NARA: A group of Japanese junior high school students is continuing efforts to send relief goods to people in Syria, which was affected by a powerful earthquake that occurred in southern Turkiye a year ago.

About 30 companies are offering support for the students’ efforts.

The initiative began after Mone Mori, 15, a third-year student at Nishiyamato Gakuen Junior High School in the town of Kawai, Nara Prefecture, western Japan, saw a video on social media on Feb. 7, 2023, the day after the earthquake struck.

In the video, a child in a quake-affected Syrian region was pleading for help, even in exchange for becoming a servant. Mori said she was “shocked” to hear the child say this.

The following day, Mori started to seek help from people around her.

She decided to send goods as relief, instead of money, thinking that “cash might be given to adults before children.”

Mori and her classmates sent emails seeking support for their aid initiative to more than 300 companies while receiving advice from teachers.

Initially, few companies responded. But Mori and her friends did not give up and continued trying to get their aims and thoughts known.

They also visited companies in Tokyo when they traveled to the Japanese capital for a school event, succeeding in obtaining cooperation from firms including a sporting goods company.

The group of students also collected more than 500,000 yen through a donation campaign at Todaiji temple in the city of Nara, a major tourist spot.

About 20 members of the team drew up a list of items to be sent to Syria.

On Dec. 16 last year, they sent about 450 boxes of items including sanitary goods, clothing and stationery to the Port of Yokohama, near Tokyo.

But the Houthis, a pro-Iranian armed group in Yemen, had started attacking ships sailing in the Red Sea in November in protest to the Israeli military’s assaults on the Palestinian territory of Gaza, leading to a freighter loaded with the boxes canceling its voyage to the region just before its scheduled departure.

Mori recalls her regret at the development, saying that she became emotional at the time.

But one company extended a helping hand.

Yokohama-based Fuji Warehouse Corp. offered to allow the students to keep the relief goods at its warehouse for free until freighter services resume. A nonprofit organization engaged in relief activities in Syria in the aftermath of the quake brought together the students and the firm.

“It’s natural for a company to help carry out the mission of students trying to support (disaster-hit areas),” Fuji Warehouse President Masahiko Sakaguchi said.

Mori is grateful to see support spreading. She said she hopes that children in afflicted areas can escape the civil war and earthquake damage, praying for the relief goods to be delivered to people in need as early as possible.

After a major earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in central Japan on Jan. 1 this year, Mori carried out a donation campaign to assist affected people.

“I want to continue activities to address problems from students’ point of view,” Mori said.

JIJI Press