Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church Kamagasaki Diakonia Centre Kibo no le is an institution active in Kamagasaki, the day labourers' area in Nishinari district of Osaka City. We support those who have become alcoholics while living in Kamagasaki and can no longer work so they are forced to liveon the streets.

We believe that if one is to recover from alcohol abuse, one has to go through a process of reverting to a social life while receiving psychological and spiritual support (care). Our way of support is our Independent-hfe-program, which takes place at Kibo no ie. The participants have decided themselves that they want to quit alcohol, a decision reached after a good amount of consultation. The aim of our program is to liberate the participants from alcohol and send them back into society by letting them participate In individual therapy, group work, and creative activities, and all along provide support for their daily life. This financial support is given as a loan from Kibo no ie to meet daily expenses and lodging. We prefer to lend the money because we do not want to make a new dependency by creating fixed "donor" and "recrplent" roles while the client struggles to get out of another kind of dependency.

Besides this program we have other activities at Kibo no ie. The house is a member of Kamagasaki's Kirisutokyo Kyoyukai (Christian Ecumenical Cooperation) and as such we organize a night patrol once a week during the wintertime. Our slogan is "That not a single person must die." An increasing number of people suffer under the economic decline in Japan and have to sleep on the street, which is a serious problem.

Kibo no ie is run on donations from people who take an interest in our activities. We hope you will help us carry on.

We will be happy to provide further details in English about Kibo no ie. Please contact us at:

Your donations are welcome at postal account no. 00940-2-95205

Noriko Morimoto has been working at Kibo no ie for three years. She is a member of JELC in Kyoto and ordained Deacon in the Lutheran Church in Denmark.