questions about their families.
Even if they ask, we do not give them contact information.
We will never ask for their surnames
Some parents do not know where their children live, so we do not take pictures of their faces.
We do not offer something to the home's superiors or children without confirmation: gifts, food, promises of another visit, or lessons of any kind
We must be aware of our clothes and take a professional attitude. We need to be aware of physical contact. The house demands that the small children not be excessively hugged.
In the safe zone, each homes shakes their hands and touches their shoulders. Do not touch the face, head or other areas.
It is important that volunteers visiting the home stay healthy to avoid the spread of diseases and pathogens to children in the home. If you can not volunteer because of illness, please notify us directly or home if visiting regularly.
If you have a small child at a home asking you to pick up and hug a lot, don't pick the child up. Instead, point the child to the hand holding their hand. This is because the child may be suffering from attachment problems.
Should you witness or hear about any abuse in the home or from a child, please use the attached document to report this immediately.
Link to report: HERE
Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions about the above or anything else, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you
YouMeWe NPO
Colt Technology Sponsors Night Zookeeper Class Subscriptions
Colt Technology Sponsors Night Zookeeper Class Subscriptions
We’re very excited to announce that we are able to offer 140 schools the chance to use Night Zookeeper for the year, free of charge. This fantastic opportunity has been made possible by sponsorship from COLT Technology Services, who provide network and voice services to Europe, North America and Asia.
We hope that this will enable more children to develop a love for learning and develop their literacy skills, especially those for whom it may not have been possible before.
COLT staff will also be engaging with the children on the website: reading work, leaving comments and offering words of encouragement. This will give your students the chance to show off their writing skills but also highlight the impact that the sponsorship has had.
Thank you to RGF Professional Recruitment Japan for supporting KIWL 2019 Bike Ride
Here at RGF Professional Recruitment Japan, we take pride in being the bilingual/global arm of Japan’s leading recruitment company.
The Recruit brand name allows us to attract the best bilingual Japanese candidates on the market and helps us forge long lasting relationships with market leading clients.
Our challenge is to harness the incredible resources we have at our disposal and give our clients access to the best candidates on the market. We want our clients to feel a tangible difference in the level of quality we can deliver compared to our competitors.
From a candidate perspective we want to offer the best advice and choice of career path we possibly can. A large percentage of our successful placements come from referrals from existing candidates who have been happy to recommend a friend or colleague.
We are committed to being the best in our field and living up to the high standards of the Recruit brand.
Matt Nicholls
Managing Director
Digital Citizenship
Dear YouMeWe NPO,
Congratulations on becoming a Common Sense Educator! Your digital badge is attached. Please share it proudly! We've seen educators include it in their email signatures, post it on their websites or blogs, and add it to their social profiles. As a Common Sense Educator, your digital citizenship work acts as inspiration for educators following in your footsteps. Join the Common Sense Educators Facebook group to engage in rich discussion, get answers to questions from your peers (or answer some questions yourself!), and learn about creative ways other educators are implementing school-wide digital citizenship. You can also connect and share with us on Twitter using your hashtag #CSEducator. It's only common sense for us to work together and stay in touch! We're lucky to support passionate educators like you who are dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology, and we are inspired by your work! Cheers, The Common Sense Education team
Volunteering at St.Francis
Some of the kids have not memorized the keyboard keys but are writing out their stories week after week.
Thanking World Family for their generous donation for the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride
Thank you very much to World Family for their donation for the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride in June.
For over 40 years in Japan, Disney English System (DWE) and World Family Club Services have allowed children to naturally learn English at home. Through DWE, children are constantly making a large amount of English input necessary to acquire fluent English. Kids can start using the products and services from the very early days of learning the English language, the easiest and most effective "Golden Age", and start learning English
Thank you $PacCoin
$PAC supports a wide variety of charitable causes. These causes are often self build project by the $PAC Community and in some cases $PAC supports registered charitable causes, if they accept $PAC for donations on their website.
Thank you very much for the generous donation to YouMeWe. We plan to place the $PAC in a shared Masternode - this will allow the amount of coins to grow passively. Once there are 500,000 $PAC associated with YouMeWe then a full Masternode could be operated.
In the shared Masternode, there is a dashboard that can show the kids the concepts of interest and passive income.
The operator of the shared Masternode also makes voting available in the Decentralize Autonomous Organization (DAO) which is a form of decentralized governance - this is a concept that I think would also be interesting for the kids to know more about - its quite interesting to see how this form of governance will play out.
https://charity.paccoin.net/
Thank you very much to Dana for their contribution to the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride in June
Dana Charitable Foundation
The Dana Charitable Foundation was established in 1956 in an effort to embrace and support good citizenship in communities where Dana people live and work. The Foundation is dedicated to addressing current and evolving needs in our communities with emphasis on educating our children and our people; revitalizing neighborhoods; enlightening lives through art and culture; and improving physical and mental well-being.
A big thank you to Four Fox Sake for their contribution to the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride
four fox saké
In Japanese mythology, Inari Okami is the god of Rice, Saké, Swordsmiths and Foxes.
The fox spirits of Inari were entrusted to guard the Torii gates, only allowing the purest of spirits to pass. Four Fox Saké represents this purity and perfection.
Thank you to Pfizer for their generous contribution for the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride
Our Purpose / Pfizer Corporate Responsibility Program Bridging The Gap To Access
Pfizer's corporate responsibility programs are designed to help strengthen global public-health systems. Our Pfizer CSR report explains how we combine philanthropic methods with novel approaches to facilitate access to medicines for underserved communities around the world.
https://www.pfizer.com/purpose/responsibility
A big thank you to Robert Half for their contribution to the KIWL 2019 Bike Ride
Recruitment specialists and employment services
As a leading recruitment agency in Japan, Robert Half connects highly skilled candidates with employers in temporary and permanent positions, for a variety of fields including accounting, finance, financial services and technology. Whether you're looking for your next career opportunity or looking to hire new talent, Robert Half's recruitment services can help you.
Thanking Boyd & Moore for their contribution to the KIWL 2019 charity bike ride
It’s all about the right people
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Those who fit the culture and values of the organization. Those who are engaged in the business through thick or thin. Those who perform at the highest levels. Those who ultimately determine whether an enterprise thrives or whether it simply survives.
But finding and attracting the right talent is hard.
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Through valuable insights, thorough research and thoughtful consulting, we help organizations identify and connect with the people they need, reliably and hassle-free.
KIWL Charity Ride/BBQ
Thank you to Anthony Faulkner for organizing the KIWL Charity Motorcycle Ride/BBQ this weekend in Yamanashi.
They raised well over 100,000 JPY. A special thank you to John Gavin and his team who provided the BBQ venue and organized the BBQ. Also a big thank you to Frank Misura who helped make the day a big success.
Great weekend walk around the Palace
We had a wonderful weekend with the KIWL Palace Walk/Run. Many of our corporate sponsors joined and helped raise over 500,000 JPY for our Digital Citizens training.
Thank you to Japan Travel for your generous Donation
Japan Travel is the leading resource for Japan travel information and the primary destination for visitors planning and traveling to Japan.
A very big thank you to Eire Systems for their support of the KIWL 2019 June Bike Ride
The EIRE Systems Story
The EIRE Systems Story began with a business partnership between two IT consultants, Matthew Connolly and Paul Timmons, who had a few things in common. Both are originally from Dublin, Ireland and they each first came to Japan as graduates to work at major Japanese technology companies; more importantly they also shared a common interest in the rapidly developing information technology sector and a common goal to establish a company of their own to provide better IT Solutions to the increasingly internationalized Japan market.
Matthew and Paul continued to develop their own professional skills and quickly established themselves as leading independent IT Project Management Consultants, mostly for the Financial Services industry. As EIRE Systems has grown, the company has been very successful in winning and consistently delivering on increasingly more complex and high-profile projects, as a result the business has expanded to provide a wider range of IT Support, Project Management, Consulting and Outsourcing Services to Multinational and internationalized corporate clients across various industries and business sectors.
EIRE Systems’ growth has been mostly organic, and since its inception has expanded to 200 professionals across four office locations including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, with proven ability to deliver throughout the Asia Pacific region. The common goals that lead to the creation of EIRE Systems remain the same today as we continue to strive to grow our business to better meet our clients’ requirements and to provide ongoing opportunities and career development for our employees.
Thanking Kojima Law Offices for their generous support
With over 35 years of experience, the professionals at Kojima Law Firm are experts in Japanese and international law, they take care of all of the steps involved in the legal process, and their services go above and beyond any other standard Japanese legal help.
To further prove their support of bridging the gap between international and Japanese entities, they have chosen to sponsor the KIWL (Knights In White Lycra), a group of international individuals in Japan who “get fit and give back” to different charity organizations.