On 24 July, 15 junior high school students from Toda City in Saitama Prefecture came to our office. Mr Sugawara, Assistant Director of CLAIR Sydney gave a presentation on an outline of Australia, the country’s history, and multiculturalism policy.
The students visited Liverpool, the sister city of Toda, to deepen their understanding of other cultures and to study English. The students attended a high school in Liverpool to experience school in Australia and interacted with local students, whilst also partaking in a homestay programme.
CLAIR is honoured to have played a key role in the revitalisation of this exchange. The Toda City Mayor, Friendship City committee members and Councillors visited their sister city, Liverpool City to celebrate the 25th sister city anniversary from 19 to 21 October 2017. Along with attending the anniversary events, the Toda City Councillor delegation met with representatives from the NSW Department of Education and Liverpool City Council. They exchanged ideas about how to resume their student exchange programme, which had been suspended since 2011. CLAIR Sydney supported them by giving them an overview of Australia with information on sister-city relationships between Japan and Australia, making the necessary appointments and accompanying them on their visits. We are pleased to see that our efforts have positively contributed to the renewal of the exchange programme.
