Behind the scenes of the cultural exchange between the U-17 Japan Women’s National Team and the female students

Behind the scenes, this cultural exchange between Japan’s Little Nadeshiko women’s football team and the female students belonging to the football club of a girls’ public school from Amman was organized in only 3 days from the time that agreement was reached with the Japan Football Association.

Since the original plan was that the cultural exchange was to be held at the public school, permission for the exchange was required from Jordan’s Ministry of Education. After receiving the approval of, and a letter of recommendation from, the manager of the physical education department of the Ministry of Education, preparations for the event proceeded from the next day with unprecedented speed.

While the plan was taking shape within the short time-frame, dozens of people agreed to help and did so with a positive attitude. Although it was all very sudden, the principal of the secondary school promptly talked with the students participating in this cultural exchange.

Furthermore, despite the sudden change, the night before, to the time and location of the exchange, the principal patiently explained the reason for this to the staff of the sports section of the Education Office, to the principal’s co-workers, and to the students.

The female students needed permission from their parents in order to participate in this event and this was also difficult to get. For example, one of the students coming to the bus station seemed distressed, a separate student’s mother drove her daughter to the bus station and angrily asked the teacher, “What is this about? ”, and another parent said, “I can’t let my daughter go until you give me a contact phone number”.

There were some dramas, but in the end, we are grateful to all of the parents for entrusting their daughters to JEN and the teachers.

For the JEN staff also, this adjustment was a hard challenge. It was only decided that the cultural exchange would be held with three days’ notice, and everything else was uncertain. Since the plan was almost changed on the day, they couldn’t relax until the safe end of the cultural exchange.

JEN’s staff had many tasks to do, including negotiating with the school, with the local government, and with the central government. Furthermore, they made great efforts to deal with the sudden change of plan.

Similar to Japan, public schools in Jordan don’t have their own school bus. At 6:30 a.m. on the day of the event, it was still uncertain whether we would get the permission from the students’ parents.

However, we let the school staff know that, if we get permission from the students’ parents by 1:30 p.m., we would like to rent a bus for 21 students and asked for permission to do so, which they gladly accepted.

With every step uncertain, this cultural exchange was nevertheless successfully realized thanks to the cooperation of the staff and everyone who helped with our plans.

We would like to express our gratitude to the women’s division of the Japan Football Association for gladly accepting this cultural exchange and giving us this wonderful opportunity, and to the Japan Women’s National Team for participating in this cultural exchange and sparing their time for us.

We are as well grateful to UNICEF’s Jordan office for their cooperation.

 

[Beginning of the cultural exchange with the Japan National Team and greetings]

[The Little Nadeshiko team and the Amman students]

[All of the girls]

【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.
DONATE here】