Cultivating the human spirit

HUNDREDS of primary school students joined OISCA International PNG to celebrate their 50th anniversary at Warongoi in East New Britain.
OISCA, an acronym of “Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement” established in 1961, set up a training centre in ENB in 1992.
OISCA was formed after a series of conferences by leaders from twenty eight countries in May 1961 in Japan. The first meeting in May 1961 was called the “Congress for cultivating Human Spirit”. . The second meeting in Oct 1961, called the “Second Congress for Cultivating Human Spirit, 1961” was attended by 400 delegates representing 18 countries.
During these meetings the constitution and bylaws of the organisation were drafted, debated and approved.
The damage caused by the atomic bomb launched by the American armed forces on Hiroshima, the political rivalry between the East and West European countries and the political turmoil in Africa was the main reason the organisation was established.
The Chief Director of the International Organization for cultivating Human Spirit was the late Reverend Yonoshuke Nakano, who is also the father of the current President Dr Yoshiko.Y.Nakano.
In 1975 the United Nations department of the Public information convened a meeting of private organisations in the Asia Pacific region at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.
At the invitation from the department of Primary Industry, Japan, OISCA sent a 12 member delegation to attend. At the suggestion of a United Nation official, OISCA applied for a roster status which was granted in 1976, in recognition of the greater capacity and the wider scope of activities of OISCA the UN upgraded it to the highest rank-Category General in 1995.
In the mid 1960s, India and other tropical countries in Asia were affected by prolonged droughts. OISCA members in those countries in fear of their people’s starvation appealed to the headquarters for emergency assistance. In those days however, Japan did not have surplus rice so rice was prohibited from being taken out to other countries. In response to their appeals founding president invited model farmers from all over Japan to gather at a meeting. He explained to them about the retched conditions of the member countries and urged them to join the team to work for increased food production.
Volunteers stepped forward and he immediately dispatched selected model farmers to drought stricken countries in May 1966. They worked with the local farmers. They knew how to farm in harmony with the nature because they learnt it through their home farming in Japan.
In 1966 Professor Banshi Lal Puttoo, a noted ergonomist, who later served as the chief scientist of Plant Pathology at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research was so impressed by the work of the Japanese model farmers and said “these Japanese used leftovers and waste waters as materials for composite. Rice straws from their farms were made into straw mats, woven baskets for storage, transportation and ropes.”
These model farmers through their daily practices in the fields holistically grasped the law of nature from their perspective by paying attention to the movement of the sun and the waxing and waining of the moon.
In each cropping season they ploughed the field into ridges, changing their directions according to the angles of the sun’s rays so that their crops received optimum amount of sunlight evenly. Around the time of full moons when crops could absorb greater amounts of nutrients and water, they provided more water and during the time of new moons, less amounts of irrigation. The model farmers made use of water for their cropping while making their work as efficient as possible to show an example of sustainable agriculture to other farmers.
After the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan the OISCA global network reacted promptly and started fundraising activities. OISCA has already started planting trees at the seashore forest in Tohoku. They have also started planting Japanese black pines on a hundred hectares of land and in the devastated areas. In a meeting last month which was attended by Chairman for OISCA International (PNG) Sinai Brown and Deputy director Gesling Raiven, the international board of directors drafted a proposal policy to be presented by OISCA at the coming conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro next year.
OISCA believes that agriculture is not only for food production but to also educate and engage young people in farming so they develop skills to contribute to nation building.
OISCA now operates in 28 countries and over the past years recruited more than 14 000 trainers conducting long term courses in 19 OISCA training centres located in 10 countries.
In PNG, OISCA is working hard to overcome various obstacles to achieve full capacity. OISCA PNG now enrolls 26, 000 students on one year courses and 2,000 students on short courses. Short courses are conducted per province or in the case of ENB, OISCA conducts the trainings per district. About 100 detainees from CIS Kerevat have also completed their training under short courses. OISCA has also trained 101 students in Japan since 1992.
OISCA Bougainville which is located at Mananau near the Panguna Mine will open next year for intakes. As part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations OISCA launched their commercial 1kg rice pack, chocolate bar and butter soap.
Primary school students were also involved in planting 1 million trees two weeks ago as part of the celebrations in East New Britain.