Address: 31 Daikyo-cho Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0015
Tel: +81-3-5360-1233
Fax: +81-3-5360-1220
E-mail: sva.info@sva.or.jp

Organizational Profile:

The Japan Sotoshu Relief Committee (JSRC), the forerunner of SVA, was formed in response to the huge outflow of refugees from Indochina in 1979. Centring on the volunteers who participated in these activities, in 1981 the organization was reformed into the Sotoshu Volunteer Association. In 1999, SVA was accredited legal status and it changed its name to Shanti Volunteer Association. Shanti means peace in Sanskrit.

SVA carried out activities focusing on educational and cultural support in refugee camps, such as libraries, printing and publications. However, with the closing of the camps, activities have shifted to reconstruction development cooperation in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Presently, in Thailand, SVA is administrating libraries and nursery schools in Bangkok and in rural villages in the North and Northeast of the country. In Cambodia, SVA supports construction of schools, library activities, pre-school education and vocational training centres. In Laos, SVA is undertaking support activities for libraries, teaching material development and children centres.

SVA is also engaged in emergency humanitarian response. SVA had supported the victims of the earthquake in Kobe, Japan 1995-1997, the flood in Cambodia 1996, food shortage in North Korea 1997-1998, the earthquakes in China in 1997 and in Turkey and Taipei-China in 1999, in terms of food, shelter and sanitation. SVA plans to start providing assistance to the Myanmar refugees who fled to Thailand, in education sector, as an implementing partner of UNHCR.

(As of April 2002)