On July 29, we visited Tokyo Metropolitan Oizumi special school to receive 34 used wheelchairs. The school is “a special school for physically disabled children living in Nerima-Ward and Nishitokyo-City. It has elementary, middle and high school. The number of students as of July is 42 in elementary school, 22 in middle school, and 25 in high school.”(from the school website)
Some PTA members and teachers had already put the wheelchairs in front of the entrance when we arrived at 11:00, which are 14 units of normal wheelchairs, 10 buggy types, 3 sitting aids, 4 walkers, and 3 standing trainers, 34 in total.
First, we put a sticker showing “Oizumi special school, July 2022” on every wheelchair with the help of PTA members and teachers. One person removed stickers from the mount and handed them to us, and another person wiped a suitable part for the sticker with a cloth. Thanks to them, we finished this sticker work in no time.
Then we worked together again to load wheelchairs onto the truck. After that we spent some time talking for exchanging information. The chairperson said that it’s a good timing to do wheelchair pickup once in three years since not as many wheelchairs as this time are provided every year. For our NGO, too, it’s helpful from the financial aspect to gather a certain number of wheelchairs at one time.
In answer to the question, “Which country are these wheelchairs sent to?” we said, “We’re planning to send them to India.” “To India!” They seemed to be in deep emotion. We guess they are concerned about what will become of their children’s precious wheelchairs, where and how they will be used. Their thought made us make a fresh determination to send the wheelchairs we’ve received today to the Indian welfare organization within fiscal 2022 as we promised.
Many thanks to their help in the intense heat today.
July 31, 2022 Secretariat
〇Loading wheelchairs onto the truck.
34 wheelchairs waiting in front of the entrance.
(Left)Putting school name stickers on every wheelchair.
(Right)PTA member peeling a sticker from the mount and handing it to me(=writer).
(Left)Putting school name stickers on the rear frame of a wheelchair, and putting clear seals over the stickers so that they won’t come off.
(Right)PTA member bending to wipe the part for stickers with a cloth. Great help!
(Left)Full-open load-carrying platform. First came the standing trainer as it’s very big.
(Right)All the members moved wheelchairs toward the truck.
Using a lifter.
Loading finished.
The truck leaving the school for our warehouse in Haijima.
Thank you, PTA members and teachers!