A Warm Welcome and a Shared Commitment to Peace
– Students Working Together for Palestinian Schools, Cambodian Schools, and Refugee Women –
This project, selected for support under MEXT’s EDU-Port Japan Support Project, brings together high school students from Japan and Taiwan to engage in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through dialogue and exchange.
It reflects MEXT’s goal of fostering learners who can help build a sustainable society, while also embodying the spirit of the UNESCO Constitution, which calls for “the defenses of peace” to be built in the minds of people.
Upon arriving in Taiwan, the students from Ichimura High School were warmly welcomed by their Taiwanese partners. From the very beginning of the visit, students shared meaningful exchanges grounded in their joint efforts to support Palestinian schools, Cambodian schools, and fair-trade initiatives for Syrian and Palestinian refugee women.
What had been developed through online learning and communication grew even deeper through meeting face to face.
During the welcome exchange, students greeted one another warmly across differences in language and nationality. They met not simply as visitors and hosts, but as partners learning together, thinking together, and taking action together in response to global challenges.
Their respectful conversations and shared commitment to peace reflected the values of international understanding that UNESCO has long emphasized.
This experience also demonstrates the value of ESD as inquiry-based learning. Students do not only learn about global issues; they deepen their understanding through dialogue, reflect on different perspectives, and connect learning with real action. Through such experiences, they begin to recognize that their own choices and efforts can contribute to others and to society.
This can help nurture a sense of self-worth, personal contribution, and well-being.
Our school will continue to value dialogue and exchange as important pathways for learning, and to support students in becoming responsible contributors to a peaceful and sustainable society.