Annual Report of the Sata Foundation for the Year 2012

I. Donations

In the year 2012, the Sata Foundation made the following donations.

(1)Shechen Clinic in Baudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal
(http://www.karuna-shechen.org)

For years, the Sata Foundation has been providing financial support to the Shechen Clinic, set up in 2000, 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.

In 2012, the Sata Foundation’s donation helped the Clinic to, among other things, (a) build two Bamboo Schools and one Bamboo College in Ilam and Jhapa in Nepal which enable more than 3,000 students to receive education from kindergarten to pre-university levels; (b) complete the construction on the hostel and school expansion to accommodate 150 children from 12 different villages in Nepal’s remote mountain Upper Humla region; (c) provide medical services and community-based empowerment programmes in 6 more Indian villages, making the total number of 18 villages benefiting from mobile clinics, health education, solar lighting, safe drinking water, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, and non-formal education; and (d) send 4 nuns from Shechen Monastery in Bhutan to be trained as solar engineers at Barefoot College in India. The nuns are now in Nepal to install 100 sets of solar home lighting systems – 40 sets at a Buddhist retreat center in Namo Buddha, and the other 60 sets in two nearby villages in the Banepa Valley.


(2)Banyan Home Foundation

The Banyan Home Foundation (BHF) which operates the Ban Rom Sai Children’s Home for HIV/AIDS-infected children was set up by Mrs. Miwa Natori from Japan.
The Sata Foundation has been making donations to the BHF since 2007.
The Sata Foundation’s donation for the year 2012 enabled the HIV/AIDS-infected children at the Ban Rom Sai to interact socially with the local community at the following events organized at the Ban Rom Sai: (a) Community Sports (from 1 March 2012 - 28 Feb. 2013), with 78 persons participating in badminton competitions, 76 in table tennis competitions, and 85 in pétanque competitions, totalling 239 persons participating in this project; (b) Making Youth Love Reading (from 1 Jan. – 31 Dec. 2012) in which participants competed in reading books and summarize their contents in writing, with 34-50 kids taking part each month, totalling 503 participants for the entire year; (c) Practical Training on Accidents and First-Aid Help (on 25 Feb. 2013), with 64 participants; and (d) Music in Spare Time (from 1 March 2012 – 31 Dec. 2013), with only 10 participants but all of them have potential to become musicians.
Thanks to the Sata Foundation’s donation in these past few years, the children at the Ban Rom Sai have been accepted and successfully assimilated to the society where they live.


(3) "My Name is Salt" Documentary Film

In 2012, the Sata Foundation helped finance the production of “My Name is Salt”, a feature-length independent documentary film by Zurich-based filmmakers Farida Pacha (director and producer) and Lutz Konermann (cameraman and co-producer). The film shows the struggle of one among thousands of families of salt farmers in the Kutch Desert of India. While highlighting their hard living and working conditions, the film aims at a deeper understanding of the human conditions on a more philosophical level. This meets the Sata Foundation’s Mission Statement, as it would enhance ‘understanding – among peoples of all cultures, religions and beliefs – of the values of peace and respect for human rights, ....’



(4)Friends of the Leukemia Research Fund NPO

In September 2012, the Sata Foundation made a donation to the Friends of the Leukemia Research Fund NPO. (Address: Friends of Leukemia Research Fund Hassyu Bldg, 2-7-14 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001; Tel 03-3593-3341;
E-mail luekaemia@flrf.gr.jp; (http://www.flrf.gr.jp(Japanese only))


(5)Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA)

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.



II. Sata Foundation’s Activities for the Victims of the Japanese Earthquake

More than 14,000 persons have perished after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and its consequential tsunami hit Tohoku in northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011. Millions still live under threat from the nuclear radiation leakage from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This was the worst natural disaster ever suffered by Japan in its modern history. The Sata Foundation has been assisting the victims to adjust to their new challenges by providing support to the disaster affected areas in Tohoku.
Mr. Yasuhiko Sata, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sata Foundation, himself together with volunteers of the Sata Foundation regularly visit the disaster affected area to help the victims with their immediate needs and to counsel and support them to find work again in their region, with a positive spirit of self-reliance and self-respect. Mr. Sata has set up the Rentai Tohoku-Seinan Foundation (http://www.rentaitohoku.org), to help the victims of this earthquake and tsunami.
The Sata Foundation receives funding for this project from fund raising at the Peace Rally detailed in III below as well as from other donations.





III. The Madonna of Nagasaki and World Peace

After the return of the Madonna of Nagasaki 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 Madonna of Nagasaki has been accomplished. The Sata Foundation will continue to campaign for world peace with the Madonna of Nagasaki 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 8th Run for Peace Rally on 28 July 2012 in Chailly, Burgundy, France, where 452 cyclists participated. The event raised money for the Sata Foundation earmarked for donation to the March 2011 earthquake victims in Japan (see II above).
This annual event in Chailly, France, has inspired rallies for peace in some other parts of the world, including Japan, which hosted the Meiji Gaien University Student Cycling Criterium since 2009. The Sata Foundation has been making donations each year to the University Student Bicycle Criterium Race, so as to keep this tradition going from strength to strength.

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