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July 18, 2019

JICA Bids Farewell to Ms Nakamura

JICA bid farewell to Ms. Aiko Nakamura who was the JICA Sports Volunteer, working as an Assistant Coach under the Botswana National Softball Association. Ms. Nakamura's highly successful and celebrated tenure came to an end in June after a two and a half years of working with the National Softball teams with the mandate to develop and support softball in all categories of senior and junior men/women, local teams and at grassroots level (School teams).

Ms. Nakamura recalled that when she was first told that she will be taking up her mission in Botswana, she did not know Botswana or where it was. However, she believes that it was her positive outlook and openness to explore other countries and also cited that the most important thing for her was imparting skills and developing Softball sport in Botswana or wherever she was placed.

Ms. Nakamura also shares that her job was not always easy the first few months as she had to teach the players basic rules of discipline for the sport, environment and equipment management, and accountability of individual players, which are critical in every sportsman's development. The players have now adopted the good practices which they learnt from her such as litter picking on the field, preparing the field during and after their matches and also ensuring that there no missing equipment. Her efforts were also complemented by the exchange programme with Chukyo University Softball Team from Japan who have been coming to Botswana since 2018 to share skills and techniques and further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries.

Due to the commitment of one of the boys who used to clean the field with her regularly, Ms. Nakamura inspired him to play softball and as a result, she has pledged to support him throughout his softball passion. Ms. Nakamura highlighted her most notable achievements through her coaching guidance are when the Senior Men's team qualifying for the top 8 in the World Championship in 2017, being honored by the former President of Botswana His Excellency Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama his official residence upon arrival as well as Senior women team participating in the world Championship in 2018. She also cited the many media interviews that she was afforded as a great opportunity to introduce Botswana, Its Softball situation and JICA to all over the world.

Ms. Nakamura lastly expressed the greatest honor to her host Village SAKURA-city through their immense support in ensuring there was a training camp for free in addition to the insurmountable equipment and food donation they received. JICA wishes to thank Ms. Nakamura for her exceptional cooperation as its volunteer in Botswana and sharing her skills and knowledge to the softball players.

PhotoFormer volunteer coach Ms Aiko Nakamura

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