BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
THE Japanese Ambassador to Solomon Islands Toyama Shigeru has urged three new Japanese volunteers to Solomon Islands to work hard with local counterparts with passion for contributing something to a better life of local people.
Mr Shigeru revealed this yesterday in an exclusive interview with this paper over the matter.
“I urged three new volunteers to work hard with local counterparts with passion for contributing something to better life of local people,” said Shigeru.
He said solid friendship between two counties is not only brought about by official-level contact but also through the people-to-people contact among Japanese and Solomon Islanders.
Shigeru said this connection has been enhanced by the JICA volunteers with local communities in Solomon Islands.
“In fact, we have many such volunteers who dedicated themselves to further promoting the grass-root friendship between the two peoples.
“I hope that three new volunteers will also be loved by local communities.”
These three volunteers are Tsuyoshi Suzuki who is 47 years old, 34-year-old Yoshiaki Uto and Masae Ito who is 31 years of age.
They will be helping out in three different arenas according to their different skills and abilities.
Suzuki is specialised on information communication technology hence he will be working for the institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), Uto on Physical education and will be working at the Solomon Islands National University institute of education and humanities, and Ito is a Nurse and will be serving Buala Hospital in Isabel.
They will be serving Solomon Islands for two years and will leave for Japan in 2020.
In relation to the Japanese voluntarily programme, the Japanese Government has provided a various types of assistance to Solomon Islands since the establishment of the diplomatic relations in 1978. Over the past four decades, Japan has dispatched more than 400 volunteers to Solomon Islands.
