In summer 2019, Women's Action Network received a pleasant offer of donation from Menaka Maruthainar, an organizer of a high school Japanese culture study group in the U.K. Unfortunately at this point, WAN does not accept payment by Pay-Pal or credit card from overseas, so we politely declined the kind offer. However, Worldwide WAN asked her to write about their activities.

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Japanese Café School Event
By Menaka Maruthainar

Haberdashers’ Aske's School for Girls in the UK has a Japanese Club run by myself and other members of the sixth form. We run activities every week for the younger students at school to introduce them to Japanese culture and history, such as language lessons and origami making sessions.

In May 2019 we ran a café in the school hall to raise money for charity. The theme of the café was sakura flowers to celebrate spring, and we decorated the hall with origami sakura flowers and a handcrafted sakura tree we made with the help of other students who attend our club. We also wore pink and white clothes to match the sakura theme. We sold biscuits and cupcakes with cherry blossoms iced on top, as well as heart shaped pancakes. We also sold Japanese sweets such as Pocky and Hello Panda, and showed anime for students to watch while they ate.

We raised money for the charity Aid For Japan, which helps orphans of the East Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011. They run courses in Japan with activities to help orphans regain their confidence and explore the cultural differences & similarities between Japan and the UK. They also run trips to England when they can to give them an enjoyable experience and let them know that they are supported and remembered all around the world. Our event was very successful and we managed to sell out halfway through the lunch hour. We are so happy to have raised £149 for the valuable work funded by Aid For Japan.