[Original by Mariko OMURA, Cambodia Project (February 11, 2021); Translated by J. Tsuchiya/A. Taguchi] I have reported about the changes brought about by the reservoirs in my previous article. Recently, there are further changes in the vegetable gardens around the reservoirs. Look at this huge change! (1) I visited the house of Sim Meas for the first time in a few months. As soon as she saw me, she took me to her vegetable garden. “Look at this! There was nothing here before, but it has changed into like this,” she said enthusiastically and talked a lot about her vegetable garden. Indeed, there was a great change (see photos arranged…
COVID-19’s Impact on Our Activities in South Africa
[Last updated on March 19, 2021] Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, our partner organizations in South Africa were left with no other choice but to temporarily close the childcare centers that they operate. The “Drop-in Centers” (DIC) that we set up in order to support “Orphan and Vulnerable Children” (OVC), whose complex family situations resulted from the absence of parents, often influenced by AIDS and poverty. The DICs are operated by care volunteers, who are mainly local women. JVC has provided a variety of training initiatives to provide the care volunteers with the knowledge and skills necessary to care for the OVC. Following the closure of the…
Intern Interview 2020: Miyabi MATSUDA
[Original posted in Hatena Blog by Kazuto KANAOKA, 2020 Public Relations Intern (December 4, 2020); Translated by M. Goto/H. Lai] Hello everyone! My name is Kazuto Kanaoka. I am a 2020 Public Relations Intern. In the 4th round of 2020 Interviews of Interns, I invited Miyabi Matsuda from the Palestine project. I am impressed that she is calm and hold everything like it should be. I interviewed her and asked about her daily life. If you are interested in Palestine, please check this blog. Here we go! Please tell us about your university life! I major in general policy studies and now I am studying Islamic culture. I plan to…
Completion of Country Programs in Cambodia, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq
Thank you for your continued support of JVC. Please be advised that our country programs in Cambodia, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq will be completed by the end of fiscal year 2020 (March 2021). Last year, JVC celebrated its 40th anniversary. We took this as an opportunity to discuss our course of action for the future; along with considering new developments, we also reviewed the state of our current activities. This discussion led us to the decision to cease activities in the four countries listed above. Since the establishment of our organization in 1980, our activities in Cambodia and Thailand have produced results in various fields, beginning with refugee support and…
Staff Interview: Yoshie NIMODA (Public Relations)
[Original by Kazuto KANAOKA, 2020 Public Relations Intern (December 14, 2020); Translated by K. Adachi/A. Taguchi] Hello everyone! I’m Kanaoka, a 2020 Public Relations Intern. The third interview in 2020 is with Ms. Yoshie Nimoda, who is in charge of public relations. She has a “serious and sloppy” character that both herself and others admit. I asked if it is really the case! First, please tell us about your hobbies! I currently enjoy learning English. In parallel with online English conversations, I attend a comprehensive face-to-face English class twice a week at a school. Also, I like bands such as rock, and I enjoyed going to annual outdoor music festivals,…
Agricultural Training – Practice at Home
[Original by Mariko OMURA, Cambodia Project (November 16, 2020); Translated by S. Tokugawa/M. Olagoke] Hi, this is Mariko Omura, the country director of JVC Cambodia. Lately, we have been talking about reservoirs, so this time I would like to write about agricultural training which is another pillar of our activities on this blog. JVC Cambodia conducts technical trainings on a regular basis to provide support for producing kitchen gardens at each home. We welcome everyone, and applicants can join this at any time. Anyone who is interested in it can take part whenever they like. Besides the trainings, we are providing reservoir support for areas in which it is particularly…
2020 Northeast Asian University Peace Exchange Program 2
Report on the 2nd study session – Learn the past and the present of Zainichi, Korean nationals living in Japan, from the film “Ai tachi no gakko (Korean Schools in Japan)” – [Original by Tara SATO, an intern on the “Korea Children Campaign,” the Relief Campaign Committee for Children, Japan (December 1, 2020); Translated by H. Ueda/M. Olagoke] About the Northeast Asian University Peace Exchange Program This program was started in 2018 by a group of NPO and NGO members and individuals who became acquainted through Children’s Art Exhibitions. The program consists of networking events and study sessions where college students living in Japan learn about peace in Northeast Asia.…
So busy with dry herbs!
[Original by Mariko OMURA, Cambodia Project (December 25, 2020); Translated by E. Miyazaki /A. Taguchi] Roselle hibiscus in bright red! Hi, this is Mariko Omura, the country director of JVC Cambodia. It is now December and the harvest season of Roselle hibiscus. The flowers look like bright red jewels, which are picked, dried, and shipped as a raw material for herb tea. Pretty pink globe amaranth The pretty flowers are globe amaranth. It contains a lot of ingredients for enhancing beauty. We also dry and ship them to Phnom Penh as a raw material for herb tea. Tangy and spicy! Turmeric and ginger It is also the harvest season of…
Protecting the community’s foundations!- Learning about life in Kaduqli from the ground up –
[Original by Ko IMANAKA, Sudan Project (December 25, 2020); Translated by C. Rosenberg] Along with the supplemental classes we offer the children, we held a workshop for the parents and general community to discuss maintenance of the community’s public property. Behind our idea to hold a workshop is the reality that many facilities, installed through the support of the government, the United Nations, and NGOs, are unusable due to a lack of community management and maintenance. Evidence of the neglect is everywhere: a hand pump well rusting away after years of disuse, a mismanaged water-supplying facility left inoperable after its solar panels and generators were stolen, and school desks and…
Filling in the Blanks: Education in the Age of COVID-19 and Military Conflict
[Original by Ko IMANAKA, Sudan Project (December 24, 2020); Translated by C. Rosenberg] In March of 2020, Sudan’s Ministry of Education decided to close all schools nation-wide in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the state of South Kordofan, where JVC operates, the school attendance rate is low and many children, mainly refugees, do not attend formal schools. To address this issue, we started providing supplemental classes in January this year with the goal of giving children who have not attended school enough academic ability to transfer to formal schools. However, with the closure of schools nationally, by the middle of March we were left with no choice…