A letter from Yukiko Altman in Japan
November 13, 2009
“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of her. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love her like one of our own.” (Leviticus 19:33)
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your prayers and faithful support of my ministry with HELP Asian Women’s Shelter here in Tokyo.
As usual, most of the rooms (four for families and five for singles) are occupied. Even though most of the single women are Japanese who have no place to live safely, we sometimes have non-Japanese residents. Last summer, for example, we had two, Ms. A and Ms. B from Africa, who stayed for more than a few months with us. (The usual stay is about two weeks, since HELP is an emergency shelter). We now have one woman from Europe, a domestic violence survivor.
Ms. A, who didn’t have a visa that would permit her to get government support, was able to get on welfare due to humanitarian considerations because she is pregnant — an unusual decision for the bureaucratic Japanese government. She originally came to Japan with her husband, who abused, then abandoned her, after he was fired from an importing company. She was almost penniless and was kicked out of her apartment. Being pregnant, she was guided by a doctor known for his human rights activism to a government social welfare office. Ms. A. stayed with us for three months, until her government-appointed social worker placed her in an apartment-type institution, as she awaits her due date.
She is afraid to go back to her country because her father was killed by his political opponents. We have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to enable her to stay legally in Japan after she gives birth. She is well educated and has strong opinions about her rights. None of the HELP staff could help her understand our communal rules successfully, so she interpreted them as a violation of her personal life. The institution where she currently resides has asked us to help her understand their rules in English so that she may comply.
Ms. B is considered a victim of human trafficking and is getting help from a private organization to request a refugee visa. She moved to Japan from a country in Africa, not her homeland, with an expat family she was working for as a domestic helper. She had been sexually abused by one of the family members for a long time before she was finally able to escape and get help. She has a husband and two daughters who live safely in her own country. But she believes that she would be arrested if she returned to her own country. She hopes to return to the country she had come from with the expat family, which neighbors her homeland, but has been advised by the International Organization of Migrants that due to political unrest and danger, she shouldn’t return to that country.
She has met with and been interviewed by the embassy and a human rights organization from that country and also a U.N.-related organization. The attention of these institutions raised her hopes, but the meetings led nowhere and no continuing support materialized. After staying at HELP for five months, an NGO that supports refugees took charge of Ms. B’s future in Japan, moving her to a small apartment and applying for a refugee visa for her.
Her Christian faith seems to give her emotional ups and downs, which seems to be related to guilt she feels for letting herself be sexually abused. Verbal communication was difficult due to our language differences, but she was able to read some English.
I wrote to her from my hospital bed (I was hospitalized with polymyalgia rheumatica for six weeks) to let her see that God does not judge her to punish her, but rather loves her and cares for her enough to have given her strength to escape from her abuser, to meet so many people who helped her to safely reach HELP, and that He is proud of her for finally stopping the abuser from creating more victims. I learned later that she was weeping while she read my letter, but we did not have chance to talk about it again face to face.
The children of the residents of HELP Asian Women’s Center enjoyed the annual Halloween party that family from the United States throws.
We recently attended a Halloween party that is hosted every year by an American family. All residents of HELP are invited, including ex-residents, and the children were especially looking forward to this fun event. We were a little concerned about the swine flu, afraid the party may be canceled, but fortunately it wasn’t, and everybody had a wonderful time.
As December approaches, I pray that each of you will be blessed by God and that He will embrace you each day with loving guidance into the New Year!
Grace in Christ,
Yukiko Altman
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 123
