On February 24, Co-op Kobe a member co-op of JCCU held 'Discover! SDGs Action Forum' at the Co-op Kobe Living Culture Center.

At the forum 'My SDGs Action Contest' was held where 6 out of 120 groups of applicants introduced their initiatives to create sustainable regional communities.

SUMUSUMU, a student group that encourages multi-generational exchanges won the Grand Prix for the one- day operation of a restaurant. 

Mr. MIKITANI Takeshi, who has been making route maps for wheelchair users, won the Second Grand Prix and Kobe Municipal Nagisa Junior High School won the Special Jury Prize. 

Many other groups also gave excellent presentations. In addition, photos of some of the 120 applicant groups were displayed at the venue.

       

Ms. MORI Mizuki, who represented the 'SUMUSUMU' group that won the Grand Prix for the one-day operation of 'Choimachi Restaurant', said 'We operate a cafeteria where university students, people with dementia, people with disabilities, etc. do the same work equally. Mistakes are inherent, everyone can make mistakes, however, if everyone could tolerate them, then the workplace would be a place where everyone can easily take on challenges'. 'Choimachi' is the Japanese word for 'Wait a bit', or 'A slight mistake'．

      　　　　                                                                                                    Barrier-free map production by a company owner with a wheel chair

In his own words, Mr. Mikitani who won the Second Grand Prix said 'I developed a cerebral infarction in 2013 and became a wheelchair user. I have been developing a wheelchair route map to eliminate the difficulty of riding on a public road with a wheelchair. With the cooperation of many people, including post office workers, I was able to update route maps for all 140 stations in Kobe and 179 stations on the Tokyo Metro. With the cooperation of the community-based consumer co-ops, I wish to develop route maps of all stations around the world as a contribution to SDGs 7 and 11'.

The Judge's Special Prize was awarded to students of Nagisa Junior High School in Kobe City. They think and act on what they can do about the SDGs.

       　　　　  　

With the cooperation of Music Activist Shiho, who is working to deliver sanitary cloth napkins to Kenya, they made cloth napkins for Kenyan girls. Currently, the first-year students are learning about the SDGs once a week and making cloth napkins during the school semesters on their own initiatives.

At the Action Forum, Ms. SUEYOSHI Rika, CEO of the Ethical Association Institute, gave a lecture and talked about 'Ethical consumption' in consideration of people, society and the global environment.