Six more volunteers from Japan arrive

11 February 2017, 12:00AM

Six more Japanese volunteers have arrived to join existing volunteers in Samoa, taking the total number of Japanese volunteers in Samoa to start 2017 to thirty-five.

The group arrived last week.

At the beginning of the week, the volunteers met with heads and representatives from the Embassy of Japan, Public Service Commission, Ministry of Finance’s Aid Coordination division and the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture.  

Other activities during the new intake’s orientation programme included snorkeling safety lessons with Aqua Samoa at their new location at Mulinu’u and most importantly learning the Samoan language with the highly-skilled talents of tutor Reverend Fuaao Fetalaiga.

The group’s professions comprise of primary school teachers, a Japanese language lecturer, electronic engineer (robotics) and Museology (historical artefacts).  

All three primary school teachers have been assigned to work for primary schools within the Faasaleleaga No. 1 district in Savai’i.

Later on this month, the group look forward to meeting their Samoan families for a week-long Homestay visit on the South side of Upolu.  

The homestay visit concludes their orientation program before officially starting work with their host organisations from the first week of March 2017.

The volunteers are enthusiastic and ready to start working.  

Their willingness is to contribute to the three core objectives of the volunteer program; 

1) contribute to Samoa’s socioeconomic development 

2) promote international friendship and bilateral relationships focused on mutual understanding and 

3) developing human resources through cooperative activities and returning such human resources back to Japanese society.  

Worldwide, there are now 2,547 JICA volunteers serving in 77 different countries.  Overall, 49,944 volunteers have been assigned universally since JICA’s volunteer mission was established in 1972.

11 February 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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