At Seibo we have an ambitious mission to feed every hungry child in the world at hot meal at school. As a regular reader you may already be familiar with our partnership with schools and nurseries in Malawi. However, you may not have heard about our other global initiative to feed hungry children, aside from those lovely ones in Malawi. Our mission is global- which, by definition, includes Japan! You probably wonder, “Why Japan?”. Yes, unfortunately even the world’s third largest economy is not immune to issues of child poverty. According to the government’s Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions in 2015 the poverty trend has fallen slightly to 13.9% from 16.3% in 2012. However the relative poverty rate for children is still quite high for such a developed country. Generally it is still higher than it was in the mid-1980s when the rate remained at around 10%. As in the case of families in lower income areas in Tokyo such as Akabane, many of the kids are children of a single-parent family who often work night shift or have irregular working hours. As a result, many children are lacking the support they need from adults to watch over their learning progress. Moreover they are also experiencing difficulties focussing on their studies with empty stomachs.

VIDES is an amazing organization responsible for the “Happy House Project” to serve as a safe space for children to spend their time after school hours. Some of the many fun activities at Happy House includes cooking and eating dinner together, learning new subjects, doing homework together, playing games, and many more. For several months now Seibo Japan is proud to say that we have been partnering with Happy House Project to provide meals for the children of Happy House. Here’s your daily dose of wholesomeness; in the month of October from the funds that we received from our donors & proceeds of Warm Hearts Coffee we are able to donate to Happy House who in turn can now serve meals twice a week! Around 12 children and volunteers came to join us each day to share their smiles. That is equal to 12 smiles times 2 times 4 per month! Their favourite menu includes; Onion Rings, Raw Veggies, Tonjiru Soup (savoury pork & vegetable miso soup), Rice, Grapefruit, YUMM! Our goal in the future is to extend the free meal service to 6 days a week, with the hope that Seibo as an NPO will grow with the help of our donors. We are proud, excited, and committed to our goals, we are also honoured to take you on to this journey to spread smiles across the border. We thank you for your ongoing support.