|
TOKYO, 11th March 2005 :The countdown is on for the official
opening of EXPO 2005, in Aichi, Japan, and the chance for
Habitat to share its vision of a world without poverty housing
with millions of people from Japan and around the world.
A sizable, interactive Habitat display, featuring scale models
of a slum house and a Habitat house, has been built on a high-traffic
part of the EXPO Citizen's Pavilion open
area. The booth explains how Habitat tackles poverty housing,
and features a section
on Habitat's rebuilding efforts in tsunami-stricken areas.
Final fitting out is due to take place in the coming days,
in time for some 25,000 journalists who are expected to attend
the EXPO Press Day on 18th March, one week prior to the public
launch.
The thrust of the Habitat display is to show the misery of
poverty housing and how Habitat -- and its hundreds of thousands
of supporters and volunteers -- transforms
lives by providing proper shelter.
A specific objective will be to raise awareness of poverty
housing issues among
visitors, most of whom are expected to be from Japan, and
also to mobilize Japanese
interest in supporting Habitat's activities.
Habitat's four-unit booth design combines the look of the
current logo with the
colorings of the new logo and features models, audio-visual
displays and interactive events.
The design and building has been organized local volunteers
from the Japan Baptist Mission, which is supporting Habitat's
display. The Japan Baptist Missionaries or Southern Baptists
have been in Japan for 100 years. Their volunteers will be
on hand
to man the display through the six months that EXPO is open.
Ready
for fitting out: the four-unit Habitat booth for EXPO
2005 will encourage visitors to join the fight to
eliminate poverty housing |
The first unit portrays the misery of families who live in
poverty housing round the world. The centerpiece is a model
of a mud-and-wattle house that a family in Sri Lanka has to
call home.
The Habitat solution is featured in the second unit, which
explains how Habitat works. The centerpiece here is a one-tenth
scale model of a multi-family Habitat home built in South
Korea.
Both the Sri Lankan and Korean model homes are the product
of 14- and 15-year old
students from the Christian Academy of Japan, in Tokyo. They
built the houses during
school art and woodcraft classes.
Visitors to the third unit have a chance to try making real
bricks, similar to those used
insome Habitat houses. Two miniature brick-making machines
provide for a hands-on
mini-work experience of life on a Habitat build site.
The final section of the display looks at Habitat's partnerships
and supporters round
the world. Visitors will be encouraged to sign up for donations
and volunteering.“It's a
powerful display that highlights Habitat vision of a world
where everyone has a decent
place to live,” said Tetsuo Nakajima, chairman of HFH
Japan.
“We are particularly looking forward to exposing millions
of people from Japan and elsewhere in Asia to the reality
of the Habitat mission. And we hope many of them will
leave fired up to support our work either in Japan or overseas.”
Added Ron Capps, the Baptists' Pac Rim Japan mobilization
co-ordinator, "During the six months of EXPO, our volunteers
also have a great opportunity to share Habitat's core values
of Christian love and faith in action with the guests. It
is our joy to work with
Habitat and help involve all interested people in 'building
houses and building hope'.
This is the motto Habitat is known by: it fits in well with
the EXPO theme of promoting
global citizens and global harmony."
 |
 |
A
model home: Teenage students from Tokyo's Christian Academy
in Japan with the one-tenth scale
model of a multi-unit Habitat house built in Korea
The organizers of EXPO expect up to 15 million people to visit
this enormous
“World's Fair” during its six-month run from 25th
March to 25th September.
A new international airport,and Japan's first magnetically
levitated or maglev train
service, the "Linimo", are among the massive infrastructure
projects that have
already been built to support the exhibition in Aichi. Aichi
is an industrial city
between Tokyo and Osaka. Most top Japanese brand names are
exhibiting, with
many taking complete pavilions to show off their vision of
the exhibition's theme,
“Global Harmony”.
HFH Japan's main activities are raising awareness, advocacy,
and mobilizing
funds and volunteers. It supports the work of eleven Habitat
campus chapters
operating in Japan and the increasing number of teams of volunteers
- about
50 a year involving a total of some 900 participants -- going
overseas to build
Habitat homes.
The EXPO 2005 committee has provided a start-up grant of US$15,000
to help
build the Habitat booth.
Financial and other support has come from long-time global
Habitat supporter
Dow along with retailer Costco, and local and regional companies
Force 21
Equipment, ButterflyCorp. and Pilgrim Pictures. Other supporters
include Kyoto
Gaidai Nishi High School, Canadian Academy, Nagoya International
School
and Kwansei Gakuin University.
|
