Tokyo gives 1,300 coats for Mongolian street children

Asian Economic News, March 8, 1999

TOKYO, March 1 Kyodo The Tokyo metropolitan government's Bureau of Waste Management presented some 1,300 secondhand coats to the Japanese Red Cross Society on Monday as gifts to street children in Mongolia, many of whom live in manholes during winter.

Bureau chief Masamichi Fukunaga said at a ceremony held in Tokyo its staff called on their colleagues to donate the coats, which were provided as uniforms to employees working outdoors until fiscal 1990, in an effort to assist the needy in other parts of the world.

''I would like to thank the Japanese Red Cross Society for allowing us to take part in international assistance activities,'' Fukunaga said, adding negotiations with the society led to the decision to give the coats to Mongolia's street children.

Thousands of Mongolian children, abandoned mainly due to family breakups, are forced to endure the cold and long winters inside manholes as temperatures drop to as low as minus 40 C, Naoki Tokimitsu, a Japanese Red Cross Society official, said.

''There are no exact figures but some estimate 4,000 and others say there are 10,000 of these children. But in any case, the number is increasing every year,'' Tokimitsu said.

He said the coats were shipped from a Japanese port last Thursday and will arrive in Ulan Bator via China at the end of March. Mongolia's Red Cross Society will then distribute them to the children.

The Tokyo government hopes to promote the recycling of used clothing as well as other products for international assistance activities, Fukunaga said.