The ship with 140 wheelchairs for Mongolia left Kobe port for Tianjin Port, China, around twelve midnight on August 4.(For details, click here.)

  We count donated wheelchairs based on the number when the ship leaves the port. Now that the ship has left the port of Kobe, the latest number donated to Mongolia is 51. The wheelchairs donated to overseas children so far has numbered 9,307.    Click here for the donation graph.

August 5, 2022      Secretariat

  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!

  The ship with 180 children’s wheelchairs for RICD（Rajanagarindra Institute of Child Development）, our second partner in Thailand, left Tokyo port on July 19, expected to reach Bangkok around August 1.

  As for transporting this time, it took quite a long time from preparing wheelchairs to driving them to Tokyo port. It was on March 22 that we made a request for shipping in the end of April, but there was no progress during the time between April 12, when all 180 wheelchairs were packed and stored at Tama Packing Industry, and July. There seems to have been misunderstanding among the people concerned. It was July 6 that we were able to load wheelchairs into the container. It’s also a pity that taking as long as five months means paying the storage fee for the same period. Moreover the container had to wait almost two weeks before departing due to the global disorder in marine transport.

  RICD is the only organization that bears the shipping charges and they have ability of refurbishing wheelchairs completely. We are also sure that they are perfect in supporting recipient children. We’d like to accept the delay in transport this time.

  We hope the 180 wheelchairs will reach RICD without delay or problems, be cleaned and refurbished, and be delivered to children in Thailand as soon as possible.

  The total number of wheelchairs donated to Thailand so far is 960. The whole number we have donated to overseas countries so far is 9,282. The donation graph is from here.

July 20, 2022      Secretariat

Loading wheelchairs into the container.
Ahead of departing from Tokyo port, we loaded the wheelchairs stored at Tama Packing Industry into the 40-foot container.

(Left)The container pulled up in front of the warehouse.
(Right) Packed wheelchairs ready for loading.

Loading by using a fork-lift. Is it possible to put in as many as 180 wheelchairs?

Putting in bigger-sized wheelchairs at the back.

Fixing a wooden cover after about 70% are loaded so as to make it easier to put in much more and to prevent collapsing when opened. and loading again over the cover.

(Left) All 180 wheelchairs loaded successfully. There’s even room to put in more. What a relief!
(Right) Adding one more wooden cover so that wheelchairs won’t collapse when the container is opened.

(Left) President Morita has sealed the container.
(Right) The container leaving for Tokyo port.

  On July 10, we had a mini-meeting with regular Sagami Women’s University group and Vietnamese group. Although it was not so hot as the extreme heat of a few weeks before, the temperature was over 30 degrees and we felt really hot under the strong sunlight.   To read more,,,

  On Saturday, July 2, we had an extra mini-meeting with 6 employees of Bloomberg L.P.. They had contacted us, saying they got interested in our activity and were considering joining it. It was another ‘intense heat’ day,
To read more,,,

   On June 26, we had a mini-meeting in the intense heat. The participants were Sagami Women’s University group, Vietnamese group, and voluntary staff. We took measures for heat illness, as well as for Covid-19, such as providing enough water, putting up tents and tarp, and having many breaks during the activity.

To read more,,,

   On June 12, we had the first mini-meeting in June with regular Sagami Women’s University group and Vietnamese group. The participants were 17 in total. Since the number of the Covid-19 infected has been decreasing recently, we thought it would be OK to have a meeting with less than 20 members. To read more,,,

   On May 29, we had a mini-meeting with Sagami University group and the Vietnamese group. It was a very hot Sunday all across the country. In Fussa city, Tokyo, where we had our activity base, the highest temperature rose above 30℃ and it was literally a summer-like day. To read more,,,

   On May 15, we had a mini-meeting with Sagami Women’s University group. To read more,,,

   On April 24, we had a meeting with a bit large number of participants, mostly Sagami Women’s University group and Vietnamese group. To read more,,,