Qatar Friendship Fund (QFF) will inaugurate tomorrow, Tuesday the Sendai Education Centre " a new center for education in the city of Sendai, Japan, in the presence of Ms. Emiko Okuyama, the Mayor of Sendai,, in addition to representatives from the "Junior Achievement Foundation." The Centre is part of Elem Project, an experience-based educational programme, run by Junior Achievement Japan, Iwaki municipality and Sendai municipality.
The centre is designed to give students in Japan the opportunity to experience life lessons and gain skills that will be crucial to them in the future.
It also aims to spread the spirit of hope for the region which lost 15,884 people from its citizens in the wake of the devastating earthquake that reached 9 on the Richter scale and the tsunami that struck eastern Japan in March 2011, through the initiatives and projects to help Japan to recover economically after the damage amounted to $ 309 billion .
This funding has been established through a grant of $ 1.4 million provided by the Qatar Friendship Fund, which was set up in partnership with The Junior Achievement Foundation, Japan, a non-profit organization working to educate young people about the importance of setting up companies through various educational programs.
In this regard, HE Qatar's Ambassador to Japan Yousuf Mohamed Bilal said that the reason for choosing the city of Sendai to host this leading education centre is that is the city is the eleventh in Japan in terms of area, with and average age of population which reaches 38 years in a country where 40 percent of its population age will reach 65 by 2020.
On the experience of the fishermen in the Kamaishi City, state of Iwaki, HE the Ambassador praised the project which is aimed to the rebuilding of fisheries in the affected areas which its sales exceeded $ 1.8 million since its launch.
He added that in the wake of widespread destruction caused to the industry by the earthquake in eastern Japan by great tsunami disaster in 2011, the Qatar Friendship Fund Qatari had provided urgent and necessary assistance by granting $ 1.2 million to build a new fishery in Kamaishi City, allowing fishermen in the city to use the advanced freezing techniques in the storage and transfer of marine products.
The Qatar Friendship Fund (QFF) is an initiative of the State of Qatar towards the Japanese people to support relief efforts in the wake of the earthquakes and tsunami that hit eastern Japan.
The Fund was launched at the initiative of HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al -Thani, which aims to raise the spirit of hope for the victims by offering aid management in a prompt, effective and sustainable way. It also aims to further promote friendship between Qatar and Japan.
The QFF from (2012) to (2014) focusses strategically on three main areas in Japan including children's education, fisheries and health care.