Yatsushi & Keiko Iwashita (NPO Corporation P.U.S - Improving Bangladesh Villages Association)
Updated: Mar 15, 2022
I can find my own happiness by making others happy
"I do not think we can do big things such as changing politics or society, but we want to try our best to help people and to make them happy, so we focus on making the local education system better. Doing these kinds of activities may one day lead to big things. So we have a great love for doing small things that help people."
Mr. Iwashita is the president of "NPO Corporation P.U.S - Improving Bangladesh Villages Association", and works with his wife Keiko. P.U.S is a corporation that has a program that recruits Japanese people to sponsor a child's education in Bangladesh (a scholarship system); P.U.S also supports the construction of new schools. Furthermore, Mr. Iwashita is running a shop called "Daijoubu-ya" in Tanba-Sasayama, Hyogo. The shop is selling groceries and curry from Bangladesh and Nepal, and there are lots of commodities from the countries they support. Therefore, many people who come to the shop start to become interested in those countries and educational support. Why did he start supporting education in Bangladesh? Additionally, not only in educational support but also in his daily life, what are Mr. Iwashita's key values and beliefs? What is Mr. Iwashita's purpose for working? We interviewed Mr. Iwashita online in January, 2022.
Authors: Izzy Rigda, Honoka Sugiyama and Linxi Li
January, 2022
Regarding Educational Support in Bangladesh
ーWhich part of Bangladesh attracts you?
Yatsushi: Bangladesh is a really small country, but there are about 170 million people living in that country, so there's a high density population. It's true that it's a place where the competition for survival is fierce, but the local people are living a life full of vitality. Children and adults with shining eyes are desperately living; they don't think about tomorrow, they only think about how to survive today. This kind of energetic spirit has caught my heart.
ーWhat made you interested in education?
Yatsushi: When I worked in a company, I met a trainee from Bangladesh and he told me about the poor situation in Bangladesh. I then started to become interested in Bangladesh, and visited in around 1985. At that time, even adults, particularly women, couldn't write their own name (and due to their poor education and low salary) they would sell their daughters, and their land and house would be taken away. Furthermore, even if the women who go away for work receive a letter from their husband, they cannot read it and they cannot communicate their situation to their husbands.
Also, (in relation to women) because many parents are Muslim, the scope of activities for women is limited. The parents would often send them to Islamic schools, and because there was no middle school for women in the village, I wanted to build one.
Keiko and I have lived only through experiential learning, for all 72 years of our lives. We never studied (education) in high school or university. However, it was painful to see children that could not (at all) read or write. As reading and writing are fundamental things, I thought it was unfair that they could not even write their own name. Nonetheless, I felt that because of what I saw happening in Bangladesh, education for women was really necessary.
ーHow did the cultural differences between Japan and Bangladesh impact your activities?
Yatsushi: In my opinion, the understanding of local religions is the biggest barrier. I am the type of person who easily integrates, and there is a saying that "if you are in a village, then you need to follow the convention of that village," so I tried my best to understand Islam. If I want to feel what students are feeling, and understand them, I need to live in the same style as the students.
ーWhat was the most difficult thing about going to Bangladesh and trying to improve the education system?
Keiko: It's time-consuming to make local people understand your intentions and beliefs. Also, it took a long time to build the schools.
Yatsushi: Looking back on the beginning of our work, we continuously worked very hard without thinking, and eventually lost direction of our goals. Thinking back on the situation, I feel that it's just meaningless (to persistently work hard without direction).
ーBy increasing educational opportunities for children, what kind of generational impact is there?
Keiko: The number of women that have the opportunity to go to school increased.
Yatsushi: When I first got involved 30 years ago, the parents only thought of their children as a labor force. However, (due to building schools) little by little, the children were able to go to school. After that, the children started to teach their parents how to read and write.
Until now, for women, the parents were most pleased when the eldest or second eldest daughter did the housework. However, gradually the situation reversed. Recently, the parent's way of thinking has changed significantly. (Now, there are more women who are able to go to school.) Therefore, I am happy because things have changed from 35, 36 years ago.
ーDue to COVID-19, what kind of impacts were there on children in Bangladesh?
Yatsushi: The first thing is that, like other countries, the schools are closed. Eventually, in the villages, the parents almost lost all of their income, the children can't go to school and they have nothing to eat; it's becoming a serious societal issue.
ーI heard that child marriage already became a social problem in Bangladesh. What kind of things are you doing to solve these kinds of issues?
Yatsushi: When I went to Bangladesh last year in March, there were 5 girls who were 14 - 15 years old, who were forcefully married against their will. I looked at one of the student's faces while they started to cry a lot. They cried because they did not want to get married and wanted to study more. I talked to their parents, but the marriage occurred anyway. Due to this, I realised it wouldn't be easy to solve child marriage. It made my heart hurt severely. From now, we are trying to implement a scholarship system for female students only. We want to reduce the number of students in child marriages, even if it's only by one or two people.
The state of a school in Bangladesh
About the Non-Profit Organization P.U.S
ーHow do you make the local people understand the importance of education?
Keiko: I go to the school with the local villagers and they see how happy the students are in the school.
ーWhat are the future goals of P.U.S?
Yatsushi: Well, members of this kind of group are getting older and older and I think I need a successor. Whether I choose to retire or keep working on it (PUS), the children in Bangladesh will grow up. We have to continue our educational support, so we have to find and train some successors to keep it running. Because of COVID-19, in the short term, it's hard to think about how to raise funds for keeping our educational support running. I really want to run activities that benefit the local people in Bangladesh.
ーWhere does the "Scholarship system" come from?
Yatsushi: In the past, when the new schools held their opening ceremony, there must have been some children looking into the school from the windows with an envious face. On one occasion, I asked a child about it and he said that his family is too poor to pay for his tuition. I gave those children pencils and notebooks as presents, but when I saw that there were still some children looking into the school from the windows, I thought I must do something. After that, once we built a school, we gave scholarships to four or five students from nearby so those children can go to school; so I feel that there are more and more students who can go to school.
Yatsushi and Keiko Iwashita.
About His Working Style
ーWe heard you worked at a company before; how were you able to simultaneously work for a company and support education in Bangladesh?
Yatsushi: When I started supporting education in Bangladesh, I worked at a company. After I thought about doing educational support, I took a month off from work to visit Bangladesh. In Japan, people generally do not take a paid leave, so my position in the company was low. I did not care about my low-grade position, so if I was fired by the company, I thought that it couldn't be helped.
ーWhen did you retire from the company?
Yatsushi: When I was 57, my department was closed because of the company's troubles, so I decided to retire. The company was in Osaka, but I went back to Tanba-Sasayama, which was my hometown. Whilst staying here, I am working to support Bangladesh. This activity has become part of my daily life.
ーYou and your wife run the shop, "Daijoubu-ya," in your hometown, what do you sell at this shop?
Yatsushi: At our shop, people could buy fashion accessories and goods from Bangladesh and Nepal. Some of those goods are made by Bangladesh local women. In Bangladesh, women did not have jobs or a chance to earn money. We did not give them training, but we gave them sewing machines so they had the opportunity to work. The quality of those goods was not high, but I want people to know that buying those goods allows us to support women in Bangladesh. And there are some people buying those goods for that reason.
ーDo the customers have an interest in Bangladesh before visiting your shop?
Yatsushi: Lots of people come to our shop everyday. Even those who do not know about Bangladesh also come to the shop, and some of those people gain an interest after talking about it and drinking tea with us. Before the pandemic, we took around 15 people to Bangladesh in January or February each year.
ーWhat ideas do you have for your shop's future?
Yatsushi: There are about 45,000 people in our hometown, Tanba-Sasayama. Some people have said we are different from others. We share information about Bangladesh by selling goods and curry at our shop. In addition, I want to make our shop a comfortable place for people, which means that people do not feel pain in that place.
ーCould you tell us your beliefs or thoughts about the reason for working?
Yatsushi: For me, earning money is not the purpose of working. My goal is to use money to support others. I think that people should work with the idea of what their goals are, then they would have a different perspective for their lifestyle.
ーWhat is the most important idea to keep in mind when supporting poor countries?
Yatsushi: I think maintaining my own happiness is the most important idea when conducting these activities. Even if people try to hide their feelings, others would know you are hiding them through your facial expressions. Just like a cold, happiness would be "infected" to others from us.
Keiko: I do not think that we could accomplish something big like Mother Teresa did. However, it is crucial to have love when we volunteer and conduct supporting activities. I am really happy to see improvements in Bangladesh and its people.
ーDo you have some messages for students and readers of this article?
Yatsushi: Lastly, I always start my activities based on the idea that you should "feel it and just do it." I have made many mistakes because I acted without thinking, but if we only consider the consequences and negative things, we will never get anywhere in life. When I do things based on "feeling it and just doing it," I usually meet many people and experience many things. Keep these words in mind.
In front of their shop, "Daijoubu" in Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture.
About the authors
Izzy Rigda  | Mr and Mrs. Iwashita reminded me of the importance of doing small things, which may one day lead to bigger things. For example, by funding scholarships for 90 female students, this will positively impact future generations. More women will be able to go to schools and future generations will have higher salaries. After hearing Mr and Mrs. Iwashita's words, I wanted to find small things I could do to improve the world in my own community. I knew that education was pertinent to solving poverty, but Mr and Mrs. Iwashita really emphasised this throughout the interview. Through the interview, I became more aware of the importance of education, particularly because I want to be involved with supporting the improvement of education for Indigenous Australians. Their generosity can be understood through their opinion that they can make themselves happy by making others happy. This resonates with me because I wanted to work for society and the people in the future. |
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Honoka Sugiyama  | Through the interview with Iwashita-san, I learned that we should think about ourselves before working for others. It is necessary to work for the job with responsibilities but if we lose the aims after working, we also lose the meaning for working. Iwashita-san said that if we have an aim of working, our viewpoints for the society would be changed. To be honest, it is difficult for me to think about the future of working now. However, I should have an idea that working is not all my life, but working is just one part of my life. I am working on job hunting so that I try to find a good environment to work with satisfaction, happiness, and enjoyment. Those emotions would make my life fulfilling. |
Linxi Li  | Thanks to the interview, I got lots of information about educational support from Iwashita-san. Just like Iwashita-san said, because we can't do the big thing like change the policy or society, we can do what we can do first, then those small things may become a big thing. I am an idealist. There is inequality between developed countries and developing countries. Industrialization itself is a humiliation for all humankind. To change the wrong social order, to pursue the human community with a shared future, to make an ideal society, tough men like steel are needed, I want to be part of them. I keep studying so hard. It's not just for myself. I think that's the road for idealism. It's maybe a dangerous road, but I am deeply convinced that this road will never become a dead end. In this world, there is not only egoism, but also idealism. |
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