From February 10th to 20th, 2026, JELA held its India Volunteer Work Camp in Jamkhed, Maharashtra, India, with nine Japanese students (ages 18 to 22) participating. At the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), a local healthcare and welfare organization, the students contributed by making, repairing and presenting prosthetic legs to 47 people. Other volunteer activities included gardening and farming, painting preschool facilities while playing with the children, and interacting with social healthcare workers in surrounding villages.
Here are excerpts from three of the participants’ reports detailing their experiences. Two more series of three reports each will be featured separately. (Full reports are available in Japanese on JELA’s Website blog: JELAニュースブログ: 【インド･ワークキャンプ2026】参加者レポートまとめ)
Even so, We Live Together
by Mari S.
What left the deepest impressions on me during the camp were my experiences working on the farm and walking through the slums. While playing with the children in the fields, a family member told me, “Teach them how to work instead of just playing,” which shook my belief that “children should play.” Also, when I visited the slums, I almost blamed a parent for letting a baby sit in the mud, but when I saw the mother rush over and shower the child with love, I realized how one-sided my own values had been. The people I met in India were living their lives to the fullest, never losing their smiles or love, even in environments far harsher than those in Japan. From their example, I learned the importance of not imposing my own ideals on others, but rather accepting them as they are and living alongside them. I felt that it is precisely through this kind of solidarity that we can build a better future and society together.
Don’t Be Afraid to Love Your Neighbor
by Moe K.
While learning about the “Good Samaritan,” I reflected on how I hadn’t been able to complete the prosthetic leg-making workshop as I had hoped, and how—even when I saw patients rejoicing over their finished prosthetics—I hadn’t been able to empathize with them as deeply as I had expected. I wondered if, even when we practice love for our neighbors, our actions might sometimes lack genuine feeling or be driven by impure motives. Just as I was thinking this, Pastor Yushi Ichihara told me, “You don’t need to worry about your feelings. Because Jesus said, ‘Go and do likewise.’ And that action has an impact beyond what we can imagine.” Love for one’s neighbor is an action; the magnitude or nature of our feelings is not the issue. From now on, even when I hesitate to act because of my motives, I want to be true to my desire to take action without hesitation.
Being With the Right People at The Right Time
by Hina M.
I am studying psychology to support people with mental illnesses. However, I was daunted by the harsh realities of the field and my own sense of helplessness, and I was struggling with my career path. Then, while participating at this camp, I learned that there is a shortage of support workers for people with mental illnesses. Also, whenever I struggled with a task, the local people would demonstrate it to me over and over again. On the final day, they offered me handshakes with smiles and bid me a tearful farewell—it was an incredibly moving experience. Although I struggled with my own sense of helplessness, I also experienced the joy of taking action for others. Furthermore, through our devotionals, I realized that I find happiness in serving others, which solidified my resolve to pursue a career in psychology. Taking the biblical verse, “Go and do likewise,” as my life’s theme, I want to strive to love others and be a neighbor to them.