Asian Rural Institute invites about 20 to 30 rural grassroots leaders from Asian and African developing countries every year, and trains them for nine months as rural leaders at the ARI campus in Nishinasuno, Tochigi prefecture. On campus, participants, staff, and volunteers live and work together towards self-sufficiency based on organic farming, forming a cornmunity.

Mission and purpose of ARI

　　 The mission of the Asian Rural Institute is to build an environmentally healthy, just and peaceful world, in which each person can live to his or her fullest potential. This mission is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ.

To carry out this mission, we nurture and train rural leaders for a life of sharing. Each year, Ieaders, both women and men, who live and work in grassroots rural communities primarily in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, form a community of learning with staff and other residents. Most of ARI participants are Christian, either Catholic or Protestant, but some participants are of other faiths (Hindu, Buddhist) and will contiue to work ecumenically and with other faiths once they return to their own country. A Catholic sister from the Philippines, a Buddhist farmer from Japan, and a Baptist minister from Myanmar might all be working side by side planting rice at ARI depending on their assigned tasks for that day. ARI presents a challenge to the whole world in our approach to food and life.

Learning by Doing

ARI's training program is designed to develop partici-pants' knowledge, skill, and spirit necessary as rural leaders through learning by doing Therefore, it is considered to be important that all participants live together on campus and work together in all aspects of life. Participants are expected to learn how to take leadership by sustainable farming and self-sufficiency of food. So ARI puts organic and sustainable agriculture into practice.

Many opportunities of study

Participants' plan is to go back to their own rural areas in developing countries after the training; for this reason, ARI provides them the opportunities to promote their under-standing of worldwide problems such as politics, economics, human rights, religion, development theory, etc.

Details offoundation

ARI was established in its present location in 1973 based on the Southeast Asia Christian Rural Leaders Training Course at Tsurukawa Rural Institute (in Machida, Tokyo). It started as an international organization training leaders who engage in rural development in developing countries, to satisfy the demand for training by Christian churches and groups that had already taken part in rural development in Southeast Asian countries. The foundation was supported by Japanese, European and North American Christian churches and other groups. Since 1996, ARI has also accepted Japanese participants who intend to work in developing countries in the future.

Looking back on 30 years and to the future

This year, as the final event in ARI's year of celebration, ARI hosted a symposium entitled, "Freedom from Hunger: Issues and Perspectives of Sustainable Agriculture." On October 17 and 18, some of the Asian world's top leaders in organic farming, sustainable agricultural methods and sustain-able development of community met at the Asian Rural Institute to discuss past and present methods and the resulting benefits. During its thirty years, ARI has played an important role in helping people find solutions to rural problems and continues to work to improve rural living for millions of people in societies that are facing new global pressures.

See ARI's English website at
http://www.ari.edu/english/main_e.html