NEWS

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, Chika Suzuki (College of Asia Pacific Studies, third-year student) took the stage at the Social Outreach Seminar to give a lecture on her support activities in Uganda.

From 2023 to 2024, Suzuki participated in an internship with the certified NPO Terra Renaissance, spending about a year in Uganda, where she was mainly involved in self-sufficiency support activities through agriculture. Uganda remains under an unstable political and economic environment, making sustainable self-sufficiency support for local residents, especially the poor, crucial. Suzuki shared that her motivation to go to such a different environment from Japan was driven by her desire to understand what she could do to confront the issues faced by African countries and their impact on her own lifestyle.

While in Uganda, she focused on transforming the mindset and actions of the local residents from being recipients of food aid to becoming food producers. She developed irrigation infrastructure for farming, organized agricultural training sessions with invited experts, and played a key role in building the organizational framework to support these activities.. Despite facing various difficulties, she succeeded in improving the livelihoods of local residents through the sale of harvested crops.

Through her activities, Suzuki commented that she learned that what might be considered rational in Japan isn't always correct and that everyone has the power to create peace. The lecture sparked a lively Q&A session with students, who discussed involvement in peace activities and their future endeavors.

APU will continue to hold Social Outreach Seminars, inviting lecturers with diverse insights to assist students' learning and research. Detailed information will be available on APU's official website and event page.