Thai and Japanese college student exchange event with children at an orphanage【2020.３】

University students from Japan and Thailand came over to play sports, cook Japanese cuisine and open a “Child Cafeteria”, and play handcraft lacrosse.

I wanted to play sports with children because sports could play the role of a common language even when playing with children from a different country, but apart from that, there were a few things I wanted the children to feel through this event that took place at an orphanage. By working together with university students, making crafts for a sport the children probably are not aware of, and cooking cuisine from a culture they are not accustomed to, the children would be able to interact with a world they are not familiar to. I didn’t want the children to feel that the world is unfair even if they didn’t have parents, even if they had no opportunities. I wanted them to live their glistening, robust, and strong lives, and find their one and special “thing” by interacting with a world that they had never seen.

The children and the university students that took part in the even were able to share a warm, wonderful time together.