Ewah Womans University, Kyoto University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Peking University 

The initiative has brought together 56 students from four universities to Kyoto. They are Ewha Womans University in South Korea, Kyoto University in Japan, Peking University in China and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. The students completed the programme in this past summer and visited the earthquake museum and local districts in Kobe to learn about the Japanese’s persistence and modesty in living with the nature. In addition, they were divided into five groups to serve in local communities and had opportunity to have a glance of the active ageing situation in both cities and rural areas. Together with the local elderly and organizations, they proposed and co-created events, workshops, and public engagement in Kyoto. Their fruitful experiences were then showcased and presented in the form of an exhibition in Kyoto University. It is planned to involve more USRN member institutions in the programme next year.

“My priority becomes group achievement rather than my own. The most touching moment was when we who were from three countries proposed ideas for making Japanese local community greater and local citizen seriously discussed with us about the ideas.”

Keiichi Ishizu, Kyoto University

“After the CJK SERVE Initiative, I feel stronger connection with Japan and Korea… I am eager to learn their languages and culture to better communicate with them.  And I have a most touching moment when one Japanese elderly – who was the cameraman that took photos for us all the time – made a wonderful photo collection as a gift for us on the last day. In return we gave him a Chinese knot and he proudly showed us the knot after he tied it on his bag.”

Sijia Yao, Scarlettee, Peking University

“Active elderlies in Japan cherish every single relationship with their peers and treasure the opportunity to build good relationship with youngsters. Elderly is never a burden of the society.” 

Koey Ko, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

“It was memorable and meaningful to work with students from different countries, we gave ideas on elderly situation based on our daily experiences and combined them to form complete solutions.”

Jack Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University