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Furniture store in Hiroshima Prefecture helps Afghanistan build elementary schools

by Yoshihiko Abe, Staff Writer

Kamegawa, a furniture store located in the city of Fukuyama in Hiroshima Prefecture, together with three other furniture stores in Okayama, Kagawa, and Hyogo prefectures, are lending support to the construction of elementary schools in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has suffered from long-running conflict. The stores have donated a total of 13 million yen, a portion of the income they have earned over the past three years from sales of handmade carpets from Iran, to the Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA), which is the main coordinator of the school-building project. One of these elementary schools, funded with donations from the furniture stores, is expected to be completed next month. SVA’s Afghanistan office manager and another staff member visited Kamegawa on November 11 to express their gratitude.

Kamegawa has been selling the handmade carpets, called gabbeh, for about 30 years. Yasutsugu Kamegawa, 66, the president of the company, paid a visit to Iran six years ago and has since been importing gabbeh directly from Iran, where many Afghan refugees now live after fleeing their homeland. Mr. Kamegawa became moved to lend support to Afghanistan after hearing that the Afghan refugees are involved in making these carpets. In fiscal years 2011 and 2012, he sent picture books and picture-story boards to schools and libraries in Afghanistan through SVA, funded by his company’s sales of gabbeh.

In fiscal year 2013, Mr. Kamegawa encouraged three other furniture stores, which are business partners in importing the carpets, to help SVA build elementary schools in Kabul, and their support has continued ever since. Up to fiscal year 2015, these four stores have donated 13 million yen from their sales to cover part of the roughly 28 million yen necessary for construction and equipment.

The construction of one school began this past April after SVA obtained permission from local authorities to move forward with the project. The one-story school building is now almost ready, and the opening ceremony will be held at the end of December. The building is equipped with eight classrooms and a library. The school will operate in three shifts and educate a total of 1,200 students.

The visitors to the Kamegawa furniture store were Takafumi Miyake, 53, the manager of SVA’s Afghanistan office, and Waheed Zamani, 39, the deputy manager. They handed a certificate of appreciation from the director-general of the Bureau of Education in Kabul to Mr. Kamegawa and his wife Sachiko, 61. Mr. Miyake said, “The support from Kamegawa and the other stores is deeply appreciated. I hope that public awareness in Japan of Afghanistan and its state of chaos and disorder will increase.” Mr. Kamegawa replied, “I would like to thank all the kind people who purchased the carpets from us to help support this project.”

According to SVA, because of civil war, about 7,000 schools in Afghanistan, which account for almost half that country’s schools, are now lacking school buildings.

(Originally published on November 12, 2015)

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