Goodwill Ambassador addresses plight of children

At the end of her six-day visit to Afghanistan and camps for refugees in Pakistan, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tesuko Kuroyanagi told reporters on Saturday that she was determined to raise awareness of the plight of children in her native Japan and beyond.

A best-selling author and well-known actress, Kuroyanagi expressed the hope that her trip and the subsequent media coverage would raise awareness in Japan of the plight of Afghan children.

Based on her 18 previous goodwill visits to crisis zones, which have raised over US $26 million, she hoped that the Japanese public would respond generously to her latest appeal.

“Although Japan is far away, many Japanese people are aware of how children are suffering in Afghanistan,” Kuroyanagi said.

Kuroyanagi told reporters that she would be producing a 90-minute programme on her trip, in which she would call for more relief assistance for Afghans “in order that they may live like human beings”.

The actress said she had encountered clear evidence of malnourished children in her visit to Herat in western Afghanistan, and Faizabad in opposition-held Badakhshan Province.
She said she was shocked by the sense of hopelessness among displaced women in Maslak camp near Herat.

“This was the first time that someone told me they had no hope. But we cannot think that way. There must be hope,” she added.

While food and medicine were urgently needed, Kuroyanagi said education had to be a priority if children were to have any future at all.

The Goodwill Ambassador visited makeshift schools in Herat, where Afghan girls told her they wanted to be teachers when they grew up. She also raised the issue of children’s education with the ruling Taliban Islamic Movement in Herat, officials of which remained non-committal but gave the impression that they appreciated its importance, she said.

“Afghanistan has been talked about for so many years. It’s sad, but children are still suffering now. We have to hope that peace is coming in the near future. Afghan children need help as they’re in a very difficult situation now. This is my aim and that is what I have to do,” she added.