アジア教育友好協会 AEFA

Cultivate Friendship in Asia!

Please join us in building schools for children in Asian countries. Children living in remote mountainous areas of the Indochina peninsula suffer from a very poor educational environment. The Asian Education and Friendship Association (AEFA) builds and manages schools for these children with local participation. You can help us by volunteering your time, making a donation, or helping to form a friendship school relationship.

AEFA Activities

AEFA aids in the construction and management of schools in three stages: school construction, local resident participation, and ongoing international contact.

Our three pillars of support are the passion of teachers, students, and local residents, the action of resident, a local partner NGO, and the government, and the donations of the Nippon Foundations, AEFA members and other donors (corporation/individual).

Step 1: Construction of Schools

When a village asks that a school be built, a local partner NGO sets up a School Steering Committee made up of a principal, representatives of parents and local youth, the head of the village, and the NGO staff. This committee makes plans, manages villager labor during construction, and participates in running the completed school. Each school has 3 to 5 classrooms, restrooms, and a teachers' room. As a center of the region, it is also occasionally used as a village assembly hall. As needed, adjacent kindergartens or dormitories are built and wells dug.

Step 2: Joint Management of Schools with Local Residents

To manage schools requires the understanding and support of villagers. Ways to earn operating funds are built into each project, such as raising pigs and vegetables or selling handicrafts. This income goes toward building maintenance, school supplies, and financial aid for students who board at the school.

At present, as one way of helping schools support themselves, in the Laongam district of the Salavan province in southern Laos, an integrated agricultural center is being built along with a school. Here, students from all over the region will meet to do farming work and return the earnings to their communities.

Step 3: "Friendship School" Partnership

When Asian and Japanese schools become friendship schools, both sides enjoy a rich cultural exchange.

Japanese children deepen their international understanding by exchanging videos and pictures, giving them the chance to see what life is like for diverse ethnic groups. They come to a deeply felt understanding of the children they are helping.

Asian schoolchildren are motivated by the support of their Japanese friendship schools to complete their education and to take pride in and further develop their own culture.

In the future, we plan to expand the scope of our activities to include a "caravan" of visitors to schools (as in, for example, a musical exchange program) or other study tours. In the long term we are also considering other developments, such as a scholarship program for exceptional students.

Friendship Schools Wanted!

AEFA is looking for friendship schools in Japan and other Asian nations. There are a variety of exchange possibilities. If you are interested, please contact us. Our telephone number (inside Japan) is 03-6426-0720.

AEFA Membership

Our activities are supported by the donations of AEFA members. Your contribution will be used for the living costs of teachers, for school supplies (notebooks, pencils, school uniforms, sports equipment, etc.), and to support friendship school

partnerships with Japanese schools.

Annual fees:

Regular members: Individual 3,000 yen; Corporation 30,000 yen.