23 June Goethe-Institut, GRBAVICA, Q&A Guests from NGOs CARE & JEN

CARE International Japan, Programme Director: Katsuhiko Takeda
JEN headquarters, Manager in Charge of Special Missions: Yoko Asakawa

CARE

Founded in 1945, CARE is one of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations fighting global poverty. CARE has offices in 70 developing and war-torn countries in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. CARE provides long-term support in a wide range of fields such as: income-generation, education, health, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS, environment, agricultural development, natural resource management. In times of war or crisis, CARE uses its global network to deliver immediate relief to affected communities. More than 334,000 individuals and dozens of corporations, foundations and other organizations support CARE.

CARE was one of the first NGOs to operate in all ethnic and political areas of influence. CARE International began operating in the Balkans in 1992 by distributing food, medicine and hygiene supplies. In January 1994, CARE launched is first major project in the region, an emergency water purification project for Sarajevo; operations have grown steadily since. Today, CARE implements projects in the fields of health and social services, trauma healing and peaceful problem solving, water, microcredit and small-scale reconstruction.

Katsuhiko Takeda, Programme Director, CARE International Japan
Graduated from Meiji University, B.A. in Economics. Graduated from Lancaster University, M.A. in Politics and International Relations. After working in European banks, Japanese NGO, and international NGO, joined CARE International Japan in 2007. Based in Sarajevo during 1996 and 2000 as an aid-worker.

JEN

JEN is an NGO supports ‘Self-Support’ from ‘Emergency to Recovery’

 
JEN was initially established as ‘Japan Emergency NGOs’ in 1994.  In April 2004, JEN obtained Certified NPO status, and was renamed ‘NGO JEN’ and has become a certified NGO from September 2005.
JEN is an International Cooperation NGO that has strives for the making of a peaceful international community by using ‘Psycho-social care and self-reliant support’ as it’s motto to provide assistance to victims of conflict and natural disasters.

In 1994, when JEN began its activities in the former Yugoslavia, the conflict in Bosnia Herzegovina was still raging, and there were many refugees in both Croatia and Serbia Montenegro. Holding fears that they “would not be able to return home” in their protracting lives as refugees, the refugees were in need of psychological care and assistance for self-support. JEN simultaneously opened 5 offices throughout Yugoslavia, assisting “those who were forced to live harsh lives” as a result of the conflict, which included locals who had received the refugees, as well as people who had chosen to remain in the lands of conflict..

 
Yoko Asakawa, JEN headquarters; Manager in Charge of Special Missions

 Asakawa has worked at JEN since 1994.  She was stationed in the Former Yugoslavia region from 1994 to 1999.  Asakawa worked for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, implementing psycho-social care projects, income generation projects, and refugee camp management, etc.  She has been working at JEN headquarters (Tokyo, Japan) from 1999.