APFS 100 Days of Action to Nurture Children's Dreams Report 4: Launching a Support Group

On Sunday, October 11, 2015, a preparatory meeting was held in Chiba Prefecture to establish an organization to support undocumented Filipino foreigners.
It is a great source of strength for undocumented foreign families to have people around them who offer support, not just APFS.
There are already several support groups active, but this time we aim to launch a new support group during the "APFS 100 Days of Action to Nurture Children's Dreams."

A mother from the Philippines and her two children (a high school student and a junior high school student) born in Japan are in an irregular status.
We gathered about five people who had a connection to the family, including parents of our children's classmates and a former coach of a local baseball team.

APFS has explained to our supporters the situation the above family is in.
Trust is important when receiving support, so we made sure to communicate any information that might be detrimental to our family without hiding it.
It is not easy to support an undocumented family, and we sometimes worry about whether we will be able to receive support.
But everyone who came offered their support.
I believe the offer of support was made because the family had been living and integrated into the local community.

However, there was also the opinion that it may be necessary to wait until the child is emotionally ready to receive support.
We will work together with the family and supporters to ensure that the family can remain in Japan.