"PICK AND SHOVEL PEACEMAKERS" (A UNESCO RADIO REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTARY WORK CAMPS IN S.E. ASIA)

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1 "PICK AND SHOVEL PEACEMAKERS" (A UNESCO RADIO REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTARY WORK CAMPS IN S.E. ASIA) TATION ANNOUNCER: To hope for peace - to talk of peace is (Not recorded) easy. To do something definite to make peace more certain is more difficult. To find and take the opportunity for such work is often the obstacle that blocks our desire to do it....the programme we are going to hear, produced in the studios of Unesco in Paris, reports how the young people of many nations have found and are still finding their opportunityl CONTROL: PLAY UNESCO RECORDING Duration: 11 mins0 TATION ANNOUNCER: You have just heard a report on the (Not recorded) rnternational Voluntary Work Camp Movement in countries beyond Europe The speakers were Mrs. Best of the Service Civil International, and Mr. Hein of the World Council of Churches' Youth Department The narrator was Ken Pittendrigh (pronounced Pitt'n'dree) of the Radio Division of Unesco in Paris - from which we received the recording. Record No Language: English Duration: 11 mins0 (Copies of this recording are available, free of charge, on application to Unesco4 Please forward the enclosed order form.) U.N.E.S.C.O. 19, AVENUE KLB'ER PARIS 16E U.NE.S.C.O. WS/0L12, 9

2 MCR/265 - page 2 "PICK AND SHOVEL PEACEMAKERS" (A UNESCO RADIO REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTARY WORK CAMPS IN S. E. ASIA) ANNOUNCER: CONTROL: Unesco presents - "Pick and Shovel Peacemakers" a story of International Voluntary Work Camps in south East Asia. INTRODUCTORY MUSIC - ESTABLISH THEN UNDER NARRATOR. In this troubled world of ours with its grim legacies of war, its countless unsolved problems, and its fears about the future, it is good to realise that there are individuals and groups of people constantly doing positive, constructive work for peace and a better life. They are like oases in a desert of uncertainty. One of these oases is the International Voluntary Work Camp Movement through which young people from many nations can get to know each other and at the same time do essentially practical things undramatic things like building a house or digging a drainage ditch - which will benefit the life of other people. 'ONTROL: MUSIC OUT. A conference has just been held at Unesco House in Paris at which representatives of thirty-seven organisations concerned with the running of International Voluntary Work Camps reviewed the achievements of the Work Camp Movement last year and discussed their plans and projects for this yearn These camps have been a feature of life for European and American youth for many years, but since the end of the Second World War the movement has spread far beyond Europe to Asia and the East. And so the delegates at the Unesco WS/042.9

3 NCR/265 page 3 (Contd.) conference found that Item six on the agenda was "The geographic extension of the work camp movement," They heard what has been and is being done in countries like India, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines from men and women who have recently visited them or whose organisations are responsible for the work camps that have been established in theme Two of the delegates are with us now to give what can unfortunately be only a fragment of the full.story. They are NISe Best of S.C.I. - the Service Civil International - and Mr. Hein of the World Council of Churches' Youth Department,..,Nr, Hein tells us first how the Work Camp Movement was introduced to Japan. MR. HE IN: The work camp movement in Japan and the Far East has largely begun since the close of the Second World War. In Japan work began through the initiative of missionaries coming from America and Europe leading Japanese Christian youth into work camp work. These missionaries were familiar with the ideas of Sereso and other work camp leaders in Europe and with the help of Japanese Christian organizations have hold four or five camps each year. In Thailand, work was begun last year under the same form of leadership and similarly in India although this form of work has been known in India for quite some time. A work camp was also started there under our auspices in May. For the story from India and Pakistan we call on Mrs. Best, who was recently a visitor to various camps in tl-iese countries. She tells of the extent to which the movement has developed there. WS/OL2, 9

4 MCR/265 page MRS BEST: I worked on two camps in India from January 1950 to July 1951 and for six weeks on a camp in Pakistan, Also in September 1951 I visited a third camp in India. In 1951, S.C.I. - Service Civil International - also organized two camps in Assam but I did not take part in these. I see, And you expect a similar number to be in operation this year? MRS. BEST: This year there are now two camps running in Assam. The third, which began in September 1951, completed its work and $ closed in February. At least one summer camp will be held in a cool area and the programme for next winter will certainly not be less than last year. The Pakistan camp continues and other projects are being investigated. A few moments ago we referred briefly to the essentially practical things that the volunteers in work camps do. This is equally true of camps beyond and within Europe - as Mr. Hein illustrates in this outline of a recently completed project in Japan. NR. HEIN: Well, last year they were engaged in five projects in Tokio in a rural area, in Morioka slums near Iriomakau and in a number of other places and I really find that the Ayamoko- Morioka slum project was one of the most interesting projects of our whole work camp programme last year. That was actually'slurn clearance - rebuilding work and housing,. WS/042,9

5 MCR/265 page 5 I'4R, JIN: Yes, that's right. The slum project, as you may know, involved a good deal of drainage canal digging, road works bringing the general conditions of this slum into a more liveable situation. The Morioka slum is particularly difficult to work in because it is an area where uneducated labourers have returned from the Sakaheen mines and where educated professional people who were formerly civil servants in Korea or China and the South Seas have also returned to live. There has been a terrific delinquency problem and in that situation it was necessary to bring outside influence to show the youth particularly as well as the older people that there was something that they could do. The work actually done was to dig 2,000 metres of drainage canal, re-surfacing of 2,000 metres of roads in the slum area, carrying 190 truckloads of river stones from the river to be used in grading and surfacing these roads. And naturally thirty campers did not do that alone. But it happened that the people of Ayamahau, when they saw what these campers were doing, came to their aid and before the end of the five week camp, eight hundred people from this slum area volunteered their services to help do this job. Mr. Heins reference there to the enthusiasm displayed by the local population in the camp area and their eagerness to help in the work the campers do leads us to the composition of these work camps in South East Asia and the East Mrs. Best reveals that, despite the distance from Europe and the difficulties that arise because of it, these camps have a truly international character. WS/o)42.9

6 MCR/265 - page 6 MRS. BEST: The original teams sent to India and Pakistan included volunteers from England, Germany and Switzerland. Since then, others from America, Finland, France, Japan and Norway have volunteered for them. About two hundred volunteers drawn from the local population and from all parts of India, chiefly through student and other groups interested in this type of service, have also worked as full members of the team, in addition to a good number who have co-operated in various ways. Nrs. Best was referring, of course, to the camps she visited in India and Pakistan - and she goes on to show that the work this international team did there was in some respects similar to the work Mr. Hein spoke of in Japan. MRS. BEST: Two of the work projects in India during the cooler months were for refugee housing, one sponsored by the Ministry of Rehabilitation, the other by a Co-operative Housing Society. The summer project in the hills was the construction of a village drinking water supply, privately sponsored but assisted by an official grant. The Assam camps were for the rebuilding of schools destroyed by earthquake. In Pakistan the work was also refugee housing, sponsored by the Ministry of Rehabilitation. MR. HEIN: And now - what of this year's projected work? Mr. Hein tells us of a typical project which will soon be started in Thailand. Well, in Thailand, as you probably know, there is a great need to go into the undeveloped areas. Therefore this years project will be going to a backwoods section where there is a Ws/oL:2,9

7 NCR/265 page 7 MR. HE IN: (Contd.) leper colony under one of the Christian missions. This leper colony has been faced with the terrific problem of isolating the non-diseased children from the diseased families. The project which has been given to us has been to build five homes for children from diseased families so that these children may be isolated in order that they do not fall victims to the same disease. So the work continues - each year expanding a little further. To continue this brief report on the Work Camp Movement outside Europe, Mrs. Best speaks of the growing popularity of the movement in these countries, of the way in which the work is always related to local traditions, and of the qualities necessary in the young people who volunteer to go to places very different in character to their own homes. MRS. BEST: Well, the expense involved naturally restricts the number of volunteers who can be sent from the West. So far travel to Tnciia has been paid for by S.C.I. with some help from Unesco for the school rebuilding camps. It is also obvious that only volunteers who have work camp experience and a certain maturity can be sent to such camps where living conditions an the cultural and social background are very different from those in the West. MRS. BEST: And the popularity of the camps in these areas is growing? There is no doubt that there is already a great interest among young people in India and Pakistan in work camps. The idea of voluntary service is widely understood and the ws/o)42.9

8 NCR/265 - page 8 MRS. BEST: volunteers who have worked with our teams have expressed (Contd.) great appreciation both for the discipline of manual work and of a regular routine of work and recreation which we try to follow, and for the opportunity of living and working with members of other nations so that they may get to know them as friends. CONTROL: MUSIC TO END. ws/o!42

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