| Syazwani Hj Rosli |
THE Ambassador of Japan to Brunei Darussalam, Motohiko Kato, held a farewell ceremony yesterday for five students and a teacher from Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah College (MDPMAMB) who will be leaving for Japan to attend the High School Students Summit on World Tsunami Awareness Day 2018 in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan.
The delegation, representing youth ambassadors from Brunei Darussalam, will join high school students from Japan and 450 participants from 48 countries at the event, to be held from October 31 until November 1.
During the event, participants will learn about measures used to protect people’s lives from disasters through various scheduled activities.
Speaking to the Bulletin, one of the participating students, Dayangku Noor Amal Shahirah Hazerah binti Pengiran A’malluddin Shah shared that she and her fellow group members have done early preparations for the summit, such as slide presentations to be presented to the audience during the event, as well as a traditional dance performance for the cultural exchange session.
“Alhamdulillah, Brunei is safe from tsunamis but anything can happen and we should not be ignorant of this issue, hence we should prepare ourselves with disaster contingency knowledge, especially when it comes to unpredictable incidents,” she added.
November 5 is designated ‘World Tsunami Awareness Day’ through a resolution jointly proposed and adopted by 142 countries – including Japan – at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December 2015, with the aim of deepening international understanding and raising awareness of the danger posed by tsunamis and precautionary measures against them.
The High School Students Summit on ‘World Tsunami Awareness Day’ was established with the goal of fostering future leaders capable of protecting people’s lives and their properties from natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
To date, it has been held in Kochi Prefecture in 2016 and in Okinawa Prefecture in 2017.
This year’s event in Wakayama Prefecture looks to build upon the successful outcomes of these previous summits.
During their trip, the students will also attend the local Fire Festival and go on a study tour of the prefecture.