August 30, another very hot day, we had kind of a ‘big’ mini-meeting: Ethiopian group and Vietnamese group, less than twenty participants in total 18.
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  While we’re having a mini-meeting with Vietnamese group, a father and mother from Yamanashi delivered a wheelchair and a sitting-position aid chair for us. Their daughter had grown out of the chairs and they’d been wondering what to do with them. Then they happened to find the website of our NGO.
  They called our president, Mr. Morita, and decided to deliver the chairs on the day of our mini-meeting, August 23. We told them we’re sure to take care and send them to Myanmar. Both the wheelchair and the sitting-position aid chair are so clean that they need no cleaning nor refurbishing. They say that the father was taking care of the chairs daily and did extra cleaning for this delivery. We feel really grateful to them.

　Father and mother, wheelchair, sitting-position aid chair, and Mr. Morita.

 
(Left) We made entry of the chairs right away. They are in very
good condition. They also have hoods for sunshade and rainproof.
(Right) Sitting-position aid.

  Since the new coronavirus has made us unable to do regular activities, we’ve continued to hold mini-meetings.
  On August 23, when the heat got a little less severe, the Vietnamese group joined our meeting. The three of them are quite helpful as their refurbishing skills have made great progress after they got instructions from Mr. Miyata of Wakuwaku Kobo. They did refurbishing work for Myanmar on that day. Thank you, the Vietnamese group!

The Vietnamese group members.

  On August 9, Sunday, we held a meeting in a small group. Mr. Miyata from Wakuwaku Kobo in Hanno came over to give us refurbishing instructions like the previous time. We did refurbishing work taking care of ourselves to prevent the new coronavirus and heat illness as well.
  We’d like to thank everyone coming today in such difficult conditions. The Myanmar project is going forward little by little. We appreciate your hard work. Thank you!

August 9, 2020    Secretariat

             
Voluntary members exchange front wheels under Mr. Miyata’s guidance.

(Left) There are a variety of tools. Mr. Miyata instructed us on the use of suitable tools.
(Right) Today’s participants.

  One of our NGO members, Ms. Nagamine, has brought three wheelchairs which she had received from her friends to our warehouse. She is a regular voluntary member of our NGO and she always joins our activity with her daughter, Kanon. It’s nice of her to bring wheelchairs she’s got from her friends at Kanon’s special school now and then. Thank you!

   As for wheelchairs from special schools, there has been little supply from schools in the Kanto district since April due to new coronavirus, though many schools say, “(Please wait) Until Corona has settled down.” So the warehouse we rent for storing wheelchairs has much open space now. The stock will become even smaller when we have finished Myanmar project.

July 31, 2020   Secretariat  

  As we are still under the influence of the new coronavirus, we did refurbishing work in a small group. In spite of the changeable weather five members came for today’s activity: Mr. Miyata from Waku Waku Kobo Co., Ltd., three members from Vietnamese group, and one of our director, Mr. Akine.
  Mr. Miyata, who does manufacturing and sales of wheelchairs and sitting retainers at Waku Waku Kobo in Hanno city, is a pro technician and he came over to give us technical support. There were also three Vietnamese members experienced in refurbishing work. We don’t want to run any risk of corona virus infection, so we’ve decided to do our activity with a small number of people. While working we kept complete sterilization with alcohol in mind and we got all the members to wear a face shield.

July 26, 2020      Hirokazu Morita

(Left) Refurbishing work in the warehouse. We worked instructed by Mr. Miyata(right front).
(Right) It was so muggy inside. We took a rest for water so as not to have a heat stroke.

I did an arm touch with Mr. Miyata instead of shaking hands.

  The other day a father and mother in Kawagoe visited me with a new wheelchair. They said that their child, who was going to use it, had passed away before it was completed and that they thought it impossible to dispose of the brand-new wheelchair. They talked to their child’s teacher about the new wheelchair and the teacher referred to them our NGO. As I told them our project in progress is Myanmar, they requested that their wheelchair be delivered to a child in Myanmar. We’d like to meet their request and send the wheelchair to Myanmar.

July 24, 2020　Hirokazu Morita

This is the brand-new wheelchair. The tires are still covered with plastic sheets.

  Under the current difficult situation, we’ve got news from Vietnam and Malaysia that they received our wheelchairs.

== 5 wheelchairs for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ==
  In March this year we got a wheelchair request mail from Haruka Kato, who lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Kato, occupational therapist, is a member of Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA). We sent five wheelchairs to the rehabilitation center in Ho Chi Minh City, where she is working. We entrusted the transport to a Vietnamese trading company in Japan, Raifuku Boeki. The article of this news is from here.
　
  Kato, now staying in Japan due to the Corona virus, told us that she had received a mail saying the rehabilitation center in Ho Chi Minh City, got the five wheelchairs. As those wheelchairs left Japan in the beginning of March, it took almost four months to get there. We hope they will make good use of our five wheelchairs.

== 180 wheelchairs for Malaysia ==
    The ship loaded with 180 wheelchairs for Malaysia departed Tokyo port on June 12, and arrived at Port Klang, the biggest trading port in Malaysia, on July 1. Our partner in Malaysia is capable of refurbishing wheelchairs on their own, so we sent 146 wheelchairs out of 180 unrefurbished. They say they will deliver the 34 refurbished wheelchairs right away.

The photo shows the container which transported 180 wheelchairs to Port Klang.


  Though our activities have been restricted in many ways, we feel happy that we were able to deliver wheelchairs to needy children.

July 5, 2020    Secretariat