16 June 2009

IPC Students Joining in the Ship for World Youth New Zealand Project in Wellington

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

The Petone Beach Rubbish Walk Project participants

Petone Beach, Wellington

IPC students and staff members joining in the project (Miho Fukuda is front row, second from the right)

On the morning of Sunday, 7th June, six IPC students, accompanied by three staff members, headed to Wellington to join in the Petone Beach Rubbish Walk Project. The project was hosted by the Ship for World Youth New Zealand (SWYNZ).

SWYNZ is an association that was formed by New Zealanders who also belong to the Ship for World Youth Alumni Association (SWYAA). SWYAA members are all of those who have participated in the Ship of World Youth (SWY) programmes. Initiated by the Government of Japan, SWY programme is carried out once a year aboard a ship called Nippon Maru. The purpose is to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the youth of Japan and the youth of other parts of the world. Click here to find out more about SWYNZ.

The Petone Beach Rubbish Walk Project is one of the post-programme activities SWYNZ have held to help the alumni members stay in touch as well as to give back to the community. One of the alumni members from Japan - also an IPC staff member - Miho Fukuda organized the trip from Palmerston North to Wellington. She participated in the 19th SWY programme in 2007, visiting Brisbane, Sydney, Wellington and Vanuatu ports with 149 other young people from Japan and other countries around the world.

The project focused on picking up rubbish in the Petone beach area, between the playground on The Esplanade and the river mouth. The weather was quite unpredictable with a strong cold wind but a good number of participants showed up. "It was the first activity I participated in, but I was surprised at the number of people attending even though the weather was not particularly nice. The beach looked very clean but at the end we had bags of rubbish. (It was a) Good activity to try on a weekend," said Miho. According to SWYNZ President Josh Bahlman, they were able to pick up over 100kgs of rubbish.

After cleaning the beach, they were treated with delicious yamcha lunch where alumni members had the chance to talk about previous SWY programmes and the worldwide ports they had visited. Mina Ueyama (a 2006 student) commented "I thought it would be good to get up early and then to join in the cleaning project because it was refreshing. But also to be able to listen to such interesting conversation about International cultural exchange is a plus. It motivated me to go exploring places around the world."

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