Mr. Yoshiaki Shimura, President of AITAA Japan Chapter, handed over 2,660,000 Japanese Yen and 10,000 Baht to Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Vice President for Resource Development, while visiting the AIT Office in Bangkok on 7 December 2011.
“As we enjoyed our life in the AIT campus as a student or faculty member, we wished to do something for AIT’s cleaning and rehabilitation,” Mr. Shimura explained.
Welcoming Mr. Shimura to AIT on behalf of AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust, Prof. Worsak expressed his deep gratitude to the AITAA Japan Chapter and all of AIT’s friends in Japan for its considerable generosity and support at this time of need.
“AIT pledges to use these funds properly for the cleaning and rehabilitation of the campus,” Prof. Worsak said.
The AITAA Japan Chapter donation was the result of donations from Japanese alumni, Japanese former faculty members and non-Japanese AIT community members residing in Japan, Mr. Shimura said.
He informed that he had contacted approximately 200 people as part of the fundraising campaign, and 45% of those reached actually contributed to the fund to help AIT.
AIT has enjoyed a long history of cooperation with Japan. Five Japanese students are currently enrolled at AIT, in addition to four faculty members from the country. Since 1974, 92 Japanese have graduated from AIT, and currently 30 Japanese Government Scholarship recipients are enrolled at AIT.
Photo caption: From left: Dr.H.L. Tien, Dr. Masahiko Nagai, Mr.Yoshiaki Shimura, Prof.Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai and Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe.