(i) The Sata Foundation’s donation to the Banyan Home Foundation, which operates the Ban Rom Sai Children’s Home for HIV/AIDS-infected children, covered the following costs for the academic year starting in April/May/June 2008:

• Textbooks and uniforms for the children
• Petrol for the shuttling mini-vans to and from schools; and
• Food for the children.

The Banyan Home Foundation was set up by Mrs. Miwa Natori from Japan. It operates the Ban Rom Sai Children's Home at 23/1 Moo 4 Tambon Namprae, Ampur Hangdong, Chiangmai Province, Thailand 50230. (E-mail: info@banromsai.jp; mobile phone number (+66) (81) 8835882; fax number (+66) (53) 427434; URL (only Japanese): http://www.banromsai.jp). Currently, 31 children, 15 of them boys and 16 of them girls, live at the Home. Twenty-nine of them are HIV/AIDS-infected. Most of them are between 10-13 years of age. The youngest one is 5 years’ old, and the oldest 18 years of age. The oldest kid, a 18-year-old girl, lost both parents from HIV/AIDS, but she somehow is free of the disease. The Home took her in after she had been physically abused by her then boyfriend. The other non-HIV/AIDS infected kid is a 16-year-old boy whose parents are too poor to feed him. The children stay at their own free will and are free to leave the Home forever at anytime they want. The Home intends to limit the number of the children in residence to 32 so that it can keep the family-like atmosphere and maintain its capacity to take care of the children adequately.

Since the year 2001, a Ban Rom Sai exhibition is held once a year at the Tokyo Roppongi AXIS Gallery to educate young Japanese and even elderly Japanese people about HIV/AIDS and other problems children are facing in this world, e.g. child trafficking, child abuse, and the use of child labour. The cost of this exhibition is about 2 million Yen each time. The Sata Foundation was one the six entities which sponsored the exhibition. The balance will be borne by the income from the sale of items at the Exhibition, e.g. the Ban Rom Sai teddy bears.

The Exhibition in December 2008 was about HIV/AIDS, as well as the consequences of the Vietnam War especially the plight of many new born Vietnamese children who were born disabled because of the chemicals (Agent Orange) sprayed during the War. During the Exhibition there were three talk-shows, and a charity bazaar with 10,000 charity teddy bears made by Thai and Japanese volunteers put on sale.

The Sata Foundation continued its donation to the Shechen Clinic in Nepal. This is a continuation of the Foundation’s donations to the Clinic.

For years, the Sata Foundation has been providing financial support to the Shechen Clinic in an overcrowded suburb of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The Clinic provides quality medical care, regardless of religious, ethnic or political background, to the large community that includes refugees and other people from the mountain regions. Services are provided on a sliding scale cost bases and, in the case of very poor patients, all medical care and medicines are provided at no cost. The Clinic treats over 3,500 patients a month. The services provided include: general medicine, pharmacy, analysis laboratory, tuberculosis (D.O.T.), orthopedic, reproductive health, counseling for HIV and AIDS patients and their family; homeopathy, Tibetan medicine, Tibetan medicine factory, acupuncture, dental clinic, and dental laboratory.

The Sata Foundation continues to promote international rules of law in Asia by awarding annually the Sata Prize, valued at US$2,000 from the year 2005 onward, for the best international law essays by young Asian international legal scholars. The winning essays are published in the Asian Yearbook of International Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers: Leiden/Boston), under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA). The Asian Yearbook informs the world about Asian perspectives on international law that underpins world peace and the international legal order. The Sata Prize thus serves to enhance the “understanding among peoples of all cultures, religions and beliefs of the value of peace and respect for universally recognized human rights”, which is part of the Sata Foundation's Mission Statement.

On 24 December 2008, The Sata Foundation made a donation to the NPO, located at 1-19-1-201, Yayoi-cho, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-0013 Japan (Tel. & Fax. 03-3379-5571; Mobile 090-6538-3255; email:hiroko@michi-no-kai.com, seichi@k.email.ne.jp; URL:http://seichi-no-kodomo.org) for the NPO’s 3rd Youth Exchange for Peace Project.

The NPO has been working for supporting the education of children, especially from poor families, in Israel and Palestine regardless of race and religion for twenty years. The NPO has been assisting the enrollment by provision of school fees.

In Israel and Palestine, where conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians are still unsettled, much remains to be done to realize peace there.

The NPO’s first two Youth Exchange for Peace Projects were implemented in 2005 (on the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and 2007, respectively. They aim at creating dialogue and understanding among Israeli and Palestinian youths by bringing them to live together for a few weeks and see how the rest of the world lives. The current Project will be implemented in the summer of 2009, as a three-year project spanning from 2009 to 2010, to be completed in 2011. The total cost estimate for this Project is US$150,000, to be covered by sponsorship from the Japan Foundation and private companies and volunteer individuals.

Supporting the NPO’s Youth Exchange Project for Peace is within the Sata Foundation’s mission of “securing a better and more humane world through the enhancement of understanding―among peoples of all cultures, religions and beliefs―of the value of peace…”

On 2 Aug. 2008, the Sata Foundation made a donation to this Association. The Association provides accommodations for the families of hospitalized patients to give the patients moral support and help their expeditious recovery from illness. The Association’s mission is, therefore, “achievement of better and affordable healthcare for citizens of the world” within the Sata Foundation’s Mission Statement.

The Sata Foundation helped Newport Medical Instruments, a company incorporated in the USA and is based in California, to raise 6,147.30 US dollars for donation to Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids (www.wheelchairsforiraqikids.com).

Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids was set up in August 2005. It purchases high quality adjustable and custom-fit wheelchairs produced by ROC Wheels, a non-profit organization based in Montana, USA (www.RocWheels.org), at a reduced price of 200 US dollars per each wheelchair to donate to needy disabled Iraqi children who are victims of the on-going Iraqi war. It is also building a factory in�Iraq to make and donate wheelchairs to the children on spot; it needs over US$200,000 for this purpose. Its partner, ROC Wheels, is also rebuilding a wheelchair factory in Turkey, nearer to Iraq.

After the return of the Madonnagasaki to the Urakami Church on the 60th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 2005, much of the Sata Foundation’s objective relating to the Madonnagasaki has been accomplished. The Sata Foundation will continue to campaign for world peace with the Madonnagasaki as the main inspiration.

In 2005, the Sata Foundation sponsored the first “Run for Peace” Cycling Rally and related events in France on 6 August 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively) and to promote the humanitarian mission of the Sata Foundation. After the great success of the 1st rally, the Peace Rally is held every year.

The Sata Foundation organized the 4th Run for Peace Rally on Saturday 2 August 2008 in Chailly, Burgundy, France (http://www.chailly.com/course/index.php).

There were 536 cyclists, led by Bernard Hinault, participating in the Rally (compared to 453 cyclists in 2007), with over one hundred onlookers and supporters in attendance. The event raised 17,000 Euros for the Sata Foundation.

Both the Mayor of Hiroshima and the Mayor of Nagasaki in Japan sent messages to the Rally. Furthermore, the two participants from Nagasaki carried out a signature-obtaining campaign for peace on the spot. As a result, they obtained about 120 signatures and handed the signatures to Mr. Mitsuyoshi Taira, Director of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, on 6 August 2008. The Director promised to exhibit the signatures together with personal data as well as the programme of the Rally at the Museum. It is encouraging that the possibility of organizing similar peace rallies in Japan is being explored.

Professor Kriangsak Kittichaisaree
Executive Director,
Sata Foundation
25 March 2009