Every year at Christmas-time, the Tokushima JETs make a point to visit the six Child Welfare Centres (CWCs) in the prefecture. These CWCs house needy children on a short-term, long-term or temporary basis' and usually have anywhere between 25-60 kids in residence.
In the months preceding Christmas, 6 volunteers from the JET community in Tokushima take on the role of Coordinator and contact these centres to schedule in a 2-hour visit - usually occurring in the December weekends leading up to the big day - where interested ALTs can volunteer their time to play games with the kids. Furthermore, another 6 JETs fill positions as Gift Coordinators and fund-raise for each home, collecting gifts or pledges to the value of 1000yen (approximately 12AUD) from donators in the community. After having such a good experience with it last year, this year I have again nominated to undertake the Gift Coordinator role at two CWCs.
So far I have made a giant toy order online at Amazon.co.jp with the first shipment of gifts arriving yesterday. As someone who LOVES wrapping presents too, this next step is almost as exciting as the shopping part - I get to separate and wrap presents for more than 40 kids! But all of that pales in comparison to the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you watch the kids rip open their presents and feel the love. It's nice to be able to put a smile on these kids' faces and hang out with them for a few hours, especially at this time of year!
The first visits are due to happen this weekend, with 2 visits scheduled every weekend thereafter. Unfortunately this year I can only make it to two separate CWCs but I'm really looking forward to playing some games, making some Christmas crafts and getting schooled in origami folding!
As a result of online privacy issues we usually can't take too many pictures at these events, but I'll post whatever appropriate pics I can afterwards.
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