June 7, 2009 Yokohama, Japan
30名を超える東京オフィスの社員と家族・友人、そしてPower of Us Partnerの株式会社ウフルのみなさんが、世界で3億5千万人以上の子どもたちを苦しめている飢餓をなくすための地球規模のチャリティイベント「ウォーク・ザ・ワールド ～地球のハラペコを救え。～」に参加しました。
参加費1,000円のうちの半分がWFP 国連世界食糧計画の「学校給食プログラム 」にあてられます。一人が参加することで、途上国の25人の子どもたちに栄養価の高い給食を提供できることになります。
真夏の到来を思わせるような快晴の下、赤レンガ倉庫や山下公園などの風光明媚な横浜のランドマークを気持ちよく歩きました。
東京オフィスの社員は、早朝よりボランティアスタッフとして運営にも関わりました。CSMダイレクターの仲澤輝宏は、昨年に続き、長女の奈須香ちゃんと募金箱担当です。社員はもちろん積極的に募金しました！大きな声で呼びかけを行い、昨年の11万円を超える147,252円もの寄付を集めることができました。FSGの小山洋と息子の皓暉くん、CSMの北川博一、Foundationの遠藤理恵も受付エリアを担当しました。
社長秘書の齋藤要子とともに、得意の語学を生かして英語受付や通訳を行ったESの久野暢子のコメントです。
''初めての参加でしたが、こんなに楽しいボランティアがあるのか！というのが正直な感想です。晴天に恵まれ、潮風が吹く臨港パークでの受付対応、そのあとの横浜市10kg内周遊を存分に楽しみました。一人でも多くの子どもが、栄養価の高い給食を食べて、元気に成長して欲しいと思います。急遽依頼があり対応した開会式でのウガンダ大使のスピーチの和訳の中で、大使が”solidarity”という言葉を繰り返し仰っていました。聞き取れたんですが意味は解らなくて、たぶん重要な言葉なんだろうなと思いつつ、そこだけ飛ばして訳してしまいました。スミマセンでした。「団結」を意味するそうです。あとで調べました。''
ボランティアの皆さん、そして、家族や友人とともに朝早くから横浜を歩いたみなさん、お疲れ様でした！
The United Nations World Food Programmes (WFP) delivers nourishing school meals to children to entice them to go to school. This is very important because school education can broaden their future career opportunities and help them to get out of poverty.
''Walk the World'' is a charity walk to raise awareness for suffering children in developing countries. Half of the registration fee (JPY 500) is to be donated to WFP’s School Feeding Program. This means that a participant can give school meals (JPY 20/meal) to 25 children just by joining this event!
Over 3,000 participants including 30 Salesforce.com employees, their families and friends enjoyed walking in the picturesque central Yokohama area. We were so glad to have participants from Uhuru Inc., our Power of Us partner!
Some of us also volunteered at the reception/registration area from very early in the morning on the day. Teruhiro nakazawa, Director, CSM and his daughter Nasuka called for donation . With their great passion and energy, they could get donations of JPY 147,252. Yoko Saito, Executive Assistant to President and Yohko Kuno, ES were in charge of Engish Speaking Reception and translation. Yoh Koyama and his son Hiroki, Hiroichi Kitagawa, CSM and Rie Endo, Foundation managed the registration area.
Yohko Kuno said, ''This was the first year I participated in the “Fight Hunger: Walk the World” event. I wanted to raise awareness that kids out there were still suffering from hunger, and also wanted to donate to help even just one more malnourished child lead a healthy life. It was a pleasurable event where we had more than 3,000 participants wearing the “Fight Hunger” cap, walking through Yokohama city on a bright sunny Sunday. We really were quite a crowd. During the event I had, by chance, the honor to interpret the Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda’s opening speech. He had used the word “solidarity” countless times, but due to my lack of knowledge I did not now what the word meant and was compelled to interpret avoiding this word. I feel very bad that I had not been able to deliver the interpretation accurately, and so later on I did take a moment to look it up the dictionary. It meant “a union of interests, purposes, or sympathies among members of a group”. Summing up the Ambassador’s speech, I think he had wanted to address that the power of us volunteers as a unified group participating in the event to fight hunger. I think his message was simple, and it resembled our Foundation spirit and philosophy; it’s the power of each of us combined together that makes this world a better place. ''
Great work everyone!!