New volunteers to work in St. Vincent

21.JUL.06
Three new Japanese volunteers arrived in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on the June 28.

Yuichiro Tomita, Takashi Shimazaki, and Akiko Ishii brought their enthusiasm from Japan to work with the people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The volunteers will live and work in SVG for a period of two years. They hope to strengthen the bond between the people of St. Vincent and the people of Japan.{{more}}

Tomita lived in the USA for eight years and studied drama and directing at San Francisco University. He received a Meritorious Achievement Award as an assistant director at the Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival in 2002. He also served as a playwright, choreographer and director in his own drama presentation “Gekiryu”. Tomita will be working at Liberty Lodge Boys’ Training Centre as a Youth Activity Officer.

Shimazaki is an occupational therapist. After graduating from the Fukui Technical College of Medicine, he worked as an occupational therapist for about two years. He gained experience in the treatment of physically handicapped patients from the acute stage to the convalescent stage, and also mentally challenged patients. Shimazaki gave a presentation on artificial elbow joint replacement at the Rheumatism Workshop. He will be dispatched to the Mental Health Centre.

Ishii majored in natural environment and education and studied environmental chemistry, environmental biology and chemical analysis of metals in living organisms. For her graduation thesis she analyzed about 30 elements existing in seaweeds, entitled “The Multi-element Analysis of Seaweeds Found in Coral Areas.” Ishii lived in Canada for about a year to study English and to participate as a volunteer in a workshop for environmental education. She will be working at the Environmental Services Unit.

The volunteers are undergoing a one-month orientation course to prepare for their jobs. Orientation consists of courtesy visits, Vincentian dialect, home stays, English, and research on specialized topics.

They will be officially dispatched to their respective stations from July 31, 2006.

Currently, 13 volunteers are serving in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

This number includes the three recently arrived volunteers. They are serving mainly in the field of Education and Community Development.

The volunteers are here under the auspices of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). JOCV has its office at Indian Bay.