Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 6, 1988, Winnipeg, Manitoba The Telephone 9479300 a division of com req services la mite 298 Garry r3c1h3 Winnipeg free press March 1988 pages 1324 sunday warm cold shoulders japanese overseas volunteers get icy reception Back Home by Tim Ward special to the free press who built water ways in Ethiopia or Yasu Hiro who reopened a rehabilitation Centre for physio therapy in Costa Rica or Mieko who taught kindergarten in sri Lanka these three and japanese overseas cooperation volunteers jocks like them do much to puncture our preconceptions about the self serving Japa aged Between 20 and jocks willingly leave Japan to live in conditions that their friends Back Home would probably find their huts Are Village they draw their own water from the Village they endure the immense frustration of having to learn not Only National Bui tribal dialects As Well and for most every foreign Lan Guage is live in isolation except for one team in All volunteers live in isolation from other japanese during their two year term of yet 10 percent agree to Between fifteen and Twenty per cent slay three years or Sicuro Muto holds the record he spent 11 years in jocks Are Active in developing nations in latin Ameri the near East and and More than 23 per cent Are despite the volunteers face their biggest problems after they return they discover they Are strangers in in the Volunteer work abroad is a Good Job reference for Young pro in tightly knit japanese living outside taints makes you value conformity japanese companies value conformity and and follow the japanese proverb the Nail that Sticks up gets pounded most Are reluctant to hire Only a handful of businesses offer leave time for some returnees who do find jobs quit within a they cant readjust to being says Naoko a staff worker for the Jove Long overtime hours without pay and work Days every other Satur Day Are a regular part of life in a japanese returnees attend a three Day be including career counselling and a character change test As part of the Jolt adapting to Africa was says Mariko a Jock science teacher who returned from Kenya two years hut coming Home was people seemed so in you always talk with whoever happens to sit beside you in a i tried this for awhile on the trains in people thought it was very even crammed together in Tokyo sub japanese always maintain social Only drunks and lunatics talk to Uchida has a temporary Job As a career counsellor at the Jock head office in the Jock program was established under the ministry of for eign affairs in when 40 Volun Teers were sent to and the its now a Branch of the Japan International Civ opera Tion Agency and has More than Active volunteers 410 of them sri Lanka and the Philippines each have about 100 sending volunteers to work in developing nations is not exactly a japanese we were greatly influenced by president Kennedy proposal for a peace says Takeshi a former Diplomat appointed Secre tar general of Jock this septem in terms of the Japa Nese have sent fewer than 10 per cent of peace and far fewer than similar japanese Volunteer helps teach Auto mechanics in Zambia where he lives in same conditions As the and in programs in Britain and though slightly More than and about the same number As Canada which has Only one fifth the population of of the West has a tradition of Volunteer service dating Back at least when Saint Benedict Ltd missions of Young men from the affluent society of Koine out to work in the s of North except for the rare Buddhist Japan has never sen missionaries during its isolationist from the Earlyse Venlee nth to tie mid nineteenth the government permit led Only a few foreign contacts with and a Small number of dutch japanese who left the were punished by death Volunteer chips in to help Fisherman haul in returned largely to keep out the influence of their fear of cultural contamination was the extreme opposite of the Western nations determination to save and Rule the in modern the idea of Volunteer work is slowly gaining a but is ill faces an Isola tons a lot of Young people want to join but Are pressured out of it by Par or superiors at says Secretary general were appealing to the Public to understand the International role these volunteers on the other a late Start in the Volunteer business has had its in typical japanese they have Learned from the mistakes of before setting up the Jock the ministry of foreign affairs sent several fact finding missions to visit peace corps projects around the we made two observations from these says we saw that most american volunteers were working As English in some coun it seemed they were neither really welcomed nor we concluded that we should Send technicians and engineers to the developing not japanese language in this Way we Are More similar to european organizations than the peace High Quality although their number is relatively japanese volunteers Are High Quality last year developing nations have requested Soi new for these candidates wrote the first semiannual recruitment exams a technical a language and a self evaluation Only 397 the new recruits then underwent three months training in the Lan and histories of their assigned regions at Jock centres in those bound for French or Spanish speaking coun tries received a further six weeks of language studies in France or mex in route to their on Thev Are Given a month for Vertise and in return they discover values they cant easily find in after coming Back from South Jock Masahiro Furukawa wrote 1 can not easily agree with people who consider Peru to be lacking in s a not a single Jock has been sen Home Only a h a n d f u 1 h a v dropped out for personal reasons Many governments request study of the local Lan and preparation for the work volunteers Are strictly instructed not to disturb the cultural or political policies of their Host a Volun Teers to extend their two year con Guate adapting to Africa was easy and Bhutan Are interested in receiving jocks for the first another reason for jocks High Success rate is that Host countries must be exact about what they want their volunteers to the secretariat has 223 Job classifications rang ing from Flower silkworm rearing and string instr to aircraft smallpox automobile body computers and japanese they Only Send people trained to fill a specified Kiyoshi perhaps the most legendary set up so Many projects in his Village in Ghana ranging from education to Agricula the local people made him their he has already re turned to Africa and the Jock office in Ghana still gets requests for Bun to Tome Back the Jock secretariat has a Spe Cial Aid fund volunteers can tap for Community development but some volunteers prefer to use Only local leaching peo ple to rely on each the key word for jocks is not cooperation implies two Way volunteers give then sex be of the people i met in Peru were poor not even the policeman who haunt enough Money to buy his i Learned thai regardless of the clothes they the food they the places they Are Basi Cally As Rich As they care to be Lime i spent in Peru was nothing but continuous heart touch a few eventually reject their own or become bitter if they cant find a Job when they some want to leave Japan but a Nav realize that their Hardes task has just begun Edu Cating the Moie than returnees now work for development organizations like Insp and others stay Active in International cooperation through a Union of sex they have started support groups to Send food and blankets to Ethiopia and the returnees have written More than 30 published books about their experiences some lecture a Community meetings and uni similarities a woman group of former volunteers arranges slide and photo exhibit ions for to show similarities Between the ways of life at Home and but whats in it for Japan a Vine might Gid or with developing nations a foot in the door to heir markets the real benefits from jocks have nothing to do with for the first tune in there Are Young professionals working in Japan who Are truly who know Boih the Viiu s and the needs of the world and who have Bro Ken japans isolationist they Are used to to to changing society slowly and they know How badly that change is right where hey blvd Winnipeg Square an 969 Henderson 2200mcphiinps 1166 Pemba 7 Killarney fiver Heights 580 Academy Piep Heights 1685 Corydon fort pc incr 4l40sborne 532 Nassau fori 743coryclon f 35 Lakewood blvd s 1850 Portage it Vita i marys vital 4 in Tanica t fj0209qcorydon i 702 Sargent head office 743corydon ski jackets Down filled extra cleaned on time and to your satisfaction guaranteed per Pleat per Pleat under 60 in length Over 60 in length watch this for quintons weekly specials ;