Igarashi Nozomi, CWS Japan Project Officer, shared about recent events hosted at the Community Cafe @ Okubo in celebration of World Refugee Day and Pride Month, where LGBTQ+ individuals and refugee community members could share stories, build understanding, and celebrate diversity through dialogue and collaborative art.
CWS Japan operates the Community Cafe @ Okubo with ecumenical partners to aid the relationship building between refugee and asylum seeker newcomers and local communities in Japan by hosting biweekly events in a local church. Last month, we held an event to coincide with Pride Month and World Refugee Day in June.
Celebrating Pride Month at the Cafe
Top: Community members participate in the Community Cafe session; Bottom: Project Officer Nozomi Igarashi attends the Pride parade in Tokyo
Every June, Pride Month raises awareness of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and various events—including Pride parades—are held around the world. This year, the Community Cafe planned an event to celebrate Pride for the first time.
The event started with speakers and participants introducing themselves before CWS Japan staff shared the ground rules, confirming that the cafe was a safe space where everyone could feel comfortable talking about what they wanted to talk about. We also provided topics for the group to discuss together.
I spoke about sexual diversity and the different ways in which people sexually identify before explaining the unique challenges that members of the LGBTQ+ community are likely to face, such as accessing medical and welfare services and finding resources for support. Unfortunately, many individuals find it difficult to ask for help due to the prejudice and discrimination they face.
This was an opportunity to learn the importance of considering how to provide support on a day-to-day basis, so individuals can feel comfortable asking for support even in times of disaster or when there are situations where they cannot or do not want to disclose their identity to those around them.
For this event, we also invited Toshihide Tanaka—an administrative scrivener who supports children and young people—as a speaker to share about his work and experiences as a gay man. The day’s participants also shared their experiences, providing us with an opportunity to think about the matter.
Some people participated in this event as allies, and many others came because they wanted to take this opportunity to learn more. Even after the event ended, conversations continued, and it seemed everyone was interested! We would like to continue holding sessions on the theme of sexual inclusivity in the future, and work to create a space where diversity is welcomed.
Celebrating World Refugee Day With Artwork Cafe
Photos of the finished World Refugee Day collages.
Every year, June 20th is designated by the United Nations as World Refugee Day, and various events are held to raise awareness of the current situation of refugees. Since we are also involved in creating spaces with refugees on a daily basis, we held the “World Refugee Day: Artwork Cafe”, where participants created art collages!
We brought colored construction paper and various magazines that could be used as materials, cut out things that caught our eye, and stuck them together to create our works of art. Some people who had difficulty cutting out things made origami and stuck them down.
At first, I didn’t know how to create a collage with the theme of “World Refugee Day,” and there were times when the work didn’t progress well. However, without worrying about the theme, I just cut out things that caught my eye and thought I would create something from what I had, and when I started cutting out things as I pleased, more and more ideas came to me and I was able to get my hands moving. Also, by working while chatting with everyone, I was able to move my hands intuitively without thinking too deeply, and I was able to create with fun. As a result, various wonderful works full of individuality were born!
The theme of this year’s World Refugee Day is “solidarity for a future where we live together with refugees.” Though many of our friends with foreign roots, including those who are currently applying for refugee status, were unable to participate this time, we hope to continue working to create a space where we can continue to support each other and walk together with refugees into the future.
Igarashi Nozomi is a Project Officer with CWS Japan. To learn more about the work of CWS Japan, visit their website (in Japanese) or click here.