Go Iketani!

10 volunteers from a company visited Iketani. There were actually 4 repeaters in that group. It was really appreciated.

Normally, most participants for Village Revitalization Volunteers had not met each other 　before because they participated by themselves or with a friend etc. On the other hand, the10 participants this time have in common as they were from the same company since they saw the notice of the volunteer recruitment and participated in the activity. However, they belonged to different department and were in different age group.

“Oh, why you are here, sir?” A man could not help being surprised as his manager also joined in.
“Hey, how have you been?” Manager talk to him too.

The work and other matters during the stay such as cooking, room sharing and working group were fairly shared and organized for the 10 volunteers. 
　As time goes by, even though there were still kind of hierarchy, they enthusiastically talked each other as they got together with same motivation. Some members of Tokamachi Regional Development Planning Committee and JEN staff joined the conversation.  “How about having a company trip here?” “Why is the international corporation NGO engaging to village revitalization? ”, “What is the definition of “self reliance”?” ,“You are very fit　and energetic, man”. The conversation did not stop.

There is normally an integration banquet between the villagers and volunteers in village revitalization volunteer. However, there was no banquet that time as they had sports event in the region next day.

The volunteers might think “We wish we could talk to the villagers more”. Next morning, they watched the event which was held in neighbouring village from beech forest where they visited after finishing the tasks. Their voice could not be heard by the villagers due to the distance, but their hearts were the one “Go IKetani!”

There were many first time participants in the volunteer activities organized by JEN and the activities were in 6th year this year. On contrary, there were many repeaters too. We could see that the repeaters were advising to the first time volunteers.

JEN will continue sending “village revitalization volunteers” as long as it is needed. Although you need lots of courage for the first step, please join us if you are interested in!

Not only village revitalization volunteer, but also there is “Let’s Go to TAMBO!!”. Please feel free to contact us for further information.