A charity event to support Ukraine by making blue and yellow friendship bracelets, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, was held at the three Beyond Borders Plazas (BBPs) on Kinugasa Campus, Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC), and Osaka Ibaraki Campus (OIC). The participation fees collected for the event will be donated to support Ukrainian refugees.

　BBP student staff members Saftin Roman (2nd year, Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering), an international student from Ukraine, and Yusuke Tanigo (2nd year, College of Economics) organized the event. “I wondered what I could do to help out my good friend Roman and the people of Ukraine,” said Tanigo, who was deeply moved by the current situation in Ukraine, so he consulted with Roman and together they came up with the idea for the charity event. Other BBP student staff members liked their idea, which led to the event being held on all three campuses at once.

　Large numbers of international and domestic students participated in the campus-spanning event. The student staff explained how to make the friendship bracelets in both Japanese and English, and the participants worked on weaving the bracelets one by one in the hopes that peace will come to Ukraine.

　At the Kinugasa BBP, the participating students were a bit nervous at first as they worked on their friendship bracelets, but gradually they began to talk to each other about why they decided to participate and how they are spending their time at university, and the event carried on with a laid back atmosphere.

　After completing their friendship bracelets, the participants chatted as they showed each other their workmanship. The venues bustled with activity, and some students continued to interact with each other even after the event ended, which shows how this event helped to create a new circle of exchange among the students on each campus.

　One participant said, "I struggled a little bit as it was my first time to weave a friendship bracelet, but thanks to the student staff and the other participants, I was able to have an enjoyable time. Another participant commented, “If even a little, I hope that this friendship bracelet making event can help the people of Ukraine who are facing a difficult situation.”

* The photos in this article are from the event held at the Kinugasa BBP.