For Foster Home Children Leaving the Nest

The days are still cold but the time to leave the nest will soon arrive. In March, as they will graduate from high school, students living in children homes will also have to leave the foster care system. We met Aya Sugawara, Director of the NPO Bridge For Smile that helps those children become independent.

Building a relationship

- What kind of activities is Bridge For Smile conducting? 
Our activities focus on children in the Tokyo metropolitan area who cannot live with their families for various reasons, such as abuse from their parents. Almost all of those children live in foster homes but when they turn 18, they have to leave the foster care system and be independent. Bridge For Smile brings them various kinds of support to reach this independence. 
There are children who have lost any desire to study or hope for the future, who feel that "It doesn't make any difference even if I try," and there are those who have no self-esteem. Disadvantages in education, health and everyday life pile up, and they are apt to have limited opportunities to further their education and get a job. There is thus a problem of chain of poverty going from parent to child. 
Those minors turning 18 face diverse difficulties when trying to be able to support themselves in the Japanese society. They don't have a lot of adults around them to talk to and they end up bearing their problems on their own. That's why we help them prepare before leaving their foster home, and after leaving the nest we attach importance to building a relationship with them so they can have someone to consult anytime.

In order to build this relationship, we have an initiative called "Sudachi Project" for high school seniors. We teach them how to live on their own, how to prepare for job hunting, how to manage money and troubles, how to cook, how to behave in society etc. It is also for them the opportunity to meet members of society - our volunteers - and other students. And depending on the attendance rate, they also get presents useful to their daily life, to motivate them to participate. In 2017, about 140 high school students joined the Sudachi Project.

Operation improvements with RMS

- You use Rakuten's RMS (Rakuten Merchant Server) for the "Sudachi Project". 
Yes. To be able to make presents to the seminar participants, people and corporations make donations. Electric appliances, cooking equipment, beddings, suits... We collect different products to answer the children's needs. In the past, they would fill in application forms to list the items that they want, and our staff members would match those wishes with the donated products by hand. But as the number of participants increased, we felt like we were reaching our limit regarding those present matching tasks. 
After discussing the issue with Rakuten, we decided that Bridge For Smile would use RMS, the system used by merchants on the e-commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba. Concretely speaking, the presents are registered in the system like other products on Ichiba and the children use coupons to apply for what they need. Operations on our side have of course become much more efficient, but for the children and foster home staff members, being able to choose the products with pictures is more convenient as well.

However, foster homes have different IT environments and the staff members different computer literacy levels. When we introduced this system, we were worried that children and foster home staff would not be able to use it. That is why we organized information sessions given by Rakuten employees and everybody ended up using the online platform smoothly. In terms of security and personal information, using Rakuten Ichiba system is also reassuring for the foster home employees.

- What are the most popular items? 
Besides tablets and new beddings, electric appliances such as microwave ovens, fridges and washing machines are popular. Food articles are also regularly ordered, notably rice.

- What are your future perspectives? 
We have started our activites outside the Tokyo metropolitan area, in Saga, and are developing other initiatives besides the Sudachi Project. By utlizing systems such as RMS, we think we can help more children. 
Little by little, we are also bringing financial support to the teenagers leaving their foster homes, starting with grant-type scholarships. Pursuing higher education becomes easier for them but they still need support until graduation, after graduation and after finding a job. At Bridge For Smile, we want to put effort into career support and into relationship building.

- We would be happy if Rakuten could be of any help to support the future of those children. Thank you for your time today.