Through ICT, we expand the “freedom to learn” and the “power to dream” for children around the world.
Profile
The University of Tokyo, College of Arts & Sciences (Science I) / Representative, Ubunture
Ainan, Ehime—my hometown is a small town embraced by mountains and the sea. With no large library or parks nearby, nature became my playground. My grandfather taught me how to read the seasons, craft tools, and set traps. As I learned by doing, I eventually caught shrimp, fish, and wild plants with my own hands. The river in front of our house and the hills behind it were the best learning spaces. There are many materials in nature but few man‑made tools—so if something doesn’t exist, you make it. That spirit of improvisation, drawing on the wisdom of those who came before, shaped my childhood. Surrounded by friends my age and supported by kind neighbors, I spent truly happy days.
Still, that world sometimes felt narrow. The outline of the town defined the limits of my universe. Then the internet and computers expanded it overnight. A single search led me to unknown places, cutting‑edge research, and fascinating science. Programming especially captivated me—ideas in my head became reality on the screen through code. ICT dramatically widened my world.
From a small nursery on the town’s edge to a larger elementary school—and still I wanted more. I chose to leave town on my own and attend junior high in Matsuyama. My world kept expanding. I invited friends on outings, walked, biked, took buses and ferries, and sometimes even swam—beyond prefectural borders to mountains and seas. Every day felt exhilarating. From early on, nothing thrilled me more than touching new worlds.
In high school, I took on various projects by leveraging the power of ICT.
During those years I visited a family home (a household fostering children who, for various reasons, cannot live with their birth families). A boy there became absorbed in a science book I had brought—his eyes lit up. In that moment I realized learning can bring genuine smiles to anyone. A single book, a single learning experience, can brighten the face of a child with a difficult past. Seeing that, I wanted to pass on the same joy that once expanded my world to many more children.
Resources are limited. My town had no library, and we cannot place all knowledge in all places. That is why I believe technology is what changes the world—and is already changing it. The internet and AI can deliver knowledge to more people and open doors to new worlds. To make education accessible to all, we need innovative technology and the ability to use it well. With that conviction, I entered the University of Tokyo through recommendation admissions to pursue engineering.
At university I broadened my activities: in Noto, I worked with an NPO and student groups to support high‑school students while addressing regional disparities. In a dentsu social‑issue program, I explored diverse fields across academia, technology, environment, history, and sports. I also launched a UTokyo seminar to learn and debate the foundations of education: “Thinking About Inquiry‑Based Learning.”
Around that time, my friend Riko Kasai—later our local coordinator—shared what she had seen in Johannesburg’s schools while studying abroad. Even within the same area, some children could access ICT and rich learning, while others could not. My own research showed structural causes behind these disparities and their serious, long‑term impacts on children’s futures (see “ICT Education Inequality in Johannesburg: An International Comparison” (PDF, Japanese) ).
I felt I had to act. If ICT changed my life, then I should help deliver its power to the next generation. When I shared this idea, many friends interested in ICT, international cooperation, global affairs, and education joined in. With their support and advice, we launched the student group “Ubunture.” As nature once taught me—if the future we want isn’t already here, we can build it ourselves. That spirit is at the heart of our work, as we now prepare for practical activities in South Africa.
Even in the 21st century, wars and conflicts persist—often, I believe, because people don’t truly know each other’s worlds. Knowing is an essential human power—and it is, at heart, enjoyable. Discovering things unlike what we know, meeting people unlike ourselves, is deeply interesting. When hardship makes us retreat into a small personal world, life becomes difficult. That is why I want to deliver the power to broaden one’s world—not just the ability to search on Google or watch TikTok, but the ability to use ICT with one’s own hands. Giving children that power—both as a life skill and as an intelligence for understanding others—is my life’s goal. This project is the first step toward that dream.
Ubunture Representative: Daichi Sawachika
Ubunture Local Coordinator (Johannesburg, South Africa)
As the only student from Asia at African Leadership Academy, Riko lives in a dorm and learns alongside students from across the African continent.
Born in 2008 in Yamanashi, Japan. Sparked by a school‑issued PC during the pandemic, she pursued her interests through relentless self‑driven research, visiting companies such as WOTA and joining the NGO Imeai. Those first steps broadened her world: she was selected as the youngest Japan delegate for Novo Nordisk’s science camp in Denmark and continues to take on global challenges. Her activities—founding the NGO “Yuri‑Food” to build communities through food and conducting research on natural coagulants at IIT as a Tobitate! (MEXT) scholarship student—led to her selection as the only Japanese Rise Fellow 2024 (a global scholarship contest by the former Google CEO’s foundation), chosen from 50,000 applicants. After withdrawing from Tokyo Metropolitan Nishi High School in March with a full scholarship from the ASSIST Scholars Foundation, she is now studying long‑term in Johannesburg for the first time. She shares reflections on her worldwide experiences through her ongoing posts on Note.
Having free access to a PC provided by my school during COVID‑19 ignited my curiosity and let me experience worlds I had never seen. From a small room, reading blog posts by international students filled with discovery, I wondered how I could step into the unknown—and after years of trial and error, that dream came true this summer when I started life abroad for the first time. In South Africa, my daily life brought even more surprises than I imagined. The social gaps visible on the streets are mirrored by unseen disparities in ICT access, which shocked me.
A single spark in ICT can light curiosity and expand one’s world at incredible speed. I want to pass that possibility—something we often take for granted—on to every child. With that in mind, I reached out to Daichi Sawachika, who shares a passion for education and leads Ubunture.
I hope to be a cultural bridge: bringing the learning I experience abroad back to Japan, blending it with the strengths we rediscover through a new lens. At Ubunture, I aim to connect my study‑abroad home in South Africa with Japan and explore how I can give back in my own way.
Ubunture is a student group from the University of Tokyo that uses ICT education to expand the “freedom to learn” and the “power to dream” for children worldwide.
Ubuntu is a Zulu word often translated as “I am because you are,” capturing a philosophy of empathy and mutual support. We overlay it with Future to coin Ubunture, our name for a place where diverse people “bring what they have,” and together co‑create learning that is useful on the front lines of social issues.
Through ICT, we expand the “freedom to learn” and the “power to dream” for children around the world.
