Genki Mail sends notes of hope to quake-zone kids (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Special delivery: Students at Kesennuma Elementary School in Miyagi Prefecture on June 28 read messages of encouragement from American students. KYODO

Kyodo

KESENNUMA, Miyagi Pref. — Children in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures have received more than 7,000 messages of hope written by elementary school students throughout the United States under a project started by a survivor of the 1995 Kobe quake.

"I am happy to know that people in America have been thinking of us," said a boy in the fourth grade at Kesennuma Elementary School in Miyagi Prefecture after receiving one of the "genki notes," referring to the Japanese word meaning "cheerfulness," from a student in Hawaii.

The Genki Mail project was created by Yukitaka Uritani, president of the Asia Africa Cooperation Environment Center, a Kobe-based nongovernmental organization.

"Most people think about donating money, but the children need more than material things. They need something else to be encouraged," Uritani said.

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