wfn.org | TCN: Japanese youth treks across Taiwan to raise awareness for the environment

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2983 Edition

>April 27~May 3, 2009

Japanese youth treks across Taiwan to raise awareness for the  environment

>Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan

>Written by Lydia Ma

How do we show that we appreciate our planet? One youth from Japan plans  to walk from one end of Taiwan to the other end in

the next three months to raise awareness on environmental issues. Yuji  Miyata marked the beginning of his trek in Taiwan on April

22nd in Tainan city as he participated in Earth Day activities hosted by  several organizations in Tainan city.

To help Miyata and display Taiwanese people’s hospitality, Tainan  Enterprise Culture and Arts Foundation prepared a special

recommendation letter for him to bring along during his trek. The  foundation hopes that the recommendation addressed to over

1,200 Presbyterian churches scattered across the country will enable  Miyata to easily get the help he needs wherever he is. The

foundation’s efforts were also supported by Taiwan Church Press and  Tainan city’s YMCA. Both organizations also signed the

>recommendation.

The recommendation letter states that Yuji Miyata is a Japanese youth  who will spend three months walking across Taiwan to raise

awareness on environmental issues so that people will know there  aren’t any national boundaries when it comes to protecting our

environment. It goes on to explain that since he does not understand  Mandarin or Taiwanese, if he should present this letter to

churches and seek their assistance, churches must try to help him and  offer him food and shelter.

Miyata saw a news report describing a hole in the ozone layer when he  was merely 6 years old and became very interested in

environmental preservation ever since. While he was pursuing his  graduate degree in South Korea in 2007, he saw British

environmentalist Paul Coleman walk across China and decided to put his  studies on hold to follow Coleman’s example. In the past

year, Miyata has walked from Hong Kong to Beijing and trekked parts of  South Korea and Okinawa. He has walked 4,400 km

>so far.

Curious strangers often approach Miyata during his treks, allowing him  to introduce himself and his cause. He hopes that his

trek across Taiwan will inspire those he meets along the way to start  their own walk for the environment. Upon hearing his story,

many people readily offer him food and shelter and other resources.  However, he has also gone through consecutive days with only

water and sleeping outdoors in his sleeping bag.

This is Miyata’s first time in Taiwan. He was impressed by  Taiwan’s scenery and hopes to see more during his trip. He also  brought along a rainbow-colored flag to gather signatures from Taiwanese  people concerned about the environment. Miyata hopes to fill the flag  with signatures and forward it to the United Nations to let officials  know that many people are concerned about environmental preservation. He  hopes that small gestures like these can spur officials into taking  action that will protect our planet.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages.

You may translate and re-use the articles only if you acknowledge the  source as "Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and  writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles. You may direct  comments and questions to: enews@pctpress.org

Visit our web site: http://www.pctpress.org  (Chinese)

>http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English)

>********************