In 1998, Naoyuki Kawahara, who desperately wanted to work abroad, accepted a one-year placement in Tanzania. It was the only overseas option on offer for his medical course at Kyushu University. It was intended to be a year for him to experience, for the first time, a country other than Japan. Instead, he says he "fell in love with Tanzania" and later nearby Sudan.
Seeing the Sudanese people suffer due to civil war and disease, Kawahara wanted to find a way to stay and help them, while forging links between the country and his native Japan.
Today, Kitakyushu-born Dr. Kawahara, 52, is the founder and chairman of the Japanese non-profit organization Rocinantes, which supports medical care in Sudan. Though in operation for more than 10 years, the charity had a rocky start.