FILE PHOTO : JICA Volunteers taking part in a town parade to celebrate a national occasion they were closely involved with.
PRESS RELEASE: JICA volunteers are making their way back to continue service in Samoa this month, February 2023.
Japan’s Samoa Resident Representative, Ms. Yumiko Asakuma, made the happy announcement, nearly three years after the volunteers were forced to leave Samoa because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two returning JICA Volunteers will arrive for short-term placements with their respective organizations from next Monday 6th February 2023.
JICA Samoa aims to return similar numbers of volunteers to pre-evacuation figures and will ensure every effort to make Samoa, Japan and the world a better place through its JICA Volunteer program.
When the worldwide pandemic happened in 2020, JICA repatriated all the Japanese volunteers from around the world including Samoa, but since then, JICA has been gradually resuming volunteer services in countries and regions where it has been able to ensure safety and confirm that the local reception arrangements are in place. As of December 2022, JICA had returned volunteers to 61 countries.
In JICA Samoa’s 50-year history, close to 700 volunteers were dispatched across various fields throughout this country, but this was the first time in JICA Samoa’s history that there were no JICA volunteers in Samoa at all.
JICA Samoa had been working with the Samoan Government and local partners to prepare for the resumption of the volunteer program. JICA Samoa is confident that all coordination indicators are in place for the safe arrival and smooth transition of volunteers to their places of work, and will resume volunteer activities this month.
Japan Embassy Ambassador Keisuke Senta welcomes resumption of JICA Volunteer program and stated “… It is my great pleasure to welcome back JICA volunteers to Samoa after several years’ interval. JICV volunteers have 50 years history in Samoa and I sincerely hope that their stay and work will contribute to the strengthened friendship between our countries”.
JICA Samoa is a Japanese Government agency with the Volunteer program as one of its active schemes in Samoa. Since 1972, close to 700 JICA volunteers have worked alongside Samoan communities in various fields such as Education, Healthcare, Construction, Environment, IT, Sports, etc.
As a result, their activities have been highly evaluated and earnt trust from the people and Government of Samoa. The objectives for JICA volunteers is to cooperate in socioeconomic development, deepen friendships of mutual understanding and return the volunteer experience back into Japanese society.