Japanese volunteers have been undertaking support activities to construct a village to provide street children with a place where they can live as a family, called the Asha Children's Village, which is near the city of Delhi, in the district of Jhajjar in the state of Haryana, India.

In 2006, volunteers purchased 10.5 acres of desert-like land for the village. They needed to ensure clean drinking water and reforest the site, prior to their plan of introducing organic agriculture and poultry farming. In 2008, they started working on planting trees there with the help of a Japanese non-governmental organization, the Japan Asia Association & Asian Friendship Society (JAFS).

Ms. Yukiko Makino is the main advocate of the children's village and is working hard to fulfill her plan. She devoted herself for 35 years at a university in India to nurturing women leaders in agricultural communities. After retiring, she started working as a volunteer at the Don Bosco Ashalayam, a shelter for street children in Delhi. Having learned the reality of life on the street for children, she strongly felt the need for facilities where they could feel secure both physically and mentally, learn, and take up vocational training towards living independently.

Nearly 30 years ago, JAFS started with providing wells to Asian countries facing serious shortages of clean drinking water. So far, the association has engaged in activities such as supplying wells for drinking water, constructing water pipelines, planting trees, developing farm villages, and offering restoration assistance in a total of 46 regions of 18 countries.

http://www.ashalayam.org/
http://www.jafs.or.jp/english/e_association.html

Posted: 2008/10/08 11:14:20 AM

TAG Food/Water , NGO/Citizen