Dear friends,
Last week I rhetorically asked myself ‘what can a small village do?’ I was referring to the interest I was hearing from local villagers about their desire to do show support for the Ukrainian people and the war in Ukraine. After hearing similar sentiments from different people in Kamikatsu, I felt like it was important to organize a fundraiser. After one brainstorming session, a small team of us decided to organize a fundraiser, which took place last Saturday, April 2.
I didn’t ask the question ‘what can a small village do?’ from the perspective of scepticism, but I was unsure of how the community would respond to the fundraiser and what shape our collective capacity to respond to a call of action would look like.
I’ve organized and participated in many fundraisers in my life. One of my earliest memories was doing ‘30 hour famine’ (organized by World Vision) when I was in middle school. As the name implies, I fasted for 30 hours with only water and 1 bowl of rice. This was probably the first time I understood empathy in a (radically) different way. The cause and context were far beyond what made sense in my own reality. Even fasting for over a day didn’t quite propel me to fundraise, it was really deep empathy and coming to grips with a world that was filled with injustice.
A significant catalyst for fundraising happened in 2011 Tohoku, Japan’s earthquake and tsunami when I was in high school. I remember feeling dizzy from all the news coverage, but at the same time feeling strongly a need to ‘do something’. It’s hard to describe the feeling of needing to ‘do something’—it’s deeply a personal resolution (perhaps even ego), but it also draws its significance from a need to connect to something bigger than yourself.
My mind runs in circles trying to make sense of the why of all the injustices. No one could ever give me clear answers, so I think that ‘doing something’ was a way to pull myself out of real sadness—to somehow tip the scales, even though sometimes what I was doing didn’t feel like it amounted to much impact.
The causes change but the feeling remains—a yearning to imprint whatever I have in abundance and excess (time and money) towards something that doesn’t address the root cause but (hopefully) lessens the suffering of others.
I saw you in the newspaper!
I started sharing about the event about one week before the fundraiser. The event was going to be in two parts, the first was a cookie sale in Kamikatsu and the second was an online talk with two Ukrainian.
I didn’t have much time to prepare, but I stayed up to make posters, organise a script for the talk, and fold cranes. I wasn’t sure how to spread the word about the fundraiser but I became active on social media and started to directly message everyone I knew in the community. Still, it didn’t feel like the reach was enough.
Three days before the event, I got a call from the prefectural newspaper and they wanted an interview to spread the word about the fundraiser. The journalist stopped by the next day and scribbled down many notes and 2 days later… it’s published!
Seeing this article made me realize that my community of support was beyond the bounds of Kamikatsu village. I was shocked when I got a call the same day from an elderly lady (obachan) who’s a mikan farmer in the neighboring town. She excitedly said ‘I saw you in the newspaper and I want to help!’ It was the loving voice of a grandmother. It was enthusiasm like hers that moved me and made me feel connected to a circle much wider than those I could connect with on social media.
At the same time, I was leaning on the support of the cafe’s staff to make the cookies for the event. We made yellow cookies from squash and painted half the cookie blue to resemble the flag.
Co-existence of suffering and beauty
The day of the event went smoothly and my appreciation for every single person that donated was touching. I remained positive and tried to not focus too much on how much we were making at the time. I prepared for the online event in the early evening and hosted a talk with two Ukrainians (connected through my master’s program). The talk took the reality away from headline news to stories of individuals. We talked about Ukrainian culture and history, learning that Ukrainians are rebellious by nature, and known to oppose authority if it doesn’t feel right. One of the guests, Adriana, said, “Fighting for freedom is really in our blood. If you look into Ukrainian literature, you’ll see it’s 90% fighting and struggle”.
Here’s some of the conversation with Adriana and Kristof transcribed:
What are the most urgent issues that people in Ukraine as a whole, must face now?
I’d say that again, we have to face the fact that war isn’t going to end tomorrow and we need to be strong and prepare for a marathon, not a sprint. Second, we probably wouldn’t be able to return to our hometown right after the victory, and we will have to be patient to rebuild our country and make it flourish. —Adriana
Do you have a message for Japanese people/people listening?
It is an extremely heartwarming feeling that people on the other end of the world are sharing our values of freedom and democracy. It is these freedoms that allow us not only to survive but to develop, to prosper, to flourish. For many people across the world, the existence of these freedoms is being taken for granted. But these freedoms are currently under attack, not only in Ukraine, not only in Europe. It is our responsibility to protect and when necessary defend them. It is time to unite and stay strong. To demand politicians to take actions that safeguard our democratic societies. Democracy is only as strong as the will of those living in it to protect it. —Kristof
I said my sincerest thank you to the Ukrainian guest speakers and then closed my laptop. After the online event, within minutes, the same cafe space where we were running the fundraiser was being turned into an event space to celebrate a recent marriage in the town. Food was being brought out, drinks were lined on a long table, and one by one people came through the door dressed in dresses and ties. I hadn’t processed all the heartbreaking realities that I just heard about from Ukraine and right in front of me was joy and celebration in its rawest form (the celebration of love).
I was supposed to stay and help serve the guests but instead rushed outside and let a stream of tears out because the contrast between hearing about the suffering and seeing the joy of the celebration was both, as Mari Andrew puts it, unbearable and remarkable.
"The fact that suffering, beauty, and mundanity coincide is unbearable and remarkable” —Mari Andrew
To be human is to feel everything and not to try to make sense of the co-existence and to marvel at what it means to be alive on this planet at this moment. To finish Mari Andrew’s quote, I choose to trust: first in goodness, then in people I know, then in people I'll never know, and always in myself.
After what feels like both a long and short week, all I can express is so much gratitude for the community in Kamikatsu, for the prefecture at large, and for everyone else who’s shown support for Ukraine through donations. There is so much suffering and injustice in the world, but we have to continue to believe that the love and good we put out into the world makes a difference.
If you want to donate privately to Ukrainians, please check out this link. If you’re unsure about where to send your donations, please feel free to reach out to me.
Sending love,
Kana