Too busy to volunteer?
Meet Alan Gibson( on the left), our man on the ground in Kobe Japan. Alan coordinates weekly pickups of fresh fruit at the Port of Hyogo for the Kozmoz Kansai Food Bank. Raising kids and working can really take up your day, but Alan takes busy to a new level, heading up the new Japanese […]
Real People, Real Needs
Each week, hundreds line up rain or shine at this public housing complex in South Kyoto to receive food donations from Kozmoz International. The people are real, the needs are real, and the needs wont go away until there are some fundamental changes made in our society. These people are not homeless, they are hard […]
Meet Verdiana!
Meet Verdiana, one of our super volunteers at the Kyoto Kozmoz Activity Center. After graduating from the University in Florence Italy, she came to study Japanese in Kyoto where she found out about Kozmoz Kansai Food Bank. Since her name is a little difficult for some Japanese people to pronounce, we call her Midori. Midori […]
A time to reflect
June 11th to 24th at Ryukoku University in South Kyoto there will be a gallery display of photographs taken after the Great Eastern Japanese Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11th 2011. This is a good chance to remember and reflect upon the enourmity of the disaster, the staggering loss of life and property, and […]
Good News!
Sorry for the the long silence…. what a year it has been! Now a little good news 😉 Pictured is the new Kozmzo Kansai Distribution Center! I know I often whine here about societal needs and the gross level of public apathy that has gotten us where we are but…
Meet Derek
Meet Derek Macatantan, one of the many people that enable Kozmoz to offer social services to thousands of disadvantaged individuals and families in the Kansai region. Derek has been volunteering weekly at our activity center in Fushimi Ward in South Kyoto for over a year now. Derek does many things including teaching english to children, […]
Thanks
The other morning I found this note in the Kozmoz mailbox along with a 200 yen donation. For those that dont read Japanese the note says… "I receive public assistance. My rent sucks up most of my welfare allowance and the only way I could ever eat a pastry is to take something out of […]
Hope began and ends here in Kamagaseki
Today was our weekly trip taking aid of foodstocks to the Kamagaseki district in Nishinari Ku of Osaka. With its aptly named Ginza street (named after the elite district of Tokyo), it has been the source and bust of dreams for years in Western Japan. It is also often a shock for new middle class […]
Strawberries for orphans
"Orphans in Kyoto"?? That was the question from our new driver at the food bank in Kansai this week. He was amazed to find that there are so many orphanages, that it takes 4 days a week for our foodbank delivery van to stop by just the ones in Kyoto, Takatsuki, and Ibaraki. We have […]
A Cold Night in Tennoji with the Batman
Tennoji station is the largest hub station in south Osaka and home to one of the largest homeless populations in the nation of Japan. It is also the haunt of a man that we call The Batman that helps provide for the local residents with no roof to call their own. We call him The […]
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