TOKYO 1st July 2009:4 Japanese university GV teams from Tokyo and Osaka built Habitat houses thanks to the Dow Chemical scholarship in Feb/Mar 2009. And 2 of them introduced their building experience at Dow Chemical Japan.
Dow Chemical is one of Habitat's global partners and we are grateful for Dow Chemical Japan's devoted initiatives for Habitat Japan's work. This scholarship program is set up to encourage young people's involvement and education. Also it is opt to generate awareness in the country through such youth groups.
Most of the Japanese volunteers, aged between 19 and 20, earned the fare for their Global Village trip (GV) from part-time jobs back home. They said: "It's hard for us to make money to go on GV in our financial situation. "Nineteen-year-old Takumi Hamasaki, who is studying economics at Aoyamagakuin univ. said,: "Fortunately, this Dow's program for students helped our activity with Habitat. I really appreciated that."

More than 30 people(above left) attended the meeting, including students and Dow's employees and the president Mr. Peter Sykes (the center person of above right). He said: "Thank you very much for their effort. And I also appreciated that they learned by a special and unique experience."
"Young volunteers often question themselves if raising money and donating it all to Habitat does more good than traveling across the globe to volunteer. However, many of them come home from the trip realizing that all the hard work put in by the volunteers was encouraging to the home partners who worked alongside them. Takumi quotes a home owner, "They came from their country and worked with us like our own family members. It has given us great joy." He continues, "And we also received help and learned a lot with the local people."
Presenters ：
Shanti Shanti (Aoyama Gakuin University）/Bangladesh
Habitat MGU（Meijigakuin University）/ Indonesia