Under the situation conditioned by the coronavirus, we’re still trying to send as many wheelchairs as possible to overseas children in need by cooperating with various groups of people.
Our NGO has been receiving wheelchairs from many special schools and sometimes we get electric ones, which we don’t send abroad because we cannot maintain them fully. We’ve handed those electric wheelchairs to the NGO “Sakura Wheelchairs Project“(Sumida-ku, Tokyo: President Saitou), asking them to make good use of them instead.
NGO Sakura Wheelchairs Project was found in 2011 and has been sending used electric wheelchairs to the leaders of disabled people in Asian countries, especially Pakistan, to which it has been sending many so far. Along with 90 electric wheelchairs from Sakura Wheelchairs Project, we’ve decided to send 80 manual wheelchairs for children to Pakistan.
The recipient of wheelchairs this time is MILESTONE Society for the Special Persons in Lahore Pakistan. They are carrying on a campaign of changing the name ‘Disabled Persons’ into ‘Special Persons’ and use it in their name.
MILESTONE Society does not only support disabled people by providing them with electric wheelchairs, but also gets disabled members in the Society to repair and produce wheelchairs by themselves as well. Our wheelchairs are to be sent undone, and we’ll get them refurbished by MILESTONE Society in Pakistan. We’re sure they can do it.
Besides wheelchair donation, MILESTONE Society is working on social reform movements such as letting disabled people take part in various sports tournaments and achieve excellent results, and enforcing laws to secure a disability quota. They are such an admirable group that we’ve decided to send them our wheelchairs with the help of Sakura Wheelchairs Project.
The Project has arranged shipment for Pakistan. Before getting wheelchairs into the ship, we did loading them into the container at Bando City, Ibaragi, on April 2. We set up a wooden shelf inside the container and put 90 electric wheelchairs, nearly 120kg each, in the lower shelf, and 80 manual wheelchairs for children on the upper shelf.
The ship is to leave Yokohama Port at the beginning of April, expected to take about two months by way of the port of Karachi, Pakistan, and arrive at MILESTONE Society in Lahore by land.
April 4, 2022 Secretariat
(Left)Loading wheelchairs into the 40-foot container from the truck.
(Right)80 wheelchairs for children from our NGO on the upper shelf, and 90 electric wheelchairs in the lower shelf.
Thank you, everyone, for loading so many heavy wheelchairs!
Back row, from Left: President Morita and President Saito.