C.H.A.R.M.

I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have been volunteering with the NGO CHARM (Center for Health and Rights of Migrants) since January. I have been helping at their STD testing center on Saturdays near Umeda in Osaka. It was established to offer free testing and counseling services to the foreign community, but the people that come are mostly Japanese citizens. I participate in the translation between the doctors or counselors and the patients. Not only is it great Japanese practice, it provides a fascinating take on the problems of the Japanese medical community: the lack of medical options for migrants, healthcare limitations, no sexual education in public schools... Needless to say, the difficulties of translation. I attended a translating seminar last Friday that was run by CHARM who have a great network, encompassing the unoften heard (among others) Nepalese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Malay, and Spanish. Everyone who works there is so outgoing and compassionate, great models of loving, altruistic people.