Charities in Japan

blackbetty_3

Hello I work as a trainer for a charity that deals with people who are on the at risk for suicide list, and deal a lot with suicidal people and have a lot of experiece in this. A young Japanese girl said that in Japan the level of suicide was really high and asked me if my training team could ever help. well obviously we'd love to help but how does anyone even start to do something like this? is it too big to even consoider? But if we do nothing then thta seems bad too. I have looked at befrienders international but that is more about phone support, what we do is train people like social services etc how to train their support staff, and we go to schools and things like that. any ideas?

Savvy_Sue

Personally, I think you'd need to be invited to go and help. And then your charity would have to consider whether this was a request they could respond to, and that might depend on what it says in your governing document.

For example, if your governing document says the purpose of the charity is to provide a support service for those at risk of suicide in the UK, then that may, technically, be all the charity can do. However if the governing document is suitably worded, and some organisation in Japan is prepared to pay ALL the costs of sending a training team to Japan to run some training, then your trustees might think "yeah, that's a really good thing for OUR STAFF to spend time doing." Or they may think "Hang on, we know nothing about Japanese culture, which probably has some bearing on the high suicide figures in Japan, and while our staff are out there doing that, they're not doing their job in the UK, so is that the best use of their time and talents?"

Now, if 'clients' pay to come on training courses run by you, then there's (probably) nothing to stop a few Japanese people attending, and maybe picking your brains and working out what they could do over there.

But a charity does have to operate within the parameters of its governing document.

markandkate

Samaritans have links to sister organisations around the world and also "twin" branches in the Uk with thoose overseas. It may be worth contacting them

sams247

I agree with markandkate - although you've mentioned Befrienders, it might be worth calling Samaritans, they might have other links or experience you can call upon.