Adamant Namiki’s Initiative for SDGs: “Fro-pro Orbray” Online Meeting for Midterm Report

By President and CEO Riyako Namiki

On July 9, we held an online meeting of “Fro-pro Orbray” to report the progress of the members’ projects.  

“FROM PROJECT,” a non-profit organization in Japan, supports high school students who are struggling to articulate their intangible issues and seek solutions through leaning and actions. Last year, Orbray Co., Ltd. started to collaborate with the organization to provide learning opportunities for high school students in Yuzawa City and Yokote City, where we have factories. In the solution-oriented learning, college student members assist high school students. We were so impressed with college students’ enthusiasm to provide younger students with skills and tips to cope with challenges in their life that we decided to cooperate with the organization. This is the first time for the organization to team up with a private company.  

Last year, the project was promoted under the name of “Fro-pro Adamant,” taking part of our company’s name. As our company is slated to change its name to “Orbray” in January 2023, we are using “Fro-pro Orbray” this year to refer to the project.

In most classes at Japanese schools, teachers give lectures and students listen to them. With the learning style, it’s not easy for students to acquire the ability to recognize issues and come up with solutions, even though the competence is much more important to survive through their life than knowledge.

When I got to know the activities of Fro-pro, I thought: “I could have a different life if I had participated in Fro-pro's activities when I was a high school student. I want to have as many high school students as possible know about Fro-pro!” That’s why I decided to support the project.

Project

This year, so far, we have held four one-line meetings. On July 9, we had a midterm report meeting. Twelve high school students reported about the progress of their projects in which they continued to get assistance from college student members.

Kotomi and Suguri

The first presenters were Kotomi and Suguri. In deciding their plans for future, they wanted to listen to opinions of college students, rather than their parents and teachers. They wanted to hear frank opinions of college students regarding not only university entrance exams but also college life. Kotomi and Suguri already had an experimental event with college students. They plan to hold two more events based on the experience.

Yuito

Yuito has been pondering why a suicide rate of Akita’s young people is much higher than those of other prefectures in Japan and how to lower the rate. He is taking a survey among his friends and considering measures to ease stresses which may trigger suicides.

Sakura

Sakura made a presentation about environmental problems in Yuzawa City. Since she heard about sea turtles which eat marine waste, she’s been considering how to raise the awareness of illegal dump. For the purpose, she plans to hold a flea market and an art event on marine waste.  

Hiyori

Hiyori has some doubt about digital learning at schools and she has been thinking what it is aimed for. She wants to discuss with members of education boards and teachers and plans to report what she will find out.

Taishun

Taishun is thinking about exchange programs for children and adults amid COVID-19 pandemic, which stresses children by prohibiting chats during school meals and restricting other behaviors. An event of playing cards is one possible option, according to him.

Wako

Wako plans to hold four workshops for high school students to have chats about their beauty care. Though many students have troubles with their skins, they have no opportunities to learn about skin care at schools, she said.

Ayaka

Ayaka is planning a get-together meeting for people from different generations in communities. She has been concerned that some elementary schools in her region were closed because of mergers and children have been out of touch with adults in their neighborhood.  

Honoka

Honoka wants to hold a session of learning the Akita dialect so that junior and senior high school students get to know the dialect better. Some of her friends are interested in the Akita dialect that she speaks, though they don’t know much about it.

Yuna

Yuna has found that dogs get more exhausted than humans during summer because they walk closer to the surface of roads and get exposed more to the scorching heat reflected from the asphalt. She is planning an event to help dogs and their owners cool down and relax. 

Haruto

Haruto, who looks like a serious person, plans to do research on methods to improve grades and share results with many other high school students. He hopes other students will try such methods and grades of entire classes will be boosted.

Misaki

Misaki, who hates bugs, wants to carry out research on repelling methods and share findings with others who aren’t good with bugs.

All projects sound lovely and make me smile. Over the next 45 days or so, these plans will be put into action. Many members plan events which will involve both children and adults. They need to hire venues, make flyers and distribute them – they probably have never experienced such tasks in classrooms. It’s exciting to imagine what they will consider and experience to achieve these goals before a final reporting meeting.

Related article
Adamant Namiki’s Initiative for SDGs – Launching ‘’fro-pro’’ Workshop
Fro-pro Orbray Instagram (Japanese only)　 https://www.instagram.com/fropro_orbray/　
FROM PROJECT (Japanese only)　https://www.fromproject.org/