Benevolence of a Japanese woman
We wholeheartedly thank Hiroko Kobayashi, an 88-year-old Japanese woman who has been financially supporting secondary and higher education of about a hundred impoverished girls in Jheniadah and Panchagarh. She has taught them how to dream: Jhumur Khatun of Jhenidah is pursuing a Master's degree while Soma Das is studying civil engineering in a polytechnic institute thanks to her generosity but for which these girls would have no other option than to drop out.
Kobayashi lives in Japan and comes to visit these children every year, the first time being in 2003 when she came to know of a girl from Kaliganj who had killed herself for not being able to take the HSC exam for want of money. As we emphatically acknowledge her altruism, what to make of an act of compassion so complete that encompasses even those she had never met or known nothing about? For most of us that's where the difficulty lies—in feeling a part of our shared humanity that transcends national boundaries, colour and creed.
Feeling compassion is one thing; acting on it is another. Kobayashi not only showed a moment's sympathy to suffering in a faraway place or doled out money, she made a connection with a group of young women who needed a helping hand to realise their potential. That is the abiding message of this story. But positive emotions like helping others, studies show, are subject to changes brought about by environmental output. Children who have compassionate parents tend to be more altruistic. Parents would do well to take the example of this octogenarian Japanese woman and foster compassionate behaviour in their children.
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