Origami Workshop 29 & 30 July 2011 - Alexandria

On 29 and 30 July 2011, UNESCO Cairo Office (UCO) organized two concurrent workshops in Alexandria within the framework of the UNESCO campaign « Kizuna, a message of hope for Japan's school children ».

The Japanese word Kizuna means solidarity or tie. UNESCO has adopted the word for a new campaign; school children from around the world are being asked to write a message of hope on a postcard. The aim is for each of the thousands of school children who were affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit northeast Japan on 11 March 2011, to receive a postcard as an act of solidarity. On that fateful day, over 7000 schools were destroyed or damaged by the Tsunami, mostly in the coastline area of Tohoku region. More than 22,000 postcards were collected from 48 different countries around the world so far.

In support of this campaign, the two workshops held in Alexandria aimed to provide messages from the Arab States that were underrepresented in the campaign and more particularly from Egypt, a country that experienced turmoil as well since February 2011.

The two workshops were organized with the participation of the Arab Origami Center, Asdaa NGO for People with Hearing Disabilities and Homat Al Mustaqbal NGO, gave the opportunity to 45 Egyptian children, from poor neighborhoods and with special needs to express their messages to Japan.

on this subject: Origami craft in Egypt