Q1. What is your name?

Chetan Rama

Q2. Where are you originally from?

Cape Town, South Africa

Q3. How long have you been in Japan?

2 years.

Q4. What are you into at the moment?

Packing my belongings and shipping them to South Africa. Doing final preparations for my charity project called Ride for Africa Japan. Saying farewells to close friends. Being very excited...and nervous.

Q5. What do you do in Japan?

I work on the JET Programme(Japan Exchange Teaching Program) as an ALT(Assistant of Language Teacher).

Q6. What made you to start this charity activity for this organization?

My background is development studies and environmental science, and have a strong interest in agriculture and sustainable living methods. Coming to Japan helped me realise a few things that I've long wanted to do to give something back. Living in a rural environment demonstrated how everyone can do a bit of food growing to help themselves. I've cycled for sport and leisure for 10 years and absolutely love it. With loads of motivation from friends, I decided to use the cycling to, and I'm happy to be doing this project in support of the people they work with in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. We all need food.
Support an organisation doing food security work in Africa. My search found Garden Africa.

Q7. Is it a challenge for you to do this in Japan? Tell me about it.

Yeah, it is a bit of a challenge, but I don't think it's simply because it's Japan. Getting support for charity projects from companies and organisations is not easy anywhere you go. My experience here is that I don't have enough Japanese to intricately relate what I am doing. The more you search, the more people you find to help you make something real.

The other challenge is doing this project part time after work. It's really a full time job making sure that everything is running smoothly and that you do everything possible. Few things run according to plan, and I have made many changes along the way.

Q8. Any funny/horrible stories about charity work?

Nothing so far, except that I don't know what I'll do if a bear comes along for dinner while I'm camping in Hokkaido. Also, loads of snakes on the roads in summer. AAHHH!

Q9. What are your goals for future?

Do more charity and volunteer work. Get a job that allows me to travel and take long holidays (HA! Long holidays!?). Be with my girlfriend. Live well.

Q10. What is your favorite Japanese words/proverb?

Seyanna (it's got a good ring to it), nani sore? nande? anno na.

Q11. Message to WhyNot!? users!

II hope to see you or hear from you and I would appreciate any assistance or ideas you could give me.

my fundraising page: http://www.justgiving.com/chetanrama
my photgraphy page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chetan_rama