Vietnamese lives altered by one woman's dream Although Junko Takahashi's life was cut short at the age of 20, her dream of helping the underprivileged children of Vietnam has been inherited by her family and friends. They have established a public school-named after her-in a village in central Vietnam. A student at Meiji Gakuin University who lived in Musashino, Tokyo, Takahashi died in a car accident one winter day six years ago. She left behind a diary from a trip she made to Vietnam four months earlier. In one entry she said, ``I want to do something for the poor children of Vietnam.'' Junko School was founded with 13 million yen Takahashi's parents donated out of funeral gifts and other savings they had put aside for her. Five years since the school was established, its support network is expanding through the efforts of Junko's friends, who are determined to fulfill her wish themselves. About 850 children are enrolled at the school in Dien Phuoc village. Last Christmas Eve, professor Masahiko Ebashi from Meiji Gakuin's international department and 17 students from his seminar course held a school painting bee. The disastrous floods that afflicted the region last fall had left the school's window frames and banisters rusted and damaged. Junko had been enrolled in Ebashi's seminar course herself, and went to Vietnam in summer 1993 to prepare a report for the seminar. While there, she was both moved by the people's gentleness and tormented by their poverty. Upon her return to Japan, she wrote in her report: ``Though I cannot help them financially at this point, I think we should create a world where people in developing countries can live healthy lives while receiving a good education. We should promote individuals and the environmental conditions that will uphold such a system, financially and in many other ways.'' Junko even told Ebashi that she had discovered her goal in life. But she had not begun to act on that discovery when, on Dec. 9, 1993, she died in a car accident in Tochigi Prefecture. The school formally opened on Sept. 4, 1995. The local newspaper hailed the event with a banner headline-``A gift from the dead''-after the villagers insisted that Junko be commemorated in the school's name. As soon as it opened, Junko's university friends formed the Junko Association because they recognized that the physical job of building the school did not mean they could rest on their laurels. Today, the association has nearly 100 members. Among its principal activities are the awarding of scholarships and the continued support of scholarship recipients. The scholarships, each worth $20 (2,100 yen), pay for the education of 40 students right until the completion of junior high school. Two years ago, the association launched its own business initiatives to raise scholarship funds. They sell hand-woven fabrics, clothing and accessories-all made in Vietnam-from wholesale shops in Tokyo's Harajuku district and Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. They have also organized summer sightseeing tours centered on Junko School. The association sent two delegations to Vietnam in this spring. One visited boards of education in quest of more scholarship applications; the other offered Japanese cooperation in the development of local goods for sale in Japan. Shingo Nagai, 22, speaking for the association, says: ``True aid exists only when the one providing the aid and the one receiving it can both contribute to the process. And the exchange of aid must be made sustainable.'' Karen Suda, 27, a friend of Junko's who traveled in Vietnam with her, says: ``I think Junko wanted to say that she hoped they (her univeristy friends and Vietnam's children) would learn to see things from broader perspectives. It is also my hope that they will cling to that basic viewpoint in the years to come.'' Asahi Shimbun - May 19, 2000.