LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Students, farmers benefit from JAITI

By Arun Ranjit

Kathmandu, Sept 23: This year, too the Japan Agricultural In-service Training Institute (JAITI) Foundation distributed sets of clothes to 300 students of Basiphant Secondary School located at Simbhanjyang, Namtar Village Development Committee of Makawanpur district -- about 90 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.

The school was established with the financial assistance of the JAITI Foundation in 1993. Three hundred students of the school get free lunch in the school provided by the foundation to improve the nutritional condition and to help public health education.

Chief Managing Director of JAITI Foundation Sakae Kobayashi, Managing Director Kensuke Kikuchi (who is also the President of JAITI Foundation's Nepal unit), Mrs. Miyoko Kobayashi and Ms. Hanayo Kamata handed over the sets of clothes at a function organised at the school premises Monday.
As a gift to the students for the Dashain festival, the JAITI Foundation has been distributing the clothes every year since 1993 to all the students of Bashiphant School.

But since 1996, the office bearers of the JAITI Foundation have been distributing the clothes directly to the students every year before the festival holiday begins.

JAITI Foundation was established in Japan in 1989, at the initiation of a veteran mountaineer and social worker Kensuki Kikuchi. It aims at promoting agriculture in developing countries to stabilise food supply. JAITI hopes this will help people to invest in basic education and public health.

Besides providing clothes every year at the beginning of the school academic year, JAITI Foundation has also been providing all kinds of learning materials to the students of Bashiphant School needed. The students have been receiving learning materials since in 1993.

"As education is vital for peace and development of the country we have decided to educate the people of the remote areas of Nepal", said veteran social worker and Chief Managing Director Kobayashi.

Kobayashi, an ex-military man who fought in World War II added, "The present situation of Nepal is exactly like the old days' Japan. We are very much impressed by scenic beauty of the country as well as the smiling faces of the Nepalese".

"Their kindness has won our hearts. Thus we, the JAITI Foundation family, came forward to help the Nepalese people and upgrade their condition from our level best. Thus, we have formed a Foundation in Japan to cooperate as much as we can", reacted the open-hearted social worker Kobayashi to The Rising Nepal.

"Education is the only tool that will change the people, bring awareness and make them feel more conscious and responsible towards their country," said the octogenarian social worker Kobayashi and also stressed "the need of proper education for all the children".

Re-counting his memories in Nepal and with the Nepalese, founder of the JAITI Foundation and veteran social worker Kensuki Kikuchi briefed about the difficulties and causes for establishing the JAITI Foundation.

"The valuable cooperation that I got from the Nepalese and their honesty in pleasing the guests is remarkable," said Kikuchi, an agricultural expert.

"The conditions of the people in the remote villages were worsening at that time. They were lacking education and proper health. Thus, experiencing this deterioration situation of the Nepalese villages I decided to cooperate with the Nepalese children from my capacity and established the JAITI Foundation with the support of Japanese colleagues from different walks of life," explained Kikuchi.
JAITI Foundation is also supporting the training of farmers through Japanese agriculture experts in a farm spread over 60 ropanies in Kakani, about 25 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu since 1990. They also provide agricultural tools, materials for the farmers and do research studies on agriculture.
So far till last year about 700 farmers from around Kakani area have been trained by the foundation. The farmers are cultivating Nyoho Strawberry -- popularly known as Matsuura Strawberry, which now fetches about Rs. 100 per kilo in the wholesale market, informed Man Bahadur Shrestha, Manager of JAITI Foundation Nepal unit.

"The farm is also cultivating Japanese sweet potatoes and Japanese Kiwi fruits which is also very popular in the Kathmandu market," Shrestha added.

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