The new coronavirus seems to have slowed down across Japan, but there are still signs of increasing infections in Tokyo and Kitakyushu. We’re worried that they might indicate the beginning of the second wave of big infection. In this situation, many events around Japan such as fireworks and festivals have been cancelled.
  Our monthly meeting is not that big in scale, but we should think that our activity has the same risk of infection. In order to prevent infection from our activity, we have decided to cancel our monthly meetings from June through August. So far we’ve sent overseas children more than 500 wheelchairs a year, but we’re afraid we won’t be able to do the same thing this year. The main reason is that we can’t hold monthly meetings. We’re also worried about the situation of presentee countries and overseas partners.
  In spite of this sad situation, there’re things we can do. As for a country like Malaysia, where we can trust the overseas partner to clean and refurbish wheelchairs by themselves, we have delivered used wheelchairs without cleaning or refurbishing them. We’re thinking of doing the same to such countries if the trasporting conditions are met.
  Now we have difficulty refurbishing and sending wheelchairs. When the situation improves and it becomes possible for us to restart our activities, we’d like to go ahead on donating wheelchairs as usual. Let’s take good care of ourselves and I look forward to meeting you again.

June 4, 2020    Hirokazu Morita

  We are sorry to say that the new coronavirus is still spreading across Japan after Emergency Declaration was issued, and Japanese government has decided to keep the declaration effective through the end of May. We already cancelled our monthly meetings in March and April in accordance with the declaration. Now that “Emergency Declaration” is in effect for one month more, we have decided to cancel our meeting on May 17. We have also stopped accepting wheelchairs and other activities.

  We’d like to restart our activities after the number of infected people has decreased and things have calmed down. We hope everyone to stay home and take care in order not to be infected by the virus. We’re looking forward to seeing you again.

May 5, 2020    Hirokazu Morita

  The new coronavirus has been spread worldwide. The monthly meeting, our main activity, has a risk of virus infection as lots of people gather to clean and refurbish wheelchairs, though it is held outdoors. That’s why we cancelled the monthly meeting in March and April and noticed about it.　

  Japanese government issued Emergency Declaration on April 7, and it’ll be effective until May 6. That makes it difficult to expect whether we can have our monthly meeting in May. On the other hand, many wheelchairs have been provided for us by special schools as usual. We are supposed to make the annual plan of sending these wheelchairs and deliver them to overseas children, but we can’t even make the schedule now. Also, our warehouse is filled with wheelchairs since we have been unable to refurbish or send them for two months. Unfortunately it’s not possible for us to accept any more wheelchairs now.

  We, like anyone else, have difficulty expecting the future situation. We hope to restart our activities and also accept wheelchairs after things have calmed down. We wish you to stay home and take care of yourselves not to be infected by the virus. We’re looking forward to seeing you again.

April 9, 2020    Hirokazu Morita