S A Ain, a seventh standard student of St Joseph's Anglo Indian Girls Higher Secondary School here in Kozhikode, is busy prepping for her Japan visit which is scheduled for next week. She is the only Malayali will be representing India at the Asia-Pacific Children's Convention (APCC) to be held at Fukuoku in Japan.
APCC is a cultural exchange programme conducted by the Japan government annually. The convention will be attended by six students each from about 46 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The programme aims at offering a one-time experience to students to mingle with their counterparts from other countries. One of the major objectives of the programme is to build a strong relationship among children from the Asia-Pacific region where each would be getting an opportunity to learn and experience about the culture and customs of different countries.
“I am extremely happy that I got selected for this programme. I had wanted to be a part of this. Even though I applied last year, I was not selected,” said Ain. Six students have been selected from India and she is the only Malayali. The others are from Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
Ain was selected from a list of hundreds of students across the country who have applied for the same. It was in December 2017, she had applied for the programme. “The first step is to prepare a profile of yours. You must describe your achievements, areas of interest and performance in academics,” she said adding that the profile would be shortlisted by a screening committee at the national level. In the second stage, the shortlisted candidates will be called up for an interview.
According to Ain, she is very excited about the programme as it would give her a lot of experience. A 10-day programme, it is divided into two parts. “The first five days, all the students will be at a convention centre. In the second part, each student from a foreign country will be staying with a Japanese family,” she said. The entire expense of the programme is borne by the Japan government.
She will be leaving from Kozhikode to Mumbai on July 11 and from there to Japan on the next day. She will return from Japan on July 24. Ain is the daughter of Afsal Babu and Saluja Afsal and hails from Ulliyeri here in rural Kozhikode.