Ashinaga Association in the UK

Who we are

Ashinaga

Ashinaga is a Japanese non-profit organisation that provides educational and emotional support to young people who have experienced the loss of one or both parents. In the past 45 years, Ashinaga has raised over $1bn to enable more than 100,000 orphaned students to complete higher education in Japan.

In 2001, Ashinaga expanded beyond its domestic activities and now supports a global community of disadvantaged young people, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. We now have offices in Uganda, Senegal, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, and have supported over 100 hundred orphaned students from Sub-Saharan Africa to study at universities in Japan, Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil.

Our Mission

Ashinaga provides educational and emotional support to orphaned students worldwide. This enables them to overcome emotional trauma, to advance in their education, and to become agents of social change.

Ashinaga Africa Initiative  

The Ashinaga Africa Initiative (AAI) is an academic leadership program that aims to provide an opportunity for higher education at the world’s leading institutions of higher education to orphaned students from 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of the program is to nurture future leaders who will contribute to democratic realisation, economic development and poverty eradication in their home countries post-graduation. Ashinaga hopes that education will empower these students to overcome their difficult backgrounds and bring positive change to their societies. One outstanding student from each Sub-Saharan African country will be selected to join the program every year. Ashinaga will provide these students with the training, opportunities and finances necessary to study at academic institutions around the world.

Ashinaga UK

There are four main components of our work at Ashinaga UK: student support, fundraising and external relations, university relations, and office / administration. Our student support program provides holistic support for Ashinaga Scholars studying in the UK and Ireland, including supporting personal, professional, and academic self-development. We work closely with universities and other organisations to establish a wider network of academic, financial, and career development support for our scholars, as well as activities to ensure the financial sustainability of our work.