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From August 14 to 17, some 180 Soka Gakkai members from India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand participated in a training course held in Seoul and on Jeju Island in South Korea. Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada and SGI General Director Yoshiki Tanigawa also attended. The event featured small group discussions, Buddhist study sessions and activity reports from each country. Training course participants also joined a Korea SGI (KSGI) Headquarters Leaders Meeting held at the KSGI Ikeda Memorial Hall in Seoul and broadcast live to 367 venues across the country, with some 50,000 members participating onsite and online.

On August 10, a general meeting was held at the SGI-South Africa (SGI-SA) National Centre in Johannesburg. At the meeting, new leadership appointments were announced, including Anthony George as chapter leader and Kyoko Morgan as vice chapter leader. The meeting was also attended by members from Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia and Togo.

On August 3, Soka Gakkai members in Madagascar held a general meeting in Antananarivo, the capital city. The meeting commemorated the 20th anniversary of establishment of a chapter in Madagascar. At the meeting, new leadership appointments were announced, including Anja Navalona Raholivelo as chapter leader. Members from the neighboring island nations of Mauritius and the Seychelles also attended.

On July 23, Bharat Soka Gakkai (BSG) held its fifth Women’s Symposium at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir Auditorium in Mumbai, India, with the theme “Women Who Believe Are the Women Who Build.” The event brought together some 650 BSG members and featured a panel discussion. Panelists were Nandita Das, an actor, filmmaker and social advocate, Chetna Gala Sinha, founder of the Mann Deshi Bank and the Mann Deshi Foundation, Minakshi Achan, a marketing communications expert, and Anjana Sharma, professor and head of the Department of English at the University of Delhi. The panelists discussed what belief has meant in their lives, covering topics such as authenticity, the power of women’s solidarity, the courage to use your voice and the power of education to develop self-worth.