Looking back 2021, people both home and abroad were greatly influenced by the new corona virus infection and needed to change their way of living. Our NGO, too, had difficulty sending wheelchairs to overseas children since we couldn’t have regular meetings throughout the year. Also, there were no smooth container arrangements and the transport charges became high. These situations got our warehouse full to capacity with wheelchairs brought in from special schools.
Under such circumstances, though, we had joyful activities as well. Tokyo Paralympics, held in August 2021, gave us a chance to donate 5 wheelchairs to the Vietnamese Team and 20 to the Ghanaian Team. We’re happy to have a new recipient country like Ghana.
On the other hand, the overseas partners we were able to send wheelchairs were only two countries, Thailand and Malaysia, as they are capable of refurbishing wheelchairs by themselves. From now on, we cannot help holding only mini-meetings and getting a small number of refurbished wheelchairs. Also we intend to send wheelchairs to the partners who can refurbish by themselves, giving them precedence, which means limiting the recipient partners, though. We’d like to try what we can to send wheelchairs to children who’re waiting for them.
Let us go forward with your support. We’re looking forward to your continued cooperation this year.
January 1, 2022 Hirokazu Morita
The first sunrise of the year 2022 from the Ohiso beach, Kanagawa
(by a Yokohama resident, Mr. Mimuro)