On April 2 Yoshitake Sakurada, then parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, visited the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya to fulfill then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's promise of giving a pencil to every child there. He handed over about 110,000 pencils, notebooks, and other stationeries to children after inspecting a hospital and elementary school in the camp. The following morning, he attended a ceremony presenting an ambulance to the hospital and writing materials to schoolchildren in the refugee camp.

In January Prime Minister Mori, accompanied by Sadako Ogata, former United Nations high commissioner for refugees, paid a visit to South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. He made the first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as an acting Japanese prime minister to stress the view that "there will be no stability and prosperity in the world in the twenty-first century unless the problems of Africa are resolved."

During a visit to the refugee camp, one of his main destinations in Kenya, Prime Minister Mori promised that he would give a pencil to every child at the camp. He also said that he would donate one million yen to cover the expense of buying an ambulance.

Later he appealed to Toyota Motors for help. The company immediately promised to cooperate by all means and agreed to provide a four-wheel-drive ambulance.

Pencils donated by the parliamentary secretaries of each ministry soon surpassed the target of 20,000 and reached more than 110,000 when a pencil maker in Tokyo made a big contribution.

Every parliamentary secretary and the parties then in power in Japan contributed to cover the transportation expenses. The surplus funds were delivered to Japan's nongovernmental organizations to be used for school construction in Africa.

Photos: (top) Sakurada hands out pencils to the camp's kids; (above) discussing new ways to help Africa. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan)