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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu
Japanese students are helping a SHG build houses at Shankanipura 
The students with the NGO members at Shankanipura in Hoskote taluk. SHANKANIPURA (HOSKOTE): Like most foreign tourists, they are here to “experience India”. But these Japanese students are doing it in an unusual way. Thirteen students from Doshisha University at Kyoto in Japan are helping people build their houses, brick by brick, at Shankanipura in Hoskote. Since February 25, like other construction labourers, they are sweating it out in the sun. They are helping women members of the area’s self-help group (SHG) build houses with assistance from the non-government organisation, Habitat for Humanity India. Habitat is working with families of women from the SHG, providing them one-third of the construction costs, which the women have to pay back over the next five years. The women also contribute one-third of the construction costs, in terms of money, materials and labour. Takuia Shimizn is the leader of the team and is one of the two members who can speak English. He has spent nearly two lakh yen to come to India and build a house for Saraswathi, a leader at the SHG. “She does not know English and I don’t know Kannada. But we speak through gestures and understand each other. I have even got to know her somewhat,” says Shimizn. He then looks at his friend Risa Takhashi and laughingly says, “Saraswathi asks me to work, work and work. She says boys must work. But for Risa, she is lenient and talks to her about make-up and bangles.” All the students, aged between 19 and 20, have paid the Habitat for Humanity in Japan to come to India and be volunteers here. Interestingly, most of the money the students have spent comes from part-time jobs that they do back home. “I work in a restaurant and earn about 60,000 yen in a month. That’s how I have been able to fund my trip,” says 19-year old Kaori Sawada, who is doing her graduation in economics. Their commitment to the project seems to have endeared them to the villagers. Joseph Mathai, director of Habitat Resource Centre in Bangalore, says, “We encourage volunteers so that they can actually work on the field instead of merely donating money.”
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