As the first step of its “SDGs Design Social Partnership Program,” the SDGs Design Unit is partnering with Kao Corporation for the “Kyushu University & Kao SDGs Creative Collaboration,” which aims to produce works that will solve societal problems.

We are currently creating a picture book that deals with the theme of sanitation problems in developing countries, based on ideas brainstormed at the kick-off workshop on May 2018. Students held a read-aloud session using a preliminary prototype of the picture book at a primary school in Thane, India, near Mumbai. We were able to gain a wide variety of feedback from primary schoolers and teachers.

In addition, we learned about the necessity of sanitation education and about India’s social background by conducting fieldwork in the slums areas of Bhiwandi and getting a first-hand-account of the street garbage problem there, as well as by listening to lectures by Indian experts on the societal problems, history, and culture of India. We will utilize the feedback we gathered during this fieldwork in order to further develop our picture book in the future.

[Date]
August 27th (Mon.) – August 31st (Fri.), 2018

[Locations]
Mumbai, Thane and Bhiwandi, India

[Participants]
Graduate School of Design: Shinnosuke Takeo, Kohei Takezawa
School of Design: Emi Sakai, Mami Shirokawa, Hanae Nagayasu

Fieldwork in the slum areas

Read-aloud session at a primary school