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Selection Process

 The Sakai Peace Contribution Award screening committee met on 13rd March and 26th June, 2014 to discuss the nominations and select the winners and the award recipients were selected as listed below.

Judging System

 The committee sent out a request for nominations from both domestic and overseas intellectuals, and academic institutions (390 within Japan and 110 from overseas) and the committee members.
 The award recipients were selected from the list of nominees proposed by the screening committee, and the final judge was made by the city.

Process

2013

June.

Nomination request forms distributed to the referees (500 send-outs/Japan and overseas)

31 October.

Deadline for nominations (23 nominations received)
Detailed report on the nominees prepared

2014

13 March.

First screening committee meeting held

26 June.

Second screening committee meeting held

8 August.

Award recipients selected (2 Group)

Composition of Referees

Category

Number of Nominations Requested

Number of Nominations Collected

Japan

Individuals

230

390

19

Research Institutions

60

1

Universities

60

0

Intermediate NGOs

40

2

Overseas

Research Institutions

40

110

0

Miscellaneous Organisations

30

0

Universities

20

0

Embassies in Japan

20

1

Total

500

23

Composition of Candidates

Individuals

Groups

Total

Japan

4

13

15

Overseas

5

1

9

Total

9

14

24

Introduction of the Award Recipients

Toyonaka International Friendship Association

With girls living in the, “Happy Girls Home” orphanage in Nepal
Ms. Fusa Kasai, Representative, standing on the left

Established: November 1985
Location: Toyonaka City, Osaka
Representative: Ms. Fusa Kasai

Profile

 The Toyonaka International Friendship Association (hereafter, TIFA) was established mainly by women living in Osaka’s Toyonaka City to work for community-based multicultural coexistence in our society.
 What started out as support for foreign students and their families, families who came to Japan for work, and foreign women who married Japanese men has developed into a broad range of intercultural exchange and support activities.
 TIFA gives foreign residents community-based support in daily life through offering Japanese classes, help with finding daily necessities, and escorts during accommodation hunting or at hospitals. It also helps children to adapt to their daycare centers, nursery schools, and elementary schools.
 In addition, along with supporting foreign residents’ independence, TIFA’s activities have been expanded to provide foreign residents with opportunities to share their own culture and talk about their home countries, or teach international understanding at elementary schools and junior high schools, etc. The organization also helps them to find jobs.
 In 1993, based on the concept of solving global issues by cooperating with people around the world, TIFA started a project to support the independence of rural women and children in Sindhuli District, Nepal.
 In June 2000, TIFA obtained NPO certification to help it further its activities. It is now working to develop cordial intercultural exchange and cooperation both domestically and internationally.

Reasons for Selection

 Even as the society in which we live becomes dramatically more multicultural and multiethnic, many foreign residents still face various difficulties caused by different languages, cultures and customs.
 Against this background, TIFA has given community-based and detailed support to individual foreign residents, based on the idea that individual-level intercultural exchange contributes to the realization of a peaceful society where everyone can live safely. We consider TIFA worthy of praise for its activities which contribute greatly towards the realization of multiethnic and multicultural coexistence.

Terra Renaissance

Preparing their new project in the Republic of Burundi
(Mr. Shingo Ogawa, President, sitting in the front row,
and Mr. Masaya Onimaru, Founder, standing in the center)

Established: October 31, 2001
Location: Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City
President: Mr. Shingo Ogawa

Profile

 In Cambodia, a large amount of landmines were placed during the country’s civil wars. Even long after the wars, many landmines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs) still remain. Cambodia aimed to achieve “Zero Victims” caused by landmines or other weapons by 2012, but there are still hundreds of victims every year. It is a serious problem threatening the lives of Cambodians.
 When Mr. Masaya Onimaru, the founder of Terra Renaissance, visited Cambodia and learned about the landmine problem, he thought, “telling people about this is something I can do” and started giving lectures in Japan.
 In 2001, he established Terra Renaissance with the goal of contributing to the realization of a society where everyone can live safely. Since then, Terra Renaissance has supported landmine removal efforts in northwestern Cambodia and helped landmine victims and former child-soldiers support themselves through work training. Terra Renaissance has also supported children’s education in the region by constructing elementary schools.
 Its activities have expanded to Laos, Uganda, Congo and Burundi to help with the rehabilitation of former child-soldiers and tackling small-arms problem in conflict areas. Since 2011, Terra Renaissance has also been working to help victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake to rebuild their lives.

Reasons for Selection

 Even now, the lives and dignity of many people around the world are threatened by landmines, wars and conflict, and by the poverty and famine they cause.
 Terra Renaissance has worked hard to provide detailed assistance to individuals injured and facing awful circumstances as a result of conflict and disaster, and to create environments where the people and regions they support can fulfil their potential.
 We find that Terra Renaissance is worthy of praise for its great contribution towards the realization of a society where individuals’ rights and dignity are guaranteed, and all are given the opportunity to prove themselves.

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