JICA sends new volunteers

Japan has sent five new volunteers to Bangladesh on assignments extending up to two years.

The country’s development arm, JICA, says the new volunteers will work in the health, primary education, business, and sports sectors.

Japan, Bangladesh’s single largest bilateral donor, had first dispatched its volunteers to the war-ravaged country in August 1973, a year and a half after its independence.

So far, more than 1,150 volunteers have come to Bangladesh and worked in almost all sectors.

They come and adopt Bangladesh’s lifestyle, culture and food habits and learn the language to work in far-off villages.

Currently, 70 volunteers are engaged in various fields.

JICA says the new candidates will work in five sectors –one in each area.

They will be attached to the government’s immunisation programme, as a nurse at Narshingdhi Sadar Hospital, with an NGO Basic Development Partners in Gazipur that works with primary education, with Export Processing Bureau, and as handball coach with the Bangladesh Handball Federation.

Japan started sending its volunteers to overseas countries in 1965.

Currently, they work in at least 72 nations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Oceania.

JICA Dhaka Chief Mikio Hataeda has welcomed them in Dhaka, a media release said on Sunday.