When the Local Association Networking Support (LANS) was launched in September 2017, the Jadavpur University Sylff Association (JU-Sylff Association) was the first to take advantage of it. In March 2018, the association organized a two-day event in Kolkata, India, inviting JU-Sylff fellows from other parts of India, as well as Britain and Ireland. This year it organized another one, as successful as the first but with more depth in contents. The following is a report on the meeting.

*　*　*

Our Vision for LANS 2019

JU-SYLFF began in 2003 with the vision to create an interdisciplinary research platform for students who hold the capacity to lead social change. Fifteen years on, the collective has grown to number over 40 fellows who have carried within themselves the ethos of SYLFF in their deeply diverse yet convergent projects.

In 2018, JU-SYLFF received the inaugural Local Association Networking Support (LANS) grant from the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. The meeting organized with this grant brought together fellows, graduated and current, along with mentors, who discussed their research and deliberated over the potential of capacity-building measures. They attempted to imagine ways in which collective goals could be achieved that may go on to address social, cultural, and environmental issues that concern us all in different ways.

It also marked the beginning of something new—the potential to create something whose impact could be greater than our individual projects and research interests. The note of enthusiasm on which LANS 2018 had ended ensured that the conversation would be carried on beyond the one-day meet. Several months of meetings and electronic communication later, the theme for LANS 2019 was centered around the idea of inclusivity, interpreted in its widest possible sense.

It became a matter of great honor for JU-SYLFF to receive the LANS grant for a second time in 2019. LANS 2019 gave us a fresh chance to create stronger networks within the SYLFF community for building an inclusive sphere of knowledge within academia and beyond. The meet was held over two days, March 14 and 15, 2019. The first day consisted of our annual visit to the Premananda Leprosy Mission Hospital as part of the Social Action Program at JU-SYLFF. The second day was assigned for capacity building through deliberation on four different areas in which the academic and professional experiences of fellows converge. The aim of creating such panels was to provide a thematic direction to our discussions on inclusivity.

JU-SYLFF LANS Meet 2019, Day One

Visit to Premananda Memorial Leprosy Hospital

As part of the JU-SYLFF Association’s Social Action Program, current and graduated fellows visited the Premananda Memorial Leprosy Hospital on March 14, 2019. The hospital is located adjacent to the Manicktola Christian cemetery in the northern part of the city and was established in the year 1986 by Reverend Premananda Sen of the Oxford Mission as a treatment center for leprosy sufferers. It is currently run by the Leprosy Mission Trust India.

As with every year, fellows gathered at the SYLFF office in the morning to set out for the day. Reaching the hospital at 11 am, the team, along with the head of staff, Mr. Mark Moloy Ambros, went around the inpatient and outpatient wings to meet everyone at the hospital. The fellows met Dr. Helen Roberts, medical superintendent of the hospital, to learn about the many positive changes that had taken place at the hospital since their previous visit. Among the new additions to the existing infrastructure of the hospital was an elevator that could accommodate stretchers; the previous could only accommodate patients who were sitting or standing. Hospital beds with side rails had also been arranged for patients who might run the risk of falling off. The hospital has also begun to visit schools and organizations by invitation for the purpose of conducting awareness campaigns on leprosy free of charge.

As the helpful staff of the hospital took us around, they introduced us to individual patients. Our exchanges with them were heartening. But the story of one patient, Jamshed, particularly inspired us.

Prior to his ailment, Jamshed worked as a bricklayer in his village, Gangarampur, in South Dinajpur. He not only sustained himself with the money that he earned but also took care of his siblings and supported their education. He was admitted to the Premananda Memorial Leprosy Hospital in 2016 with the help of Pastor Nicholas Hembrom shortly after he was diagnosed. Despite his severe ailment, Jamshed was not only determined to recover from leprosy and begin working again but was also committed to bringing the services of the Premananda Mission Leprosy Hospital and the Leprosy Mission Trust India to his hometown, where many men, women, and children similarly suffered from leprosy. The hospital has been engaged in community outreach for over two years, ever since Jamshed’s efforts began to take shape in 2016. In their many visits to Gangarampur as part of their community outreach program, the hospital has conducted extensive surveys and awareness campaigns across the village with the help of Pastor Hembrom and Jamshed to tend to the poor who suffer from leprosy. Medical treatment and supplies have been distributed for free.

In 2017 the total number of patients treated at the village was 187, whereas this year over 360 patients were treated on the hospital’s visit on March 9. The hospital envisions more frequent visits to the village, perhaps on a quarterly basis from this year onward. Jamshed has also been rehabilitated by the hospital and is currently employed as the watchman of the premises. His story and his determination to help his people are heroic and of unparalleled inspiration to all of us at JU-SYLFF.

With contributions from the JU-SYLFF family, the fellows were able to offer medical supplies, fruits, and sweets for the patients at the hospital. Along with the supplies offered, a sum of 3000 INR was donated for prosthetics. It will be of foremost interest to us in all our future visits to the hospital to continue collecting funds for prosthetics.

A special lunch was arranged for the patients. Our team was delighted to be accompanied by the doctors and staff for lunch. A popular film, Dangal, was screened in the afternoon. The team departed from the hospital in the evening after a truly inspiring day.

Our team interacting with patients at the Premananda Memorial Leprosy Hospital.

 JU-SYLFF LANS Meet 2019, Day Two

Introspections on Inclusivity

Day two at LANS 2019 was arranged around the academic and professional experiences of fellows and the theme of inclusivity. The discussions were divided into four panels on pedagogy, environment and sustainability, gender and sexuality, and historiography. The 12th edition of the annual newsletter of JU-SYLFF, Fellows, was released.

The 12th edition of the annual newsletter of JU-SYLFF, Fellows, being released.

Pedagogy

“Why is difference important?” was the question that opened the first session of LANS 2019. In order to make it interactive, the audience was divided into groups and asked to present their views. A number of varied responses were recorded. While some thought that difference is required as a marker of distinctiveness, others noted how difference is imperative to the very foundation of democracy. This process of debating and deliberating in turn became an exercise in including difference. What emerged was a holistic perception of “inclusivity” that caters to the recognition and acknowledgement of difference. Speaking on inclusivity with respect to pedagogy, Anindita Roy questioned the politics of and preference for exclusion. She emphasized the importance of linguistic diversity, showing how bi- and multilingualism can promote an inclusive pedagogic practice for children.

Gender and Sexuality

If the first session aimed to explore the measures taken for inclusivity, the second panel brought to the fore what often remains excluded in our rather clinical attempts to include. This panel was chaired by Professor Kavita Panjabi, JU-SYLFF mentor and faculty at the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University. One of our earliest SYLFF fellows and now an international expert and activist on issues of intersexuality and sport, Payoshni Mitra spoke about the lack of awareness about the multiplicity of bodies that results in discrimination against female athletes with hyperandrogenism. She suggested that inclusivity may be comprehended in several ways. It is not enough to simply bring change in policies and regulations to include nonnormative bodies; the need of the hour is to critique and problematize the “norm” itself, as it is deeply rooted in structures of oppressive power. Mitra cites the example of how those female athletes with DSD should not be seen as having a “disorder” (as this implicitly entails a negative deviation from the norm) but a “difference” of sexual development. A reframing of the term can be a simple step toward inclusivity.

In her talk on the metamorphoses of LGBTQ+ policies in the postcolonial states, Natasha Upadhyay explained how inclusivity is a dynamic and ever-evolving phenomenon. Asserting that research in gender ought to be by principle inclusive, she shed light on some of the contemporary debates on inclusive policies at the intersection of postcolonial politics and Queer International Relations.

Rimple Mehta, who was a doctoral SYLFF fellow, discussed how she had to recalibrate her research questions in order to arrive at an inclusive, and thereby more nuanced, understanding of her subject. She illustrated the problems of being strictly rooted in and single-mindedly driven by one’s own research questions, to the extent that one ends up excluding that which needs the most attention. Mehta has worked extensively with Bangladeshi women prisoners on either side of the Indo-Bangladesh border. Although initially poised on the question of violence, her research gained more ground when she realized what had been excluded: the prisoners’ stories of love and love as the truest form of resistance. Including these unheard narratives finally led her to posit these women as “resisters” of violence, not simply its victims. She thus urged researchers to be self reflexive at every point and strive for “epistemological inclusivity.”

Fellows and mentors discussing questions of inclusivity.

Environment and Sustainability

This panel was chaired by Professor Joyashree Roy, founder-advisor at JU-SYLFF and Bangabandhu Chair Professor at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. She prefaced the session by mentioning that the thrust of the panel was threefold: to inquire how, if at all, inclusivity is operational in one’s field of work; to see who remains excluded; and to consider how one can be more inclusive with respect to environment and sustainability. The three panelists explored these concerns from their individual areas of research.

Duke Ghosh shared his concerns about the key human aspects, such as environmental health hazards, that are seemingly accounted for on paper but are excluded when infrastructural projects are eventually undertaken on the ground.

Shyamasree Dasgupta’s discussion was hinged on the need for an inclusive evaluation of forest resources so as to serve the cause of all stakeholders involved. She insisted that it is only through an inclusive evaluation of what natural resources provide that one can ensure distributional fairness and ecological sustainability. Related to this notion of the value of the natural environment is how indigenous communities continue to situate themselves at the crossroads of nature and civilization.

Extending the notion of inclusivity beyond anthropocentrism, Sudeshna Dutta spoke of adidharam. This is the principle that directs indigenous peoples to hold relations not only with fellow human beings but also with their surroundings, including the flora, fauna, and their natural habitat. According to this, inclusivity becomes a way of life—a mode of perceiving the world without hierarchies of power. However, Dutta mentions that such an inclusive approach is difficult to adopt and is only possible when one acknowledges one’s own epistemic limitations.

Historiography

The final panel of the day was chaired by Professor Abhijit Gupta, JU-SYLFF mentor and professor at the Department of English at Jadavpur University. The panel reflected on three broad areas of historiographical inquiry. Purbasha Auddy spoke about her work on nineteenth-century periodicals published in Bengal. Between 1818 and 1867 there was a profusion of newspapers and magazines, most of which were published by upper-class and upper-caste Bengalis who had access to the means of textual production. Reading between the lines of the existing bibliographical records, Auddy indicated three main lines of inquiry that her work has followed: What ideologies do they represent? What are the gender politics that are decipherable here? And out of what geographies and spaces do they emerge?

Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay's presentation was an attempt to understand the “postcolonial passage” marked both as a temporal and paradigmatic shift in India’s history and the terrain of official recordkeeping. What, he asked, does this shift mean for the “historian’s craft”? Bandyopadhyay’s talk was peppered with personal anecdotes and recollections, which served to illustrate his point about the transition. One in particular referred to the arbitrary manner in which archival records from Bengal were divided up between West Bengal and Dhaka. He pointed out the importance and contested status of archives built and maintained by communities that engage in political or social resistance in the face of state oppression. Bandyopadhyay suggested that in the postcolonial period, when India’s archiving mechanism went into decline compared to the colonial period, these archives have made the field far richer and more diverse. This proliferation and diversification, he argued, is what makes it difficult for the historian trained in colonial historiography to engage with contemporary histories.

In her talk, Neha Chatterjee took up the question of “historical conspicuousness”—what makes a particular movement visible and why communities might opt for an idiom of protest that is integrationist. She looked at the case of the Paundra Dalits of south Bengal—dubbed by some as “not-yet-fully mature Dalits”—and argued that even though it was a member of the Paundra Dalit community who authored the first “cross-caste Dalit solidarity in Bengal,” their decision to remain outside of dominant Dalit movements is backed by an awareness of the need to assert difference. Chatterjee argued that the Paundra Dalit movement has not caught the limelight of historical narratives because of this desire to be recognized for their contributions to social causes that include participation in the Indian freedom movement and the Tebhaga movement.

The day ended with a screening of the film In the Name of Pride directed by Payoshni Mitra, who has worked extensively in the field of gender and sport in both India and the world.

Fellows and mentors at a panel.

Looking Ahead

Over the two days at the LANS meet on March 14 and 15, 2019, fellows at JU-SYLFF found the opportunity to forge new friendships and renew old bonds that can continue to help them in creating positive change and transformation in the world around us. The active participation of our fellows and mentors culminated in the creation of a set of constructive ideas that we aim to take forward. They may be summarizes as follows:

• The creation of a blog: A virtual platform that will encourage fellows to contribute ideas and insights from their latest research and professional experiences and will make these available to a wider public readership.
• The possibility of collaborative research among fellows: A positive outcome that emerged from the structured discussions of day two was the realization of how the individual research of several fellows overlap in key areas and hold the potential of collaboration to make their respective work more inclusive and holistic. It gives us immense happiness to share that this potential is already being explored by our fellows and several discussions have begun.
• Outreach networks: Drawing on the suggestions of LANS 2018, which looked at the possibility of bringing together partners and subjects of individual research, options were explored in more detail. The possibility of creating outreach networks through grassroot conversations and multi-engagement of stakeholders are under consideration.
• Leadership meet: Building on the above recommendation, a larger leadership meet is being envisaged that may create an inclusive platform for future dialogue and engagement.

LANS 2019 ended on a note of constructive energy that has made clearer the pathway for JU-SYLFF as an inclusive platform for social change. The constant support and encouragement from the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research has kept our endeavors brimming with sincerity and success. We share our heartfelt gratitude for all fellows, who, through the work that they carry on at their respective individual levels and by ceaseless participation at a collective level, helps JU-SYLFF grow as a family. This meet has benefited immensely from the presence and guidance of our mentors: our former project director and founder-advisor at JU-SYLFF, Professor Joyashree Roy, and current project director at JU-SYLFF, Professor Shibashis Chatterjee.

The JU-SYLFF family hopes to keep working with energy and dedication for our collective dream of living in a beautiful world that is just, inclusive, and equitable.

Mohammed Nuruddeen Suleiman, a 2013 Sylff fellow at the University of Malaya and one of 20 participants in the first Sylff Leaders Workshop, reports on the fall session of the 2018-19 workshop, held from September 16 to 23 in Sasayama and Tokyo, Japan.

*     *     *

I was preparing to travel to Japan for a historic experience to participate in the inaugural Sylff Leaders Workshop when, exactly one week before my trip, a catastrophic typhoon struck Kansai International Airport, where my flight was supposed to land. The airport is a prestigious landmark that testifies to the ingenuity of the Japanese people, and it consolidates the imagination of mankind, the site being reclaimed from the sea to give way to a majestic structure. But now, the airport was closed, and my flight was cancelled about 24 hours before my departure due to the structural damage caused by the typhoon. Against all odds, however, the workshop organizers were determined to fly every participant to Japan. Their courage and determination paid off, as I was at Kansai International Airport barely 2 hours after its reopening.

I was more determined than ever not to miss this event, since the topic chosen for this inaugural workshop, “The Future of Food Production in 2030,” was very close to my heart. I felt this multicultural, multidisciplinary, and transborder gathering would provide some answers to food insecurity in my constituency. I am from Nigeria, a country in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where some countries are witnessing famine, poverty, hunger, civil war, and high infant mortality rates and where government corruption is preponderant. Furthermore, despite all these delicate fragilities, the continent’s population is growing at an alarming rate, implying with definite certainty that food insecurity would persist unless some radical measures are taken.

Fortunately, the Sylff Leader’s Workshop provided approaches to incubating hybrid strategies for sufficient and efficient food production in the future. The diversity of the participants, coupled with the methodology of Visioning and Road Mapping provided by Foresight Intelligence, a German-based consortium that facilitated the workshop, was superb. Although the participants were not necessarily experts in agriculture, the methodology enabled their reasoning capacity to provide holistic and empirical approaches toward the future of food production. Amazingly, these approaches enabled us to envision how best to ensure food security through modern technology and good governance, particularly in the global South, where hunger has been one of the daunting challenges.

Suleiman (standing) at the session in Sasayama

In the cultural and social realm, the majestic hospitality of our host throughout our stay in Japan was warm and breathtaking. In particular, the lovely Sasayama community is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. The mountains and architectural landscape of the community provided a spectacular window into the well-preserved and exquisite cultural heritage of Japan. My brief stay in Sasayama afforded me the opportunity to understand the significance of culture and patriotism through a Japanese prism. Likewise, years before, I read the history of great Japanese military warriors like General Tadamichi Kuribayashi during the battle of Iwo Jima, and this eradicated my ambivalent notions about the history of Japan.

Apart from the organizing team of the workshop, I have made 19 new friendships which are defined by multiculturalism from across the globe. And these friendships I am cherishing because of the love, devotion, and honesty each and every participant has shown to me, particularly on my arrival after a missed flight from Abuja to Osaka. 

I strongly believe that at the end of the second session of the workshop in April 2019 the communiqué or report would certainly provide ample solutions to one of the most debilitating challenges facing mankind.

Nermeen Varawalla is one of the 20 fellows participating in the first Sylff Leadership Workshop. The following is her report, on behalf of Working Group 2B, of the fall session of the Workshop, held in September 2018. Varawalla received her Sylff fellowship in 2000 while studying for her MBA at INSEAD. Since then, based in London, Varawalla has combined her background in academic medicine with business skills to enjoy a career as a business leader in the global pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. She is passionate about innovative approaches to the cost-effective development of new medicines.

*    *    *

The “Future of Food Production in 2030” proved to be an excellent and engaging topic for the inaugural Sylff Leaders Workshop held in September 2018. The reasons for this include the multidisciplinary subject matter, its global impact, and the urgency required to address this challenge. The fact that none of us were an expert on the subject matter but still cared deeply about this topic made it truly compelling. Sasayama, with its long-standing tradition of responsible farming and specialist, artisan food production, was an inspiring and picturesque setting for our deliberations.

Our working group comprised five fellows, namely, Anna Plater, Evgeny Kandilarov, Kabira Namit, Susan Banki, and myself, Nermeen Varawalla. The group was extraordinarily diverse, as we came from very different academic, professional, and cultural backgrounds. This enabled the sharing of different viewpoints, the application of varied experiences, and the examination of multiple social perspectives. The friendly but dynamic relationship within the group allowed for vibrant discussions that challenged conventional perspectives.

Members of Group 2B, from left, Varawalla, Namit, Plater, Kandilarov

Banki

We embraced the Visioning and Road Mapping methodology that required us to present our ideas as punchy newspaper headlines. Further, each of us was able to credibly voice our particular viewpoints, namely, those of economic policymakers, global business leaders, responsible academics, and politicians seeking reelection. In addition, we shared insights from our experiences of working in Africa, Asia, Central Europe, and the United States, hence able to imagine the impact of our proposals in different countries and economies.

After we had articulated our goals for Global Food Security by 2030, we undertook the back-casting exercise wherein we asked hard questions as to what would need to happen in 2028 before the realization of the 2030 goal. Having thus defined the necessary penultimate stage, we probed our collective understanding to figure out what factors could prevent the realization of that 2028 penultimate stage. Once we spelled out the preventive factors—in other words, the hurdles that needed to be overcome in pursuit of our goal—we brainstormed how to overcome these hurdles, thereby landing on our action plan for 2026. We repeated these steps for every two-year interval until reaching the present in 2018.

Using different colored sticky notes, we assembled all our ideas jotted down as punchy headlines in to a roadmap encompassing 12 years, from 2018 to 2030. Furthermore, we were able to group the collection of hurdles, solutions, and outcomes into different strands, such as Innovation, Business, Policy, and so on, making our output comprehensive and multi-dimensional.

Working group session in Sasayama.

This was an amazing experience in terms of both effective teamworking and accountable leadership. Because of the special group dynamics, tailored methodology, and conducive working environment, we were as a group able to articulate ideas and a vision that we all felt committed to but would have never been able to derive in isolation. We exclaimed, only partly in jest, about how wonderful it would be for the world if global leaders we able to work through issues in the same manner that we had!

At a ceremony in February 2019, Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa was awarded the 2018 Gandhi Peace Prize by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Joyashree Roy, founder and advisor of the Jadavpur University Sylff Program, offers a congratulatory message on being conferred this extraordinary honor and expresses her wish for even greater recognition.

 *     *     *

Yohei Sasakawa, left, with India's President Ram Nath Kovind, right, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, during the Gandhi Peace prize ceremony in New Delhi on Feb. 26, 2019.

Congratulations to Dr. Yohei Sasakawa for being awarded the 2018 Gandhi Peace Prize by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India!

It would be quite an understatement to say that we at the Jadavpur University Sylff program (JU-Sylff) and myself now as the Founder Advisor to the JU-Sylff program are extremely happy at this recognition. Dr. Sasakawa is one of the most revered personalities among students, faculties, and staff at the university. Any award that is conferred on him is an honor for which we feel equally proud.

This reverence comes not only from the fact that his foundation’s generous endowment to our university has changed the lives of many young researchers at Jadavpur University since 2003 and will continue to do so. It was in 2005, if I recall correctly, that Dr. Sasakawa was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university at a special convocation, when a packed auditorium heard him speak and watched a documentary on his resolve and dedication in eradicating leprosy from the city of Kolkata and around the world.

The audience was moved to the core of their hearts. Our then vice-chancellor made a public commitment then and there that Jadavpur University will make sincere efforts to support Dr. Sasakawa’s crusade for human emancipation. The JU-Sylff association since then has never missed a year in donating part of its earnings and at least one full day of its members’ time to bring hope, smiles, and a higher quality of life to leprosy patients in one of the hospitals in the city.

Dr. Sasakawa’s unique commitment to bring peace on earth through the inclusion of all those who may otherwise be excluded from mainstream society has not gone unheeded at Jadavpur University, and now I can say proudly that India, too, has given him his due by awarding him the Gandhi Peace Prize.

Dr. Sasakawa’s message is that leprosy is not only a medical problem but a social one, requiring us to get over our stigma so that our society can become truly inclusive. To advocate an inclusive society is one thing; practicing it by embracing leprosy patients and giving them opportunities for regular employment so they can lead a life of dignity is another. This is what we learned through Dr. Sasakawa’s work.

The author with Mr. Sasakawa, 2005.

Philanthropy, I learned from seeing his initiatives, is not a new business idea but the expression of a true humanitarian spirit. His vision and mission regarding a borderless society, where mutual understanding and trust will break down all artificial barriers for the progress of humankind, are the essential qualities of a more peaceful world.

It is not the top-down calls for peace that bring peace; rather it is grassroots dedication and service, as shown by his example, that can change the world so that no one will be left behind during the development process. Dr. Sasakawa has demonstrated that this cannot be accomplished simply with lip service or through international negotiations but requires tireless effort to find solutions and to reach out to all. I feel there is much the world today can learn from the goal-oriented work of Dr. Sasakawa, not only seeking solutions for the world’ problems but in building peace by including everybody into the mainstream of social development.

We have done the best we can within our means to communicate and promote his ideals, ideas, and possible solutions, but I am extremely happy that the Government of India has now recognized Dr. Sasakawa’s immeasurable contributions to humanity’s progress by honoring him with the Gandhi Prize. “Mr. Sasakawa, you are the inspiration for India," said then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh in 2007 with heartfelt, genuine sincerity when he met Dr. Sasakawa and his leprosy mission. A decade later, our current prime minister has formally recognized his work with the national-level peace award.

It is not just a sense of mission but a commitment to achieving positive results, guided by a clear vision emanating from the core of one’s heart, that can inspire us to reach out to those who have been forgotten by human society and bring them into the limelight, enabling them to breathe the same air and to put on the same smiles as everyone else.

Mr. Sasakawa at Jadavpur University, 2005.

The number of leprosy patients in the world, including India, has gone down dramatically since the late 1980s thanks to the free provision of an effective drug called MDT (multi-drug therapy). This was the direct result of a personal decision by Dr. Sasakawa to provide MDT free of charge worldwide for five years from 1995 to 1999. To help people affected by leprosy living in stigmatized leprosy colonies, Dr. Sasakawa established a private foundation in India, the Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation, in 2006. He personally visits people affected by leprosy and, through the foundation, provides microfinance to improve their quality of life and educational opportunities to young children.

I wish that Dr. Sasakawa will in the near future gain the highest global recognition from the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for inspiring the world to eradicate a social problem that still afflicts around 200,000 people. Such recognition would set an example for the citizens of the world on how we may move forward toward peace and prosperity for humanity at large.

Sylff's tenth anniversay ceremony at Jadavpur University in 2013.

Some might argue that recognition is not necessary if all of us individually fulfill what needs to be done. My position is that recognition is important because it inspires, allowing all to see what must be done and what should be avoided in a society where various forms of exploitation, hatred, and exclusion toward the powerless still persist. Gandhiji believed that man was a lofty being, and that the higher should protect the lower. This is the philosophy that has been demonstrated by Dr. Sasakwa through his mission of leprosy eradication. His generous endowments under the Sylff program to educational institutions worldwide similarly encourage bright, young leaders to think deeply about local issues and to find solutions in the context of a broader canvas.  

Dr. Sasakawa, I know you will not stop and rejoice just because you have been recognized but will tirelessly continue with your work to reverse social exclusion. We who admire you, though, would like to celebrate with tears of genuine happiness when you are conferred with the world’s highest award for peace. I am eagerly waiting for that day.  

[1] (Currently) Bangabandhu Chair Professor, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; Founder and Advisor: Jadavpur University Sylff Program; (on lien) Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University, India. Author’s comment: “Mr. Sasakwa is the chairman of the Nippon Foundation, Asia’s largest grant-making foundation, and the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination. I have met Mr. Sasakawa many times while I was JU-Sylff director during his visits to the Jadavpur University campus and to the city of Kolkata on his mission for “Leprosy and Human Rights.” Each time, he welcomed me with his warm, smiling face, as if we were dear, longtime friends. Such an outpouring of congeniality is quite rare.”

In November 2018, a Local Association Networking Support (LANS) event was held at El Colegio de México (Colmex) with 10 Sylff fellows from the institution. In addition, two Sylff fellows from Colmex who now live abroad participated in the discussions via video conference. Also held concurrently at Colmex was “SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL: MUJERES POR LA IGUALDAD, LA LIBERACIÓN Y EL EMPODERAMIENTO EN MÉXICO Y JAPÓN, 1888–2018 (International Symposium: Women for Equality, Liberation, and Empowerment in Mexico and Japan),” . Thus, there was a good incentive for graduated Sylff fellows to visit their alma mater. The discussions at the LANS meeting centered on reactivating the local Sylff chapter in Mexico and encouraging networking among Sylff fellows. From the Sylff Association Secretariat, Mari Suzuki and Aya Oyamada attended the event.

*　*　*

In the presence of officers of the Sylff Association Secretariat, Colmex authorities and Sylff fellows gathered on November 22, 2018, in an attempt to reactivate the Sylff chapter in Mexico. We had participants from both Mexico and abroad thanks to the support of the LANS program.

During the first part of the meeting, fellows briefly introduced themselves, and Aya Oyamada explained to them the different support programs that the Sylff Association offered, such as Sylff Research Abroad (SRA), Sylff Leadership Initiative (SLI), and Sylff Leaders Workshop, among others. The participants showed an interest in the programs, and some of them expressed their gratitude for the support they received.

Sylff Fellows’ Voices at Colmex

In the second part of the meeting, Ms. Alejandra González, a 2015 Sylff fellow who is currently head of the Academic Exchange Office and is involved in the management of the Colmex Sylff program, shared some of the participants’ thoughts and expectations for the meeting. Here are some of their opinions as to why a local association network is needed:

• “To maintain a consolidated group, to invite other people to participate in this program, and to strength our relationship with other fellows.”— Ms. Cecilia Castro, Centre for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies (CEDUA), 2017–2019 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “The Sylff local network stands for me as a promoter of personal academic expectations . . . a network that links common interests around the world to promote research.”— Mr. Diego Merino, Centre for Studies of Asia and Africa (CEAA), 2017–2019 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “To improve our academic and social work, especially in the current political and social context of Mexico . . . we need social and academic leaderships with a high human vision.”—Mr. Erick Serna, CEDUA, 2016–2017 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “To achieve a strong commitment among the fellows . . . and to socialize [our] research.”— Ms. Carmen Caballero, CEDUA, 2015–2016 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “To make a difference in the community [and to] strengthen the connections between former and present Sylff fellows [through] the consolidation of a safe environment to exchange academic ideas, work, and proposals.”— Ms. Jimena Forcada, CEAA, 2015–2016 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “To promote spaces that will enable the exchange of experiences about the research process, design, and implementation of public policies for addressing social problems. Additionally, the network may also be used for other purposes, such as encouraging alliances with other Sylff institutions, undertaking social action projects about topics that impact the region, and establishing an observatory of conjuncture about this.”— Ms. Laura Ballén, CEDUA, 2013–2015 Sylff fellow
  
  
• “The reactivation of the Colmex Sylff Association has to include current and graduate fellows. . . . We can now generate projects to benefit communities beyond Mexico.”— Ms. Marcela Méndez, CEDUA, 2007–2009 Sylff fellow
  
  
  

Ms. Alejandra González gives a presentation on fellows’ voices.

Reactivation of the Sylff Chapter in Mexico: Academic Projects with Social Impact

During the discussion on future actions for the reactivation of the Sylff chapter in Mexico, participants shared several ideas regarding the purposes and possible projects of the local chapter. Given that all fellows were or are graduate students, we agreed that all projects should have an academic basis in each of the fields that we specialize in. However, we also stated that such projects should have a strong social outreach element, especially after the experience of some of the fellows in the aftermath of the earthquake in Mexico City on September 19, 2017. Ms. Marcela Méndez said, “[We need] common objectives and a strong will to bring a change in Mexico and abroad; but we should start with an initiative with impact in our community.” Ms. Laura Ballén noted that Sylff fellows must “choose topics that suit most of our research fields, such as migration and violence; in order to know our research interests, we should define a way to communicate and share information using technology,” while Ms. Mariana Iglesias supported the idea of “nurturing research from different perspectives so that we might start thinking about what to do with our ideas and set a possible calendar with follow-up meetings.” Mr. Saúl Espino suggested “combining perspectives and trying to achieve social impact,” and Mr. Erick Serna strongly supported the idea. Mr. Amaury García, director of the Center for Asian and African Studies at Colmex and a guest at the meeting, stressed, “The local association needs fluent communication, support of the programs from Colmex authorities, and to find a way, a mechanism, for the association to work.” Ms. Alejandra González said, “The Academic Exchange Office might serve as a liaison between the Sylff Association Secretariat in Japan and the Sylff fellows, as well as a coordinator for future projects.”

Group discussion.

In a brief presentation, Ms. Fernanda Herrera talked about Colmex’s response to the September 2017 Mexico Earthquake and how important the help of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research was during this crisis. After the presentation, Sylff fellows understood the importance of a strong local association and how things would have been different if they knew before the tragedy.

Sylff fellows agreed that before launching any project, they should get to know one another and establish a channel of communication. For this purpose, a Facebook group was created under the name “Sylff Mexico” with an eye to the next meeting. After taking this first step, fellows understood the potential of their interdisciplinary knowledge to push forward a project with direct social influence. This is a great opportunity to work with bright and excellent fellows with a human quality—leaders from different backgrounds with the same goal of constructing a better society. Ms. Oyamada suggested fellows to “apply for the Sylff Leadership Initiatives as a group of Sylff fellows if you aim for social impact.” Ms. Mari Suzuki also said, “The aim of Local Association Networking Support is to encourage networking among Sylff fellows from the same Sylff institution. The Secretariat hopes to hold a fellow meeting annually, inviting more fellows from distant cities with the support of LANS. By having face-to-face meetings regularly, ideas for collaborative research and social action will gradually prosper.”

Participating fellows also gave the following feedback:

• “My participation could be a link between Sylff Mexico (at Colmex) and Juarez City (Chihuahua) and thus invite more collaborators who are currently working outside Mexico City, including in foreign countries.”— Ms. Carmen Caballero
  
  
• “The way I could support the network is through a civil-society organization of which I am a part called the Institute of Philosophy and Culture.”— Mr. Diego Merino
  
  
• “I will volunteer to be a Colmex Sylff Association liaison representative in Japan.”— Ms. Marcela Mendez
  
  
• “I can participate in the construction of a work plan and write documents, like reviews and proposals. In addition, I can contact institutions in my country [Colombia] to establish alliances that allow the development of activities to exchange experiences.”— Ms. Laura Ballén

Conclusion: In order for the local association to work, there must be fluent communication among the fellows. After stable communication has been established, fellows should suggest possible projects to work in the community and strive to achieve their goal.

List of Participants