Annual Report of the Sata Foundation for the Year 2019

In the year 2019, the Sata Foundation made the following donations. 

(1) 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 a Prize, valued at US$2,000, for the best international law essay of between 8,000 and 14,000 words by Asian international legal scholars under the age of 40. The winning essays are published in the Asian Yearbook of International Law, under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) [→ Note 1]. The Asian Yearbook informs the world about Asian perspectives on international law that underpins world peace and the international legal order. The Prize, called the ‘Sata Prize’ until 2011 and, at the insistence of Mr. Sata, the ‘DILA Prize’ thereafter, 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. Due to the high standard for the DILA Prize winners, no winner of sufficient merit was announced in 2019; hence, no donation was made to DILA in 2019 for the DILA Prize.

(2) Banyan Home Foundation

The Banyan Home Foundation (BHF) which operates the Ban Rom Sai Children’s Home for HIV/AIDS-infected orphan children was set up by Mrs. Miwa Natori from Japan in 1999, providing a home to 30 children, until they are required to leave at the age of 18. [→ Note 2]

Each year from 2007 to 2018, the Sata Foundation made donations to Ban Rom Sai to support the following projects that ran all year round:

• getting the children at the Ban Rom Sai and children in the local communities to join together in learning to read and write as well as to learn basic things about important subjects, using the library and teaching resources funded by the Sata Foundation (50 participants per month); and
• training of the children to play volley ball and football and competitions in these sports between the children and those from the local communities (20 – 40 participants).

Thanks to the Sata Foundation’s donations during these years, the children at the Ban Rom Sai have been accepted and successfully assimilated to the society where they live. For example, several participants have been granted special quotas to study at high schools and vocational training colleges free of costs. Some children who used to live in Ban Rom Sai are now working full-time, while some others of the children are now studying at universities in Chiang Mai Province and near-by Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. In the words of Ban Rom Sai:

‘During the first several years after the establishment of Ban Rom Sai, we were protested by local villagers, who barred our children to go to the local elementary school. They also forbade the local children to come close to Ban Rom Sai. But with our efforts to educate and deepen the local people’s understanding regarding HIV/AIDS, through lectures and open days at Ban Rom Sai, we have won the support and trust of the villagers. Today, the same local children, who were afraid to set food in Ban Rom Sai, now come visit the children at Ban Rom Sai, study and play together, even sharing lunches together. This has been a big step for Ban Rom Sai.’

The books, learning materials, and sports equipment funded by the Sata Foundation during these years provide sufficient resources for the Ban Rom Sai to use to continue these ‘open day’ activities for years to come, without further donations from the Sata Foundation from 2019 onwards. Moreover, the local community has now become willing to participate in and support its activities without financial incentives such as rewards for winners of sports competitions organized by the Ban Rom Sai and funded by the Sata Foundation.

(3)Others

In the past, the Sata Foundation made annual donations to charities such as the Shechen Clinic in Baudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal (http://karuna-shechen.org/category/health/)since its establishment in 2000 to provide quality medical care at low or no cost, regardless of religious, ethnic or political background, to the large community in Nepal that includes refugees and other people from the mountain regions in India, Nepal, and Tibet. We are pleased that the Clinic has now been successful in raising funds internationally on its own.
The same applied to other charities that the Sata Foundation used to support regularly or from time to time.
The Sata Foundation looks forward to giving donations and support to other worthy causes falling within the Sata Foundation’s Mission Statement.

This is the area where the Sata Foundation made some substantial contributions in 2019.

(1)Run for Peace Rally 2019

Since 2005, the Sata Foundation has sponsored the “Run for Peace” Cycling Rally in France to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively) and to promote public awareness of the human sufferings caused by the use of nuclear weapons as well as the need to ensure that scientific knowledge is used for human health and well-being, and not as weapons of destruction.
In 2019, the Run for Peace Rally was held on Saturday 27 July in Chailly-sur-Armançon, France (http://courirpourlapaix.blogg.org/), with approximately 320 cyclists taking part in four circuits: Hiroshima (145 km.), Nagasaki (105 km.), Tohoku (81 km.), and the rando (40 km.). The money raised by the event will be used to support the Sata Foundation’s mission.
The Run for Peace Rally scheduled for Saturday 25 July 2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(2)Cooperation with the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, Slovakia

In June 2019, the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, Slovakia, staged a play ‘The Physicists’ by Friedrich Durrenmatt (https://snd.sk/en/inscenation/3174/fyzici). The play is about the many advances in science and nuclear weapons as seen from the perspective of scientific ethics and humanity's ability to handle its intellectual responsibilities. The play was directed by very famous and known Polish director Jan Klata. The Sata Foundation was pleased to support this kind of initiative to convey the message of peace and humanity, and the use of science for the living and not for killing.

(3)His Holiness the Pope’s Visit to Nagasaki in November 2019

In July 2019, Mr. Sata, Chairman of the Board of the Sata Foundation, met with Monsignor Luigi Bressan, a veteran diplomat of the Vatican, to explain the Sata Foundation’s mission of peace and requested him to ensure that His Holiness Pope Francis who was scheduled to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in November 2019 visit the Uragami Church in Nagasaki and the Madonna statue at the Church.
On 24 Nov 2019, during the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, His Holiness Pope Francis, speaking at the Nagasaki Hypocentre Memorial of Atomic Bombing, condemned the “unspeakable horror” of nuclear weapons and urged world leaders to end the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, saying it offered their nations a false sense of security. “In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven”, he said.
When His Holiness celebrated Mass in Nagasaki's baseball stadium in the presence of around 35,000 people, he stopped to reflect before the severed head of a wooden statue of the Madonna recovered after the atomic bombing, which is the Sata Foundation’s symbol of world peace. This was widely reported in the news:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-11/hiroshima-nuclear-editorial-pope-japan.html
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5PyCZhKw-L/
https://twitter.com/VaticanNews/status/1198631130028822528"
Therefore, the Sata Foundation’s mission of promotion of world peace was significantly enhanced by His Holiness’ visit to Nagasaki.

Notes:

1. DILA Prize:http://www.dila-korea.org/dila/introduce_02.html
2. It is located at 23/1 Moo 4 Tambon Namprae, Ampur Hangdong, Chiangmai Province, Thailand 50230: https://www.banromsai.org/

(Signed) K. Kittichaisaree
(Professor Kriangsak Kittichaisaree),
Executive Director,
Sata Foundation, June 2020