For a group of elementary school students in Oita Prefecture, a recent online encounter with people who have of Minamata disease, a mercury poisoning illness which damages the central nervous system, served as a powerful lesson about life and human rights.

The online meeting took place between 25 fifth graders at an elementary school in Oita and four people with Minamata disease in neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture. During the session, the students learned about the disease and related stigma from stories shared by people who contracted the disease through their mothers before they were born.

The children who took part in the event avidly listened to the four guest speakers, all in their late 50s. They shared their experiences in choppy phrases due to their speech impediments — one of the symptoms of the neurological disease.