Sugihara "Do the Right Thing" Essay Contest

Introduction

Yaotsu Town is the hometown of Chiune Sugihara, and is involved in activities to honor his achievements and pass them on to future generations. The encounter of Dr. Sylvia Smoller and Yaotsu Town can only be described as a coincidence, but in retrospect it was inevitable. This inevitable encounter led to the creation of Sugihara ‘Do the Right Thing’ Essay Contest with the inspiration by a mother and son she met in Japan.

The first contest was held in New York about 20 years ago. After some time, in 2019 Matt Chanoff, Sylvia's nephew, who is a member of the Board of SHOFCO - Shining Hope for Communities (https://onl.tw/gXWagvw), an NGO, revived and funded the contest in Kenya where the SHOFCO’s main office is located. Over the next four years, the contest has continued to grow in size, with increasing numbers of participants from neighbouring Burundi.

There are the following objectives in organizing this contest:-
1. to give young people the opportunity to think about what it means to 'do the right thing' in their own lives and for the people in their communities
2. to learn about Chiune Sugihara and the Holocaust in general,

and about the Kenya contest,
3. to give students from the poorest areas of the world the opportunity to speak out about people and deeds that are important to them, and later to do so themselves.
Matt is supporting it and helping to make it a local project.

From a Japanese perspective, you might think that Kenya’s environment is very far apart , but when you read their essays, you realize that people from faraway
countries, living in completely different environments in terms of history, culture and language, are also suffering from the same problems and thinking about the same issues. And that no matter what the situation, the important things are the same. Knowing this would be the first step towards empathy for those who are different from us, which will eventually lead to harmony and peace in the world.

The aim of this website is to bring the Sugihara Do the Right Thing Essay Contest to as many people in the world as possible.

Message from Initiator

Message from Dr.Sylvia Smoller(pdf形式：871KB)

Message from Mr.Matt Chanoff (pdf形式：84KB)