In a cooperative effort involving universities in Japan, the United States, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, this project seeks to cultivate broad-minded future leaders by bringing students from those countries together to deepen their mutual understanding and their knowledge of rural communities in Southeast Asia.
The work study program began with an orientation session in Japan for Japanese and American students. Held with the cooperation of NGOs in the Nagoya area, this session aimed at enhancing the students' knowledge of Southeast Asia. These participants then joined students and faculty from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand for a second orientation session held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
After learning about Southeast Asian rural communities through a second orientation at Chiang Mai University, the students were divided into multi-national groups for a three-week program. They then took part in rural community activities and carried out field studies on culture and lifestyle, health and sanitation, agriculture, education, environmental problems, micro-economics and lifestyle improvement. In follow-up evaluation activities, the findings of these studies were published in the form of individual and group reports, which became the basis of a final exchange of opinions reviewing the project as a whole.
In FY 1997, after being held up for some four months due to the coup d'etat in Cambodia in July 1997, field surveys were carried out in Chiang Mai and the surrounding region of northern Thailand from December 1997 through January 1998. In FY 1998, following orientation in Chiang Mai in late July, participants traveled to Luang Prabang in Laos for three weeks of field work in seven villages in the region.
Through these activities in rural communities, and while working together in multi-national groups, the students enriched their knowledge of life ― particularly village life ― in Southeast Asia through concrete, hands-on experience, while also improving mutual understanding among themselves.
While all participants benefited from this experience, an especially important result of the project was that the students from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, who had never before traveled beyond their own respective living environments, had the opportunity to gain accurate perceptions both of their own countries' developmental status and related problems, and of conditions in neighboring countries. In Japan, meanwhile, the project had the added benefit of stimulating NGO activity through the various forms of support it enjoyed from a number of organizations.