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Be a true pen-pal

By on April 4, 2008

Before the advent of the Playstation and Wii, Santa had children overjoyed with just a bike, a book, and a Christmas stocking. Somewhere between a tangerine and a walnut, you might have been lucky enough to pull out a pocketbook of amazing facts.

One fact my tiny mind never could quite grasp was, Did you know… there are One Million spiders per acre? Where were they all! My brother and I searched high and low, but we always came up short.

Well, here’s another mind-boggler: Did you know that in every square mile of Tokyo there are an average of 180,000 unused pens, pencils and crayons? The fact that this figure is a complete fabrication should not distract you from pondering the point: these pens, these pencils are crying out for use in places where nobody can afford them. Girls yearning to write, boys hoping to draw, desperately use charcoal sticks or homemade ink; would-be authors and painters censored by poverty. NGOs do their best, but when food, shelter and other practical necessities come first, “luxuries” like pens and pencils, and abstract concepts such as “art” come last. However, through the wonderful work of the Chi-ki Children’s Charity, you can help with the aid of a simple cardboard collection box and your unused materials, perhaps transforming the orphans of Laos into the Miros, Shakespeares or Sosekis of the future.

How You can Help

Fingertip search of offices and schools—the worst offenders.
Teachers and Students – look in your drawers. Clear the pencil graveyard before you.
Workers – search the desk of forgotten biros. Don’t let them dry up.
Kids – see if your class can collect the most of all.
Parents – scour the house during your spring-cleaning—waste not, want not.
Drop-box Appeal Organize a drop-box at school or at your office. Collect pens, pencils and other reusable materials gathering dust.

Drop-box Appeal 

Organize a drop-box at school or at your office. Collect pens, pencils and other reusable materials gathering dust.

At the end of June the boxes will be collected by Chi-ki Japan. Participating schools include ABC International, Seisen, and American School in Japan.

Chi-ki distributes the gifts and in the year 2047, a Laotian novelist dedicates their Nobel Prize for Literature to YOU ALL.

Chi-ki Childrens Charity

Sylvia Charczuk founded the charity after a trip to Laos in 2003. Her affection for the villagers of Ban Kiukacham led her to promise help—and “adopt” 3000 children in the process. Selling paintings in Tokyo couldn’t fund all of this, so the charity was made a full-time venture on her return to Canada. The mission statement is bold:

Chi-ki aims to provide children with the opportunity to accomplish their dreams and attain their higher purpose, while enriching their lives by funding social programs that include education, economic development, health awareness, agriculture and basic sanitation. Funds are used to provide education, relieve poverty and improve the quality of life for all underprivileged children around the world. With the help of corporate and private sponsors, The Chi-Ki Children’s Charity can maintain its integrity and commitment to paving a positive and promising future for generations to come.

What does Chi-ki mean? Chi stands for energy in Chinese. Ki stands for energy and light in Japanese. Chi comes from children. Ki comes from kids, and we are all a little CHIKI!

Why did you choose Laos?  It is landlocked. Don’t you wish you had started a charity somewhere with a beach attached? Not at all. Laos is where help was needed and I felt I could do something—I wouldn’t trade the beaches for the kids—no way!

How is all this connected with us in Tokyo? Japan is already involved in a number of charitable undertakings in Laos and the fact that 100 yen in Japan is worth 10 000 yen in Laos means that raising funds in Japan converts to a whole lot more in Laos. Also we hold regular events in Tokyo at East Side Story and PMP involving local acts and musicians—these events are a great way for Tokyoites to enjoy and evening out and support a very worth cause at the same time.

Why are you asking for pens and pencils? Education is something we strongly believe in for children, and Laos has the lowest literacy rate in Southeast Asia, so if we can provide the children with pens and pencils, it would help ease the cost of school materials, while helping to reuse and recycle older materials that children in richer countries don’t use.

I have no spare pencils but plenty of spare cash. How do I donate money? If you would like to donate, please send a check, pay on the Internet via Paypal or transfer the funds from your bank account. All the information on how to make a cash donation can easily be found on our website: www.chi-ki.org. Please take a moment to have a look!

Everyone hears scandals of big NGO staff quaffing champagne in 5-star hotels. How do I know my hard-earned yen is going where it is supposed to? You can easily follow our work, and tangibly see the results of your donation. Chi-ki is a small and intimate NGO. We take children’s education and lives seriously, live modestly and find the best possible ways of making the money go directly towards the betterment/enrichment of children’s lives. It’s our sole priority.

You’re back in Japan in May. What do you have planned? We plan to hold a fundraiser and book launch of Chi-ki Children’s Charity, and raise as much funds as possible for the children’s school materials, tuition and uniforms. We also hope to build a well for them, to ensure clean drinking water is readily available, and we plan to build a small hospital.

Why Laos?

From 1964 through 1973, Laos endured one of history’s heaviest bombing campaigns. In order to cut supply lines to the Vietcong in Cambodia and Vietnam, the US conducted 580,000 bombing runs—that’s one every nine minutes for 10 years. It is estimated that over 2 million tons of ordnance was unloaded on the countryside, double the amount dropped on Nazi Germany in World War II.

Cluster bombs, nicknamed “bombies” were the weapon of choice, used to penetrate the jungle canopy and cover vast amounts of ground. The bombing runs were designed to wipe out convoys or enemy troops beneath the trees. Of the 80 million dropped, 10% to 30% did not explode, leaving between 8 and 24 million UXO (unexploded ordinances) to contaminate 15 of Laos’ 18 provinces.

Children seem to find “bombies” irresistible, especially the BLU-24/B type kids call this the “orange” after its spherical shape. The Laotian government’s bomb cleanup agency, UXO Lao, is trying to teach kids to stay away from unexploded bombs, no matter how colorful. However, it can be a tough sell says UXO Lao spokesman Bounpheng Sisavath: “It looks like food, an orange or an apple. They play; it explodes,” he says.

In one case, three Laotian kids, aged 10 to 12, picked up a BLU-26 submunition and tried to crack it open to use the pellets inside in their slingshots. Their prying detonated the bomblet and sent the pellets ripping into their frail bodies killing all three instantly. These types of stories occur 2 to 3 times per week.

While poor before the Vietnam War, the presence of unexploded cluster bomblets and other ordnance, will continue to limit economic development in Laos. The stats make for grim reading:

Life expectancy in Laos = 54.5 years; Illiteracy rate of over 15s in Laos = 33.6%; Average annual income in Laos = $310 (compared to $37,600 in the US); Deaths per 1000 births in Laos = 87 (compared to seven in the US).

Despite their tumultuous past, Laotian people remain peaceful, tolerant, and devout Buddhists. The villages are very poor; they use primitive medical practices, and the children work everyday with open sores, bloody noses, and skin ulcers.

Chi-ki’s goal is to aid them with education, economic development, health and hygiene, agriculture and basic sanitation, while allowing them to remain self-sufficient. 

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