● About the AYF

The Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) co-organized the “Asian Youth Forum for Disaster Education (AYF)”, together with the Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education, Inamura no Hi Council and the AYF Organizing Committee, from 30 October to 3 November 2006 in Wakayama, Japan.

The AYF was attended by sixty-two official participants comprising secondary school students, their teachers and local government officials, as well as NGO workers from eight Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the host country of Japan. AYF participants were invited either from the areas severely affected in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunami in December 2004 or from other parts of Asia considered prone to tsunamis.

The venue of Wakayama, facing the vast Pacific Ocean, was selected in commemoration of a legendary episode known as the Inamura no Hi featuring an actual person named Hamaguchi Goryo, who saved his villagers from the powerful tsunami which hit the local area of Japan in 1854. Mr. Hamaguchi, with his unconventional wisdom, set precious rice sheaves on fire to guide the people onshore and up on the hill.

Through a series of formal activities (educational workshops, a lecture by a disaster expert, emergency drills, field trips to embankments in Hirogawa-cho and a nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site, making of a banner, etc) as well as informal opportunities to talk and make friends, the AYF enabled the young people to share experiences of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and to jointly discuss ideas on how to be better prepared against natural disasters. The highlight of the AYF was a public seminar held on 1-2 November 2006, which drew about 1500 people. In front of the public audience, the AYF youth representatives adopted the Wakayama Declaration, expressing resolutions and the wish for disaster reduction as the culmination of their learning from the five-day forum. The Wakayama Declaration, delivered at the AYF closing ceremony in participants' mother tongues, has now been translated into a total of sixteen languages.

● The Wakayama Declaration by Youth on Disaster Reduction

It is hoped that the momentum gained by the AYF will continue to grow to help foster local and trans-border networks for disaster reduction with proactive youth involvement. In this respect, the AYF participants are encouraged to share community-based efforts in their respective home countries and thoughts for collaboration on the AYF Message Board (under construction).