Let’s face it folks, most of us JETs have a lot of two very precious things on our hands: time and money. With this in mind, the kind folk of Oita JETs have devised an ingenious plan to help alleviate some of the guilt that we all feel due to that excess.

In 2004, a local boy named Masato was in desperate need of a heart operation which, thanks to Japanese donor laws, he could only receive in the USA. AJET decided to establish a charity in order to take advantage of its members’ high wages, social nature and close-knit community to contribute to this charity drive and enable this 9-year-old to successfully reach his target and undergo surgery.

We subsequently established contact with a US-based charity called Room To Read, which builds bi-lingual libraries, computer rooms, language labs and schools themselves in 6 of the poorest nations in S.E. Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, India and, recent additions, Sri Lanka and Laos. Our initial goal to build a library soon became replaced by a desire to go bigger and build an entire school. This provides under privileged kids with the lifelong gift of education.

Since it inception in 2000, Room To Read has built over 70 schools, established over 850 bilingual libraries, shipped over 380,000 books, established 30 computer and language labs, and funded over 500 long-term scholarships.

Oita AJET has reached a charity target for of ¥1,200,000 yen, or approximately USD 12000/GBP 6000, in 2006. That money was enough to fund the building of an entire school in Vietnam. For information on the school, check out the completion report about Tran Phu Primary School located in Central Vietnam (PDF).

Not only that, but as of January 2008 we raised enough funds to build a school in Nepal!

Our new goal is raising $25,000 to build a school in Laos!

Even better, we can actually visit these schools and libraries, see first-hand how our money is being spent, and meet the children whose lives it is enhancing. In 2006, Doron found himself in Vietnam on his way back to Britain where he stopped in on Room to Read’s Vietnam HQ in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), one of many branches in countries all over the world. There, he had the chance to meet the national coordinator, Thuy, and get a tour of the offices and a run-down of their work.

Why a school in S.E. Asia? is a question often asked, and the answers are simple. Firstly, we are educators, and a learning-based charity was the obvious choice. But why not in Japan itself, the country where we live and work? As well as the fact that charities in general are thin on the ground in Japan, the simple answer is that any money we raise will go a LOT further in other Asian countries, and those countries are in more need of facilities than Japan. The level of schooling available to Japanese children is far greater than from these less developed places.

What can you do to help? Feel free to set up a direct debit payment to the AJET charity account with whatever you think you can afford every month, or simply attend the JET events, from wine-tastings to pub quizzes, to the parties we will be organizing, or contact Danielle with any ideas for events of your own. Also coming will be the sponsored Hitch Hike and Bike Ride, two of the best events in the JET year.

Completion Report: Tran Phu Primary School