Khutsambad children enjoy exercise during break

The Asian Education and Friendship Association (AEFA) has built elementary schools for the children of Asian mountain tribes with support from The Nippon Foundation. This year marks the fifth year since AEFA was established, and they have started to inspect all schools they had built.

Japanese teachers visited schools in Vietnam and Laos in September as inspection examples for the upcoming AEFA Forum (November 1, 2009). After visiting, the teachers said "Compared with Japanese children, students at this local school seem innocent and cute. I would love to see that in Japanese children’s faces again."

Khutsambad school built with the assistance of The Nippon Foundation

During the inspection, two teachers of Shiba elementary school, Tokyo, visited Vietnam, while principals and teachers of Futamatagawa elementary school in Yokohama and Higashidate elementary school in Fukushima visited Laos. They all made friendship agreements, and attended the local schools.

Teaching Japanese gymnastics to children

Khutsambad elementary school, in Saythany District, Northern Laos, was built in 2007. There are 115 students enrolled from first to fifth grade. This school is a sister school of Futamatagawa elementary school, and the research group joined a athletic festival there on September 20. The next day, they visited the school again officially. In his welcoming address, Principal Phonethong Yodbounmy said "We would like to continue a long friendship exchange with Futamatagawa elementary school."

Japanese Teacher and students of Khutsambad School

This school is for children whose parents are handicapped because of unexploded ordnances during Vietnam War. Two visiting Japanese teachers conducted a class in Japanese with gestures. One gave the students a Japanese souvenir: a paper fan with the word ’Konnichiwa’ written on it, and introduced his elementary school using pictures and drawings which were created by his students. He also performed a Japanese song with bamboo flute, and the children were asked singing a local song. In the next class, another Japanese teacher showed pictures in the same way, and wrote “A-i-u-e-o” on the blackboard. He taught them the Japanese words “Sayonara,” “Konnichiwa,” and also the school name, “Futamatagawa.”

Children like to climb Trees

Between classes, the kids learned Japanese exercises in the school yard. They did not understand the language, but the children enjoyed the teacher’s humor. The surrounding area is a colony where people who suffered in Vietnam War live. Many families make their living on agriculture, bamboo-ware and silk. After the visit, the group attended local homes, and observed the way making bamboo -ware.