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Japanese team gets hands-on Habitat skills

The women came to Dade City to learn about home-building. They will help others in Asia.

By KIT INGALLS
Published March 14, 2007

DADE CITY - A team of five Japanese women spent the past two weeks in Dade City, guests of East Pasco Habitat for Humanity.

The women were the first participants in a new "Learn and Build" program started by Habitat for Humanity Japan. They came to help build houses and to learn about volunteering.

"In Japan, we don't really do the volunteering," said Mariko Terada, 23, the team's leader. "We don't, maybe, understand what the volunteering is. (In the United States) so many people do volunteering naturally, so that is interesting for us."

Terada attended Bellevue Community College, near Seattle, for two years. There, she chose Habitat for her required internship placement.

When she returned to her country, Terada visited Kimiko Mimura at the Habitat office in Tokyo, and the two talked about expanding Japan's Global Village program to the United States.

Mimura had attended a Habitat International conference in Charlotte, N.C., in October and had met John Finnerty, executive director of East Pasco Habitat for Humanity. Finnerty said his affiliate would welcome a team from Japan.

In November, Mimura began advertising the Learn and Build program, with Terada as its first team leader. "It offers the opportunity to learn the true meaning of 'volunteering' while participating in house-building and community services," she wrote.

Habitat for Humanity builds no houses in Japan. It sends participants to other countries, mostly in Asia, to assist with Habitat builds, and oversees student chapters on Japanese campuses.

Wakako Egi, 23, came from the Tokyo campus of Meiji Gakuin University. In 2005, she had traveled to the Philippines to help construct Habitat residences in Manila.

Eri Taguchi and Kana Ogasawara, both 20, and Yukiko Watanabe, 19, all came from the university's Yokohama campus. The three had no previous Habitat experience, and each honed her skills working at Dade City's four build sites.

"These five work like 15," said volunteer coordinator Matt Hillen.

Not all their time was spent in hard labor, however. Their itinerary included Disney World, a Lightning game, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Anna Maria Island and Prime Outlets in Ellenton.

"Without (hosts) Sharon and Glen (Wilkinson), we couldn't have had such a nice time," Watanabe said. The Wilkinsons provided transportation and friendship.

The team also met the homeowners whose houses they helped to build.

"It's just hard to explain how beautiful it is here," said Ogasawara, "and how kind people were to us in Dade City. I want to tell many people about Habitat because Japanese people don't know Habitat."

Terada wants to start a Habitat chapter in her hometown of Fukuoka, the largest city on Japan's southernmost island. "We don't have any campus chapter or something for volunteering in my hometown," she says. "I'd love to explain about it."

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 23:04:47]