VOLUNTEER PROGRAM IN NEPAL

JICA Volunteer Program was founded in 1965 as part of JICA’s grass root-level technical cooperation scheme. This program allows Japanese volunteers to live among the people of the country to which they are dispatched and to pursue their activities with local people, enabling them to ascertain development needs from the viewpoint of those living there. They work with the local people to contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development, making effective use of their abilities and experiences.

The first JICA Volunteers dispatched to Nepal was in September 1970. The areas of the JICA Volunteer Program in Nepal spans various sectors and a diverse range of sub-sectors, including agriculture, health, education, forestry and fisheries, repair operations, civil engineering, sanitation, sports and culture, as well as planning and administration. The last five decades of the JICA Volunteer Program in Nepal have been devoted to the sharing of resources and technology at the grass-root level for Nepal’s nation building endeavor through the ‘Learning by Doing’ approach. The number of volunteers dispatched by JICA to Nepal in last 55 years reached 1,471 (JOCV-1,281, SV-190).

Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) are dispatched to work and live with local communities and stakeholders for two years. The objective of this scheme is to assist in the social economic development as well as promote mutual understanding and friendship between Nepal and Japan at the grass-root level.

Senior Volunteers (SVs) are Japanese volunteers who are motivated by volunteering spirit and possess practical knowledge and technical skills backed up by their own abundant working experiences (normally over 15 years). Their activities are not limited to technology transfer but extended to deepen friendship between two countries in close contact with local communities. The first Senior Volunteer to Nepal was dispatched in 1995.

Currently there are 26 volunteers working in various sectors such as cooperatives, fisheries, vegetable growing, fruit growing, traffic management, disaster risk reduction, youth activities, physical education, rugby, boccia etc. Listed as below;