Japanese volunteers, local partners share experiences

Mar 22,2012 | 22:28

AMMAN -- The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Jordan held a workshop on Thursday with the aim of improving communication between JICA volunteers and their Jordanian partners.

Participants at the workshop gave presentations on the volunteers' activities as a way to encourage communication and improve each other's understanding of their respective roles.

Representatives from different sectors in Jordan who have benefited from JICA's volunteer programme also exchanged views with the agency on how to promote good communications between volunteers and their counterparts.

Fedal Labadi, manager of the industrial development department at the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI), explained that the ACI and several factories in Jordan have benefited from the volunteers.

"During the past seven years, around 15 volunteers cooperated with us and introduced their experiences and ideas that contributed to boosting the sector," he told The Jordan Times during the workshop.

Labadi indicated that several industrial sectors such as plastics, medicine, engineering and furniture have taken advantage of the volunteers' experience.

"They benefited from consultative and technical services introduced by these experienced volunteers," he said.

Since 1986, JICA has sent 665 Japanese volunteers to Jordan to share their experiences and ideas in education, industry and other fields, according to Tanaka Toshiaki, chief representative of JICA's Jordan office.

He indicated that most of the volunteers are not accustomed to living in the Arab world under Islamic customs or even living outside of Japan.

"Therefore, volunteers need some warm-up time after their arrival and before they start their effective activities," he noted.

The JICA chief representative indicated that volunteers work with several institutions, particularly the ministries of education and social development, in addition to civil society organisations and Palestinian refugee camps.

Toshiaki said the JICA volunteers' partner institutions are happy and very committed to working with JICA.

"Volunteers work in accordance with their counterparts' experience and culture so that they produce tangible results," he noted.

"Japanese people like to support Jordanians."