SCC and Athome are both nonprofits based in Tsuzuki. In 2022, Athome afterschool started a new project themed on supporting local international families.

The project came out like this. Shoko Oguri, the representative director of Athome, is a lecturer of “Things You Should Know Before Entering Elementary School ~ Be prepared for the hurdle of the first grade (sho ichi no kabe) “. SCC found that session informative for the international families and asked Oguri san if we could share it in English. She agreed with our request for the recorded video translation, and we shared the information with international families. Also, one idea popped into Oguri san’s head when SCC confirmed the translation. It was the project of Japanese elementary school children and international families mingling and sharing local information to support foreigners’ life in Japan.

Thankfully, Athome welcomed us a lot, and whenever we visited they invited us to do craft-making, games, and snack time. SCC members’ families read a book in English and Japanese and we had a cultural exchange session. We visited four times, and the most impressive one was the final presentation done by the afterschool kids. They created the slides by themselves and presented about Japanese elementary school life. One Indian mom who attended the presentation with her 8yrs old son said, “I wanted to know this information two years ago! ” Thank you Athome! We were so happy to spend time together.