Isn't there something we can do?" The International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan was held in January in Tokyo, and kids all around Japan are wondering what they can do to help out, too.

At Miyamae Elementary School in the village of Iidaka, Mie Prefecture, the sixth graders, 17 students, decided to raise money by holding a flea market at their school. They wanted lots of people to come, so they provided games, food, and entertainment and called the event The Doyama Festival, named after the mountain next to their school.

The sixth graders' hard work inspired the younger kids in school and people all over town to pitch in and help raise money. In the end they gathered over 5,000 items to sell at the flea market and made 124,369 yen (956 U.S. dollars at 130 yen to the dollar) for the children of Afghanistan. They say, "We hope the kids there will be able to use this money to buy school supplies."

In Shonan Village, Chiba Prefecture the children at Tega-higashi Elementary School sent rice to the refugees. The students in the volunteer committee set up boxes all over the school to collect rice, and after a four-day campaign they had 85 kilograms of rice from all of the students at school. The students knew of a singer named Mr. Kyo who was organizing charity concerts to get food to the Afghan refugees. So, the students invited him to the school and presented the rice to him.

At Tokiwa-higashi Elementary School (site is Japanese only) in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, the students also gave rice to Mr. Kyo to help the refugees. The rice they sent had a special meaning; it was grown by the fifth-grade students themselves.

The fifth-graders, 21 students, were learning how to grow rice through a class at school. They worked very hard in their field, and last September they had a great harvest of rice. When they heard about Mr. Kyo, they sent 20 kilograms of their own rice through him to Afghanistan: "We hope the kids in Afghanistan will enjoy the rice we have grown."

In Kobe City, where some of this year's World Cup soccer games will be played, sixth-grade girls on a soccer team asked all of the other teams in Kobe, over 3000 kids, to send soccer balls. And before they are sent, the kids will write messages to the kids in Dari, one of the official languages of Afghanistan.

A lot of kids in the world need help, and students all over Japan are showing that we can make a difference one grain of rice, one heart, and even one soccer ball at a time.

Photos: (Top) A performance at the Doyama Festival (Miyamae Elementary School); (Second) Students entertain guests with music (Miyamae Elementary School); (Third) Students at Tega-higashi Elementary School try eating rice meal (Tega-higashi Elementary School); (Bottom) Students at Tokiwa-higashi Elementary School give rice to Mr. Kyo (Tokiwa-higashi Elementary School).