Report of Regular Meeting April 2003

Chisato Koriyama, Secretary

The regular meeting in April is "the LT night".
In the bad weather whitch indeed sprinkled the flower of the cherry tree, as we say often that the storm comes when the flower blooms, we had few participants because of sudden defaulters: lonely meeting! We saw Mr. Hiroshi Kawata who had healed his disease: glad meeting!
Presided by Mr. Toshihiko Matsuda, we open at the appointed time: 18:30. After the Y's song, we advocated Y's mottos (five oaths).
Member news introduced: Ms. Matsuko Kobayashi's husband conquered his operation; The parent of Mr. Shigemitsu Shindo is sick.
Mr. Harukuni Suwa, who will be sended as a staff by the Tokyo for the partnership with the Frost Valley YMCA, was introduced.

[Mr. Shun'ichiro Asahane made a speech]
After the dinner, we had the guest speech of Mr. Shun'ichiro Asahane, deputy representative of Japan and Korea area office of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). He talked about "The refugee problem and we". Mr. Kano Yamamoto, former financial general manager of UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), introduced him.
"The basis material about UNHCR" and the magazine "Refugee" were distributed, the video of 15 minutes was screened, we had a opportunity to know the activity of UNHCR sufficiently. He said: "The definition of word "refugee" is wide. The UNHCR relieves refugees who applie to the regulation in the refugee treaty. In Japan, the refugee treaty came into force in 1982 but the number of refugees exceeded 300 finally last year. The magnification of the acceptance frame is expected. " The fund is only the optional donation money and the civilian contribution of the government of every country; he requested us to support. We did a fund (37,200 yen) specially in the regular meeting.
This month, the planned auction wasn't done. We implemented the Bangladesh fund, the smile fund and the least coins fund. We all sang the song of YMCA. The closing chime of the President Ms. Shigemi Sato told un the finish of regular meeting.