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Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders Vol. 3

ARI is currently running a four-part series following the participants’ journey to ARI as part of a Campaign.

The third in this series is Pierre from Haiti, and Ms. Tomoko Oka, General Manager of Pierre’s sending body, Haiti no Kai (The Association of Haiti). Focusing on agriculture and education, Haiti no Kai’s philosophy is to “live together” with the Haitian people.
All ARI participants are required to apply through their organization and will continue to work for the same organization after graduation. Therefore, not only the participants who actually come to Japan, but also the sending organization also sends out its staff after much effort and support.
We hope that you will learn about the thoughts and feelings of the people from the sending bodies who work with ARI participants, which you would not normally have the opportunity to know about.



 [Pierre, 2023 graduate from Republic of Haiti and Tomoko Oka (Haiti no Kai)]

How much do you know about Haiti?
Haiti is a republic in the Caribbean Sea, occupying the western part of the island of Hispaniola (the eastern side is the Dominican Republic).  When Columbus landed there, he praised for its beauty. Today, the beaches are as stunning as they ever were, and it is a popular stopover for cruise ships. However, according to Ms. Tomoko Oka, General Manager of the NGO, Haiti no Kai, the country has two faces.

Haiti’s turbulent history
The name “Haiti” means “Land of Mountains” in the native language of the island, but the indigenous people, numbering 500,000, perished at the hands of Spanish invaders, who brought disease and forced them to labor in silver mines. Later, black slaves were brought from Africa, and after a long period of toil and hardship, they won independence from France, defeating Napoleon’s army in 1804. This was the birth of the first black republic in world history. However, in exchange for independence, France demanded 150 million francs in reparations from Haiti, and Haiti went into financial ruin after a long period of debt repayment, which was paid off in 1922. Furthermore, even after independence, interference from powerful nations continued, and the lives of the Haitian people have been dragged down by U.S. occupation, coup d’états, and an ongoing struggle for power.

The once beautiful mountains were heavily deforested under Spanish and French colonial rule, to make way for coffee and sugarcane plantations, and by the 18th century the forest was reduced to about 1.5% of its original size. This has devastated the land, and the topsoil in the fields is washed away every time it rains, making it impossible to grow crops. In addition, the area is geographically in the path of hurricanes.

These factors have had a significant impact on the lives of the citizens. I was struck by the following story on the Haiti no Kai website, “…For example, on Sundays, we look around the house thinking, ‘Ok, let’s get something to eat,’ and we drink a cup of coffee, and that’s all we take in a day. And then we all have a conversation. ‘Oh, by the way, when was the last time we ate meat?’”

Protecting Life today through agriculture; Nurturing the Haiti of tomorrow through Education
Haiti no Kai was founded by Ms. Eiko Nakano in 1986 to provide literacy education and lifestyle guidance to poor children in the Republic of Haiti, to improve the lives of the local people. Its original purpose was to support the activities of Ms. Nakano’s kindergarten teacher, Sister Hongo, who had been assigned to work there.

In 2001, they sent their first participant to ARI.  This was after Sister Hongo asked Ms. Nakano to find a place in Japan where they could train leaders to teach fellow Haitians to become self-sufficient farmers, and she recommended a person in this regard. Ms. Nakano thought an organization with Christian values, such as ARI, would be more suitable for Haiti and decided to send this person.

The staff member, Exil Deslandes, was very talented. After completing ARI, he returned to his hometown and founded KFP (Kominote Familyal Peyizan / A Community of Resident Families), which serves about 100-200 families. The main activities of the KFP are eating (agriculture and school lunch) and learning (running an elementary school). Louise-Taire Pierre was sent to ARI as a successor of Exil in 2023. He is a diligent, hard-working man with a passion for learning, and was highly recommended by the local staff.

At the time he was preparing for his journey to ARI, the Japanese embassy in Haiti was closed due to the worsening security situation, so Pierre had to go to the neighboring Dominican Republic to apply for a visa. The only way to get across the border was to take a bus out of the capital, and transportation costs were high. It took a lot of courage to go to the capital, which was a lawless zone with rampant gang activity. The Japanese staff told Pierre to come to Japan with as small a bag as possible, as traveling with a large suitcase would make him look rich and put him in danger. In fact, when he left for Japan, he was carrying the largest amount of money he had ever held in his life.

More adventures were yet to come. As a person from a developing country, it was difficult to obtain a transit visa through the United States, so he had to cross from the Dominican Republic to Japan via Mexico.  Adding to his travel difficulties was the fact that he could barely speak English at that time (though at ARI he learned it very quickly and was nearly fluent by the end of the training). All the Haiti no Kai staff were on edge until the moment Peirre landed in Japan and met the ARI staff waiting for him at the airport. Unfortunately, his luggage was lost during the transfer in Mexico, but he was thankful that he himself made it safely. His suitcase had contained several bottles of castor oil, that had been prepared as a souvenir by Exil. 

Haitians have a culture of wearing the finest clothes when going to church on Sundays, and on his way to Japan, Pierre also bought new clothes and a new bag with the money provided by his sending body. This episode shows how precious this opportunity to travel to Japan was for Pierre! In fact, he still remembers the exact date of his arrival in Japan as well as the date of the opening ceremony.

Self-transformation at ARI
Even though Pierre had been working with a graduate of ARI, he really didn’t know what to expect when he arrived on campus.  His first challenges were the English language and living together with people from different cultural backgrounds.  “I wondered how can I adapt with different people? The cultures, backgrounds, food…everything was different. That was so difficult.”

He was frustrated by people’s unexpected attitudes. But after a class given by Tomoko Arakawa, former director of ARI, he tried to reflect on himself and began to reach out to help his classmates, volunteers, and visitors. This experience has served him well in his work until today.

Sowing seeds for the future
A year and four months have passed since Pierre returned to Haiti. Now he has two activities in mind, one of which is to teach people income-generating skills, such as mayonnaise making and soap making. The other is training local farmers and junior high school students in organic farming and providing environmental education for forest conservation. Putting the skills learned at ARI into practice in the community and producing tangible results is not something that can be done overnight, and there is also the issue of funding.

The Japanese staff also face major challenges. Haiti has been without a president since the assassination of President Moïse in 2021. Public discontent with the prime minister, who has taken the helm of national politics, has exploded. Many areas have fallen under the control of gangs, and the security situation in the capital has deteriorated markedly. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an evacuation advisory for Japanese nationals, and since then, Japanese staff members of the organization have not been able to visit the areas where they work. Despite these restrictions, their activities have not ceased and continue based on the deep relationship of trust between the local and Japanese staff.

Ms. Tomoko Oka, General Manager of Haiti no Kai, whom I interviewed, has four children, works as a teacher during the day, and devotes the rest of her time to the activities of the association, often starting her work at 2:00 a.m. I asked her why she supports the Haitian people with such passion.
“I have been blessed with the opportunity to receive food and education, and my desire to help those who are not so fortunate is the foundation of my work. When I was in Haiti in the past, I saw Haitians sharing a plate of food among several people, and when the sun went down and it was dark, young people would gather around the UN troop compounds’ outdoor lamps to frantically read their schoolbooks.  I met Haiti, a country I have a connection with, and I feel Haitians are friends who will live together.”

Additional Note: Community Update
On April 4, I received an email from Ms. Tomoko Oka.
Over the past week, a gang that has been running rampant in the capital city has expanded its influence to a neighboring town about 40 km from Pierre’s community. Many residents have abandoned their homes or have been evacuated. Pierre and Exil said, “KFP is an organization that helps the poor, so we can’t overlook the evacuees,” and requested support from the Japanese staff. They have been talking day after day and are now making preparations for relief.

“Both Pierre and KFP are trying to help people in more serious situations than themselves, even though their daily lives are in a state of hardship. They are trying to take important human actions.” These words of Ms. Oka left a deep impression on me. 
Please keep them in mind and pray for them.

I hope the seeds they are sowing with sweat will bear fruit abundantly in Haiti, and more rural community leaders will be born.

Click here to learn more about Haiti no Kai and support their work: https://haitinokai.wixsite.com/-site

Click here to read the series of articles

Vol. 1【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 2【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 3【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】← Now, you’re here.

Vol. 4【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders Vol. 2

Do you know how ARI participants go through the process of coming to Japan? ARI is currently running a four-part series following the participants’ journey to ARI as part of a Campaign.
The second in this series is Veh from Malawi, who came back to ARI as a Training Assistant this year.
She is a bit of a famous in her hometown of Lilongwe. This is because she is a radio personality! With her low, smooth, beautiful voice, she is in charge of an agricultural program. It was through an encounter with one of her listeners that she came to know about ARI.



 [Veh, 2018 graduate from Lilongwe, Malawi]

Venitta Kaduya (Veh) is from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She grew up in an urban environment, which is unusual for an ARI participant, and she never imagined that someday she would travel beyond the borders of her country. One day, while working as a radio personality for a farmers’ program, a man came to her and said, “Your program is great, but you could learn a lot more. Have you ever heard of a place called ARI?”

That was the first time she heard about ARI. She thought it was only as far as Zimbabwe or South Africa, but later learned it was in Japan. She was curious, and her radio station was supportive, but Japan was a completely unknown country for her. Also, she was hesitant to leave her family behind, especially since the youngest of her three children was only 16 months old.  However, it was her family who encouraged her to go, even though their emotions were mixed. “Life has many dimensions. You need to go out and learn,” said her husband and mother, who looked after the kids while she was gone.

She was accepted as a participant in 2018 and completed the 9-month training program with a scholarship from the American friends of ARI (AFARI). Living in a far-off land for an extended period of time was not easy, but because she gained so much, she says it was absolutely worth it. ARI gave Veh not only knowledge of agriculture, but also helped her grow mentally and physically. “The institute is a place that changes people,” she says. “People at ARI change, and I changed too.” With her eyes and heart opened in this way, Veh returned home with the courage to improve her community.

Back in Malawi, the first initiative she took was to start a sanitary pad project. It is common for adolescent girls in her country to stop going to school simply because they don’t have sanitary pads. Because of this, they miss classes for a week each month during their menstrual period, fall behind, and eventually drop out. After that, there are few options open to them and some girls are forced to get married, even as young as age 14.  ARI conducts a workshop on making reusable cloth sanitary pads as part of its training. Veh immediately saw how useful this could be in her community and when she got home, she approached the head teacher of a nearby primary school, to ask if she could teach this skill to the girls. “No problem. You can start,” was the immediate reply. This was kind of a shock, because topics like this can be taboo in this society. So, for the last 7 years she has been teaching the girls how to make their own pads. ¾ of the 2,300 strong student body are female, so there is no shortage of demand for this product. The school now employs a tailor to make the pads, but Veh ensures that the girls also know how to make them themselves.

Another project she started was to organize a group of women who use leftover food from the local market to make into compost, which they sell. They are turning other people’s waste into a steady income to support their families. Currently, as a Training Assistant in the FEAST (Food Education And Sustainable Table) section of ARI, Veh hopes to develop her knowledge of food preparation and preservation techniques to further improve the living skills of this group of women. In Malawi, where there are rainy and dry seasons, it is difficult to obtain vegetables stably throughout the year. So, by processing and preserving vegetables during the season when many are available, they can avoid buying vegies in the off season, when they are much more expensive. The money saved can be used for education and housing.

Veh is excited to connect with this year’s participants. They will arrive with both excitement and anxiety, and likely have the same difficulties and culture shock she faced when she was a participant.  She is looking forward to helping them adjust to ARI life and get the most out of this unique learning experience. 
I’m wondering what the future holds behind her calm eyes, and look forward to seeing her continue to learn and grow and work for people.

Click here to read the series of articles

Vol. 1【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 2【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】← Now, you’re here.

Vol. 3【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 4【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders. Vol.1

Do you know about the long journeys ARI participants to Japan? 
Most of them live not in big cities, but in remote villages whose names do not appear on any internet maps.  In ARI’s early days, it was not uncommon for participants to enter their plane in bare feet! Now pretty much everyone is wearing their shoes, or at least flipflops!
But even so, the paths they must travel are far beyond our imagination.

We would like to follow their great adventures in 4 installments!
The first in this series is 2000 ARI graduate, Acivo, from Nagaland, India. Many of you may know her, as she also served as staff at ARI until recently.
The mountain village where she was born and raised is today at least an 8-hour drive from the nearest airport, but 25 years ago, that trip was much more harrowing! 



 [Acivo, 2000 graduate from Nagaland, India]

Khutsokhuno Village, home of Zacivolü R. Dozo (Acivo), is located up the mountain from Phek Town, in the south of Nagaland State, India. This community is composed of Naga people, and although it is India, their Mongoloid features are similar to those of the Japanese. They make their living by traditional slash-and-burn agriculture, live in houses made of bamboo and wood, and do their cooking on a stove over an open fire.

You may wonder how Acivo, who lives in such a remote area, came to know about ARI. As it happens, the boss of an NGO she was working at was an ARI graduate, and recommended her for the training program. Thinking it would be difficult to ask for financial support from her relatives, she said she needed time to pray about it. Her boss’s simple reply, “Trust in the Lord,” made her decide to apply.  She did so, and was accepted!

The preparation for her travel to Japan was not easy. Although her overseas travel expenses would be covered, she still had to manage her domestic preparation expenses. She took the risk of borrowing 20,000 rupees, which is today about 35,000 yen, but at that time was much more. She was later able to repay the loan by saving the allowance money she received from ARI. To obtain her visa, she needed to travel 1,500 kms to Kolkata. It was her first time ever to go there. But knowing that was not her final stop, that she would be going much further, all the way to Japan, leaving her country for the first time in her life, it was beyond her imagination. The only way she could describe this experience was “Khutsokhuno, Phek, BOOM!”

Today, it takes at least 8 hours to drive from the Acvio’s village to the airport on unpaved mountain roads, but back then, driving wasn’t even an option. No one had a car. Her journey started with a 4 hour walk to the nearest town, Phek. Then another 10 hours in a public bus to get to the airport at Dimapur. At the time, there were only two flights a week to Kolkata, and even those few flights were often cancelled. In Kolkata she met up with two other participants on their way to ARI and together they helped each other through a transfer in Bangkok before finally arriving at Narita Airport. The three of them were confused the whole time, never sure if they were at the right gate or getting on the right plane, but they made it.

What moved Acivo to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure? It was ARI’s mission. She felt ARI was exactly the place for her to prepare her to lead people at the grassroots.  And ARI did not disappoint her.

Acivo still remembers the organization that paid for her training. It was the Rotary Club of Utsunomiya and this is how she describes the significance of supporting ARI. “It would be difficult to provide ongoing support if they invested the same amount in a single project. But the Rotary Club invested in me. And I’ve been alive and working for people for the last 25 years.” “…The whole world needs change, and it needs everyone’s participation. But we cannot all be leaders and live in rural areas. Each one of us is equipped with our own work and abilities, and investing 100 yen or 1,000 yen in one participant can change the lives of 1,000 people behind him or her. It’s not just 100 people, it’s 1,000 people!”

She herself has worked as a staff member of an NGO and at ARI to raise money for the education of her nephews and nieces, and has devoted herself to the education of children and their families in her village. “Some of the children I taught are already old enough to get married, and they will be the future leaders of their villages and churches. So, I have never once regretted my activities.” Her work in the village has been successful, enabling many young families earn an income and send their children to school in neighboring towns, by growing vegetables.

She will be 55 years old this year and her energy never runs out. Hesitantly, she mentioned a project that she hasn’t yet told anyone about. It is “the Obento project.” Obento means “lunch box” in Japanese. After years of filling the stomachs of community members in the ARI kitchen, she has a deep interest in nutrition and health and is concerned about the recent surge of cancer and diabetes in Nagaland. As the world food trend is rapidly changing, Nagaland isn’t an exception. Fast food products from outside of the region are in high fashion amongst the younger generations both in rural and urban settings. So, she came up with the idea of making healthy lunches based on Japanese cuisine, with the aim of sustaining households through supporting the health of families and neighbors in urban areas. She says she needs to do something that attracts young people, and for about 250-300 yen, she makes lunch boxes for 3 neighbors every day. The rice comes from her village, and the vegetables and fruits, such as cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, and strawberries are grown on her balcony and in small planters on the roof. She also has 2 rabbits and recently started to raise 3 hens for eggs. “With just a few ingredients, I can make a tasty, healthy obento.”

Even with all she has accomplished, she still takes new initiatives. This is a true rural leader. Her unpretentious approach is sure to inspire many people to think, “If this is what she can do, maybe I can do it, too.”

Click here to read the series of articles

Vol. 1【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】 ← Now, you’re here.

Vol. 2【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 3【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】

Vol. 4【Do You Know? The Great Journey of Rural Community Leaders】