JILAF | Japan International Labour Foundation

A monitoring group was dispatched to Cambodia and Lao PDR from November 14 to 21 to follow up NGO activities which are supported by "RENGO Fund with Love". This monitoring tour has been jointly held by JTUC-RENGO and JILAF since FY2008, and this was the third time to send people for monitoring NGO activities in developing countries in Asia. The group was consisted of 9 people, who are from RENGO HQ, RENGO affiliates, and JILAF.

"RENGO Fund with Love" is collected by union members of RENGO affiliates and is used to support activities by both domestic and foreign NGOs as a social action program. This year, the group monitored projects implemented by "SHARE", "Shanti Volunteer Association(SVA), Cambodia", "Japan International Volunteer Center", and "Caring for Young Refugees(CYR)" in Cambodia, and also "Efa Japan", "SVA Laos", "The Commission for the Solidarity with the Asian underprivileged (CSA)" in Laos. This year, monitoring tour’s main focuses were on projects of maternal and child health and children and education. Each project seems to meet local needs and gives positive effects on lives of local people. It was highly encouraging to see those NGO staffs working in the fields with passion and confidence on their jobs.

Monitoring activity is not only a good tool to know how the fund is used, but also to understand the actual situation in developing countries. We hope that the effectiveness of "RENGO Fund with Love" will be known by as many union members as possible and expect for further development of "RENGO Fund with Love".