Nishiwaga

CODE: NICE-25S-0826A

Work:

Volunteers will mainly work on 1) Renovation of the vacant house and 2) Support and interaction at facilities for people with disabilities, 3) Communicating with primary and high schools in the town,
4) meeting to show respect for the aged.

Accomodation and food

Volunteers will stay in shared room in an old house (newly-renovated). Meals will be cooked by volunteers by turns. Sleeping bag is NOT necessary.

Location and leisure

Location: Nishiwaga town, center of Tohoku area (north part of Japan), and located in border between Iwate and Akita prefecture. It surrounded by beautiful mountains, and famous for hot spring (there is one even in a train station)! Leisure: Hot spring is available. Volunteers can also join for cultural exchange parties with locals as well as activity with nursery school kids.

Project hosted by

This project is actively working for SDGs 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), organized together with Ono Agriculture Union in Nishiwaga (OAUN), since 2014. Nishiwaga is a rural town surrounded by beautiful nature such as forests and lake. On the other side, it faces serious aging society and depopulation, and over 45% of villagers are 65 years or older. More and more farmers have retired, and many farmers suffer from a shortage of successors. OAUN has tried to revive deserted cultivated lands, organized some projects for interaction between urban and rural areas to activate the community. In 2017, the project for biotope development newly started to promote sustainable organic farming. From few years ago, OAUN started to accept some company group through NICE. The company choose this project site, because of hospitality of OAUN. They have really warm heart and welcome to volunteers.

Directions to meeting point

Additional comments

Study theme: Volunteers will get knowledge of history and culture of Nishiwaga and have time for sharing ideas how to activate the depopulated area. Participation fee: 9,000 JPY (56 EUR by the rate on 2025 Feb. 14th) of NICE Volunteers fee need to be paid in advance either by Card or PayPal. This is used for the project preparation/ coordination such as the transportation of the camp leaders while the meals and the accommodation are provided by the local host by free (so, your fee is not used for your meals and accommodation!). Other: None