My family and I went to many places in Japan this year. We ate delicious meals and saw beautiful things. We joined in traditional events.

We had great experiences. I learned a lot about Japan. These are some of my favorite pictures.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal statement to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure that people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. There are 17 SDG themes, each trying to balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

The number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 36 percent to 10 percent in 25 years. However, more than 700 million people still lack basic needs such as health care, education, and access to clean water.

It is estimated that living in Japan costs $100 a day, whereas 15 percent of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day. Among them, those living on less than $1.90 a day are considered to be in extreme poverty.

As of 2020, around 10 percent of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty. Listed are its top causes.

If people do not get enough nutrition, they will not have the energy to work. A lack of access to food can also lead to malnutrition and illnesses. What is worse, they may starve to death.

Dirty water causes a variety of diseases. Women and girls in rural communities must walk for 200 million hours every day to get water.

Malaria and diarrhea are not easily curable in countries with poor healthcare systems. Traveling far to clinics or paying for medicine can push a family into extreme poverty.

There are other causes, such as conflict, poor education, climate change, and so on.

Photographs show people what happened in the past, including things they might not want to see or remember. Just like a photograph taken at the time of the Vietnam War in 1972.

Kim Phuc was a young girl at the time a photograph of her was taken. She was running on the road along with other Vietnamese children. However, she was running in pain and with her clothes burned off because of the fire. She went through a lot of operations to repair the burns she had on her body. In an interview, she described how terrible the war was for children, which could be seen on her face in the photograph.

There were a lot of world wars in the 20th century. The century was even called by a Japanese journalist “36, 000 days of suffering.” Kim Phuc’s photograph is one of the photos where people could find a sign of hope. After what happened to her, she would like people to learn from it and realize that no one should experience the pain of war in the future.

Welcome aboard! Our journey to the famous Statue of Liberty will take about twenty minutes. It can be seen from many places in New York. But you can enjoy the best views from this ferry! In the nineteenth century, the Statue of Liberty came to the U.S. from France. It is loved by many tourists from all over the world. Every year, the statue is visited by over four million people.

I’ll tell you a famous story that many Americans know. Rosa Parks, a black woman, was riding a public bus one day. She was sitting near the “Whites Only” section.

Soon, that section was filled up. The driver said: “Give up your seat or I’ll call the police,” the driver said. She refused. The police came to arrest her.

An exhibition called “Looking Back at the Twentieth Century” presented 300 photographs from the past that allowed people to look back at history. The great progress in the world started during the 20th century, which made people’s lives comfortable. However, it was also the time when millions of people lost their lives in terrible wars.

One of the photographs in the exhibition showed a boy carrying a baby on his back. It was taken by Joe O’Donnell in Japan in 1945. In an interview, he told the story behind the photograph. He said that the boy whom he took a picture of looked different and serious. When the boy arrived, men wearing white masks came to him, took the baby on his back, and placed the baby on the fire. That was the time when he realized that the baby on the boy’s back was dead. The boy stood straight and watched the flames for a while, then silently walked away from it. This is just one of the hundreds of photographs with an unpleasant past.

Students choose their own classes at this school. Every student has a different class schedule.

Look. This girl is going to her music class. She is holding a clarinet case.

This boy is carrying his gym shoes for P.E. class.

Today, we can find a lot of information on the Internet. Anyone can share the information they have.

In 2016, a girl from Aleppo, Syria, sent a message in English to the world on her smartphone. The message was, “I need peace.” A civil war has continued in Aleppo since 2012. Her messages were shared with people around the world.

Her message did not lead to the end of the war. So, did her messages to the world mean nothing? It’s hard to say so. Her photographs and videos of the people of Aleppo made them believe that they had not been forgotten by the world. In addition, some people who were influenced by her messages became interested in the peace movements.

The girl’s story shows how much potential the Internet has. It may be a key to solving global problems.