Pubdate: Sun, 5 Oct 1997
Source: Kyodo News Service 

FUKUOKA, Oct. 4 (Kyodo)  A Japanese man working as a United Nations
volunteer in Myanmar has started collecting donations to set up a boxing
gym for drug addicts in the capital of Yangon. 

Shiro Mizuki, 28, is hoping to collect 5 million yen to begin building as
early as next year a boxing gym in Yangon where he can teach boxing to
people trying to recover from drug addiction. 

Mizuki started teaching boxing in January to drug addicts in Yangon where
as many as 200,000 people are estimated to be addicts. 

An amateur boxer in his high school and college days, Mizuki became
involved in the volunteer work after becoming acquainted with a staff
member of the U.N. International Drug Control Program during a business
trip to Yangon last year. 

Mizuki now teaches boxing twice a week at a public hospital to about 20
drug addicts whose ages range from their teens to their 30s. Facilities in
the hospital ward are sparse, with no ring and only a sandbag and gloves. 

Having witnessed the return to the hospital of some former patients who
vowed to keep away from drugs, Mizuki said he felt the need for a proper
gym where people can practice on a permanent basis after leaving the
hospital. 

''The foremost aim is to keep fit. I hope that by building up a healthy
body and heart, people will be able to break away from drugs that only
provide temporary pleasure,'' he said. 

Mizuki's campaign for donations in Japan started in June. He is currently
in Yangon but is scheduled to return soon to his home in Fukuoka
Prefecture, southwestern Japan to resume activities until the target amount
is reached.