My dear friends in Japan,

I was speaking to Kiyoko Masui recently via e-mail when she told me that this week, CAP Japan celebrates its 10th anniversary - what an amazing accomplishment! Whether you have been one of the original CAP facilitators or you joined the group a year ago, I am sure this has to be a very rewarding and very encouraging time for you. Although advocating for children is a difficult task, the rewards of doing so are so gratifying. It is sad to think that there are still many people in our world who think that children are property - free to be treated as such. Our job, over the years, has been to change that way of thinking. I believe, in my heart, that your projects in Japan have done an amazing job of doing just that.

Around the world, CAP people just like you have been working in schools and communities where they believe they can make a difference. Our project in Serbia provided workshops for children in 6 cities despite the horrific war being waged in their country. At the training we conducted in Belgrade, women from Kosovo came up to me and said, “Our children are not safe but we are determined they will be strong and free.” That unrelenting spirit brought CAP to 29 schools across the country that year! In Croatia, a woman in CAP told me her sons were forced to go to war at 15 years old and their experiences etched deep scars in their personalities and their outlook on life. She vowed, in front of our training group, that she would spend the rest of her life helping children be healthy and safe ? as her own children should have been. In England, CAP teams are fighting for the rights of special needs children ? so often victims of abuse and their needs so often ignored by others. In Estonia, Moldova and Ukraine, projects struggle to stay alive ? knowing their work must go on but wondering where the funding will come to keep it going. Unfortunately, in some countries like New Zealand, Ireland, the Grand Bahamas and Germany, that funding has disappeared and the CAP teams have faded away. But the voice that was once part of a team can still be heard ? it belongs to the CAP people who remain ? continuing to speak out against abuse.

Here in America, our CAP voice is strong ? it needs to be. We, as a nation, are spending an inordinate amount of money on war and precious little on protecting our children. Across the country, CAP projects struggle ? as you do ? to make children our priority. Sometimes we fail, many times, we succeed. I often tell our projects about the Japan CAP network ? how impressed I am with your organization, your determination and your focus. No matter what the issues seem to be ? and there are always issues when people from different perspectives get together ? you always seem to work things out ? as though the interest of children exceeds personal differences. That is really quite remarkable!

As you celebrate ten years of bringing the message of empowerment to children and families across Japan, please know that your work has made a difference. Children have received, from you, the most valuable message of all ? they have the right to be safe. Your children’s workshops have helped them to hear ? perhaps for the first time ? that no one has the right to hurt them, to make them feel frightened or in danger. Their teachers and parents have learned, from each of you, new ways to strengthen their relationships with children and to create a lasting legacy which excludes abuse and focuses on the importance of respect. In thousands of Japanese homes, a new perspective on children has been born because of your work. What an amazing contribution!

I wish each of you ten, twenty, thirty more years of CAP in Japan. When I am gone and my children are old, I hope CAP Japan is still going strong ? still speaking out on behalf of children. I believe that there is no greater calling than to teach ? to shape the lives of those who come after us. I pray that for your country, your efforts will come back to you a hundred fold ? enriching your lives and the lives of those you teach.

Congratulations!

Ogenki-de,

Ms. Pat Stanislaski, Executive Director

International Center for Assault Prevention