Working with interns to improve the state of medical care in African countries

Since 2017, we have accepted students participating in JICA's African Business Education Initiative for Youth (the ABE Initiative) and interns from Africa who are recipients of an Ashinaga Scholarship.

The ABE Initiative is a program that was started in 2014^*1 to provide young Africans with opportunities to obtain master's degrees at Japanese universities and to intern at Japanese companies or other organizations in order to train industrial personnel in Africa and to train "pilots" to support African businesses in Japan. Recipients of the Ashinaga Scholarship are students who were selected through the 100-year Vision Scholarship Program: Supporting the Higher Education of Orphaned Students from Sub-Saharan Africa, which also began in 2014. The 100-year Plan, also known as the Ashinaga Africa Initiative, aims to select an outstanding orphan from each country in the sub-Saharan Africa region each year to study abroad at universities around the world in order to foster leaders of development in their home countries^*2. During their time in university and internship in Japan, students learn about Japanese culture and various business techniques.

ARKRAY is working with interns to expand sales channels for small medical equipment in African countries. In addition to disseminating product information via social media and holding introductory webinars on products in cooperation with local entities such as government agencies, NGOs, and medical personnel, we will continue to visit foreign embassies in Japan to introduce products that would be useful in medical settings in various countries.

The interns are actively building bridges with their home countries by analyzing local needs, identifying new business partners, and working together with local entities to build cooperative relationships.

ARKRAY will continue to help boost development in Africa through business.

(*1: https://www.jica.go.jp/africahiroba/business/detail/03/index.html)
(*2: https://www.ashinaga.org/activity/africa-support/aai/)