Activities in Kenya

What is JICA Volunteer

JICA Volunteer Program is one of the principal activities of JICA as part of its international cooperation carried out on behalf of the Japanese Government. It was established in 1965 to provide official Japanese technical assistance programs abroad at grassroots level.

Eligibility

Only Japanese citizens aged between 20 and 69 years with both skills and willingness to work in developing country are dispatched for two years by the Government of Japan to the country which requested the volunteer in the area they need, for example in education, health, environment, community development, social services, agriculture, science and technology etc.

The volunteers become members of the communities they work with and bring new ideas and share their expertise with local communities through collaboration. Volunteers are dispatched as human resource and therefore they do not bring equipment and neither do they have a budget attached to them.

JICA Volunteer Mission

• To contribute to the socio-economic development or reconstruction of developing countries / regions
• To strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between developing countries / regions and Japan
• To give back to Japanese society the fruits of volunteer-activity experience

JICA Volunteer in Kenya since 1966

In Kenya, JOCV Program was introduced in 1966. Since then, nearly 1,800 Japanese volunteers have worked in different parts of Kenya. In the 60s and 70s, many were dispatched in the country as car mechanics, machine operators, electric engineers, architects etc. In the 80s and 90s, many were dispatched to secondary schools as science and mathematics teachers to lesson shortage of teachers.

Their working places include;

• County and Sub-County offices in the fields of agriculture, health, water, social welfare
• Probation & Rehabilitation schools
• Primary schools
• Polytechnics
• Universities
• Government related Organizations such as Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Services
• Non-governmental organizations

If you are interested in Japanese volunteer activities, please visit our Facebook page.

• (https://www.facebook.com/jicakenya (external link))

Requirement to be a beneficiary of JICA Volunteer Program

What are the volunteer's requirements to live and work well in the community? Firstly, there should be enough activity and cooperation from the requesting organization. Without which the volunteer will be underutilized and will therefore be unable to share their skill effectively.

Secondly, the host organization is expected to provide the volunteer with free accommodation. The accommodation provided does not need to be luxurious one, but a safe one for a foreigner. In case the host organization has no capacity to provide free accommodation, there is still possibility to dispatch a volunteer depending on the organization's request.

For security and the safety of volunteers, JICA assesses the area of dispatching volunteers in Kenya. We therefore recommend consultations with our office concerning your request.

Procedure to request a JICA Volunteer

The volunteer dispatch process is based on a bilateral agreement between the government of Kenya and Japan, and there is protocol to be followed.

A request form can be obtained from JICA Kenya Office. The requesting organization has to fill in the form to provide enough information for finding a suitable volunteer to the request.

Once the request for a Japanese volunteer has been placed by a requesting organization, it has to be made official by the government of Kenya under the parent ministry of that organization and finally by the National Treasury. It is then submitted to the government of Japan, which is represented by the Embassy of Japan in Kenya. It is shared with JICA Kenya office so that recruitment in Japan can begin. If a suitable candidate is found then the dispatch process to Kenya begins.

If you have any inquiries to us, please feel free to contact us through the following address: kenya_jocv@jica.go.jp

Brochure

• JOCV Brochure (PDF/14.8MB)