First two Georgia Overseas Cooperation Volunteers give their departure speeches to the Ambassador of Japan: Start of deployment to the 99th country.

On January 23, two of the first Georgian Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, who will be the first Georgian Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, greeted Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Japan Timraz Rejava at JICA headquarters before their departure.

JICA opened its Georgia office in May 2017.A JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteer Dispatch Arrangement was signed between the governments of both countries in December 2019, and the first dispatch of the first team was expected during FY2020, but was postponed due to the Corona disaster, and the first dispatch will finally happen in January 2023. Georgia will be the 99th country to dispatch JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers.

Risa Uchida (from Kumamoto Prefecture), who teaches Japanese at a Japanese language course at a national university in Tbilisi, the capital of Japan, and Mai Ogisawa (from Ibaraki Prefecture), who provides student guidance and counseling support at a children’s self-reliance support facility in Tbilisi, expressed their ambitions and determination for their activities, despite their nervousness. Ambassador Rejava, who came to Japan at the age of 4 and graduated from Waseda University, has a deep knowledge of Japanese society and culture, is fluent in Japanese, and is well-known for his SNS messages, expressed his gratitude for Japan’s ODA and JICA projects, and expressed his hopes for their activities in Georgia. It was also learned that Ambassador Rejava and Mr. Ogisawa were classmates from junior high school in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and there was a scene of renewing old friendships at their first reunion in 18 years.

In line with the Japanese government’s policy on development cooperation with Georgia, it is envisioned that cooperative teams will be dispatched to Georgia in the fields of health and medical care, education, agriculture, tourism, and local industry. Following these two members, two members are scheduled to be dispatched around April 2023 in fields related to tourism and local industry, and in the future, more than 10 members are planned to be dispatched.

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