Project Name: Community Development through
School Construction in Asia

Support Recipient: Asian Education and
Friendship Association (AEFA)

Grant Size: ¥ 46,000,000 (Used to build more
than 10 schools in three countries: Vietnam,
Laos and Thailand)

Cooperating Organization: CARE Thai

Writer: Masanori Tamazawa
Trip Period: June 3-8, 2005
Place Visited: Northern Thailand (Sopwak and
Mae Jong Sam Villages, Chiang Mai Prefecture)

Of the three countries supported under this program, this trip's
focus was on a village in highland Thailand. The purpose was to
conduct a progress check on the building of elementary schools for
children in the region.

Asia's mountainous regions, and the places where minorities live,
lag behind other areas in national economic development programs.
This is due to the dual issues of remoteness and to various social
difficulties. For this reason, they suffer unduly from poverty.
Children have a hard time obtaining an education. In addition,
schools in developing countries, once built, have difficulty
raising the funds required to cover running costs.

1. To build elementary schools in Asia's mountainous regions and
in areas inhabited by minorities, and to support the long-term
running of the school. The goal of this is to improve the poor
educational environment, and to engender self-sufficiency among
the populace.

2. To establish sister-school relationships between Thai and
Japanese schools. While stimulating support from the Japanese
side, the project aims, through exchange, to deepen the
understanding of international relations and economics among
Japanese school students.

With financial backing from The Nippon Foundation, the Japanese
NPO, Asian Education and Friendship Association (AEFA) cooperates
with locally-based NGOs in the three countries reached (Thailand,
Vietnam and Laos), supporting the building of elementary schools.
In this case, the local organization is CARE Thai, the Thai arm of
CARE International. Before beginning construction on a school,
AEFA contacts Japanese Junior and Senior High Schools, encouraging
them to take part in a 3-5 year sister-school program to both
donate funds and conduct exchange activities. Only when a school
has agreed to undertake a sister-school relationship is
construction begun.