A Japanese civil advocacy group is seeking donations in exchange for chocolate packed in cans featuring images drawn by children from war-ravaged Iraq and Syria.
The "charitable donations" campaign is led by Minoru Kamata, 70, a doctor from Chino and a member of the Japan Iraq Medical Network (JIM-NET).
The annual charity drive, to be held from autumn through winter, started Nov. 15.
The group has prepared 150,000 cans this season, to be sold at 550 yen ($4.83) per can, hoping to raise 50 million yen for health-care assistance.
JIM-NET is a network of seven groups, including the Japan Chernobyl Foundation.
It was formed in 2004 following the outbreak of the Iraq War the previous year.
Kamata and his colleagues shared a passion for extending a helping hand to war's most vulnerable groups. “Children and women are among the first to sustain damage in a war, so I wanted to work to help children,” Kamata said, recalling the time.
JIM-NET’s main activity is sending medicine to hospitals in Iraq. With a local office in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, the group also provides assistance to Iraqis and Syrian refugee children with cancer, and helps with childbirths at a refugee camp, among other activities.
The group started the chocolate donation campaign in 2006 in the hope of bolstering its financial base. It enlisted the help of Rokkatei Confectionery Co., a renowned maker in Hokkaido, for the procurement of chocolate products, while the cans are made in Saitama Prefecture.
“Rokkatei only takes the price of the raw materials,” Kamata said. “That means about 350 yen of the unit price of 550 yen can be spent on medicines every year.”
Kamata estimates that a successful drive this year could bring in about 50 million yen in donations.
“Chocolate makes both the donor and the recipient happier,” Kamata said. “The manufacturer is cooperative. Our campaign is still continuing perhaps because we have created these ties that make everybody a bit happier.”
This year's cans feature images of dandelions painted by Iraqi and Syrian children. Such flowers were found in bloom amid rubble after a children’s hospital in northern Iraq's Mosul was destroyed by Islamic State militant group.
Ahead of the opening of this year's campaign, JIM-NET held a kick-off meeting on Nov. 9 in Tokyo.
Donations can be given in amounts of 2,200 yen for a set of four cans.
Apart from the chocolate donations, Kamata is also seeking assistance for 4-year-old Sidrah, a Syrian refugee girl who fled to Iraq. He said about 200,000 yen will be needed to perform necessary heart surgery on the girl.
Please call 03-6228-0746 at JIM-NET (https://www.jim-net.org/), which has offices in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, for inquiries about the chocolate donations and assistance for Sidrah.
By Takaaki Yorimitsu
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