TASSEL Japan Chapter
About
To support the smooth operation of TASSEL Cambodia’s initiatives in Japan, we founded the nonprofit organization TASSEL Japan in 2021.
Given that the activities of the Japan chapter are primarily student-led, spearheaded by high school participants, they inevitably encountered various challenges. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly profound, necessitating a comprehensive reassessment of all activities. During this period, reports from local teachers in Cambodia painted a grim picture of increasingly dire living conditions, inspiring the students to collaborate across chapters and organize online events to appeal for broader support.
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Moved by their determination and resolve, we felt compelled as adults to explore how we might contribute more meaningfully, culminating in the establishment of TASSEL Japan. While our own children, who were once deeply engaged in TASSEL’s activities, have since graduated from high school, we take great satisfaction in continuing our association with TASSEL in this new capacity.
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TASSEL Japan has three main roles. The first one is to raise the awareness in Japan about TASSEL and the situation TASSEL is facing in rural Cambodia in Japan. There are about 100 members signing up as TASSEL Japan Support Members each year, who understand TASSEL and help us in various ways, mostly through donations. The members include our friends, family, the alumni, the family of current TASSEL volunteers, among others.
The chapters also hold fundraising events. The students work very hard for their chapter but rarely interact with volunteers from other chapters unless they meet in the Summer Trip. This is where TASSEL Japan communicates with the chapter leaders closely and holds a few events a year for the volunteers to meet, exchange the information, get to know each other and work together. We also work with alumni who are in college or working but still involved with TASSEL. After all we are all working for one purpose: to help people in need in Cambodia.
Last but not least, one of TASSEL Japan’s important activities is fundraising. As mentioned above, all the membership fees of the TASSEL Japan Support Members goes to Cambodia. In the spring/summer time, we hold a bazaar event with student volunteers raising funds and awareness in the Tokyo area. TASSEL Japan also supports the fundraising events that student volunteers plan, such as walkathons and bazaars, by participating in or helping organize the events, and publicising them through the newsletter and Instagram. In addition, in the fall, we have a fundraiser called Giving Tuesday Week that has been successful in raising donations around thanksgiving time. In the future, we plan to hold various kinds of events to raise more awareness of TASSEL’s activities.
The TASSEL Japan board members feel very blessed to be involved in work to help people who are in such unfortunate conditions. Also, we are inspired to see how hard the Khmer teachers work with such compassions. As successive generations of high school volunteers join TASSEL with hopes of improving living conditions in rural Cambodia, TASSEL Japan will continue to play a role in building a TASSEL family among different chapters, age groups, and backgrounds to ensure disadvantaged people in Cambodia see hope in the future.
The monthly Newsletter issued by TASSEL Japan help the members to understand our recent and upcoming activities and the current conditions in Cambodia by showing the photos being sent by Khmer teachers every month. We also reach out to the parents/guardians of the current high school volunteers and hold online meetings about the Summer Trips. In the spring time when the students start considering about participating in the Summer Trip, TASSEL Japan and the experienced volunteers create the opportunity to share what the trip is like to parents. Also in the fall, we ask a few volunteers who joined the Trip to share what they saw and learned to the high school volunteers in Japan.
The second important role of TASSEL Japan is acting as a liaison between the chapters in Japan. Currently there are 4 chapters – International School of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo East (including students from Seisen International School and St. Mary’s International School), Tokyo West (including students from Christian Academy Japan) and American School in Japan. Each chapter has leaders and an executive team. The team recruits volunteers, educates and trains them and organizes/holds the Vsee (online) English teaching classes with the students in Cambodia starting January every year.
