Recipients of the 7th SAKAI Peace Contribution Award

On February 12, 2020, the Screening Committee for the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award convened, and based on its screening results, Sakai City determined the recipients for the 7th Award as follows.

After an update of the existing list of nominators, including renowned intellectuals and academic institutions in Japan, 500 nominators in total were randomly selected and requested to nominate candidates.
The Screening Committee for the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award selected 25 organizations from the nominated candidates that met the award eligibility requirements in the SAKAI Peace Contribution Award Guidelines and reported the screening results to Sakai City, which determined the award recipients.

Time frame

Composition of nominators

NGO Support of Vietnam Children Association (SVCA)
NPO Go! Fly! Wheelchairs

Thursday, September 3, 2020
4:00 pm–4:30 pm

Secretariat’s Drawing Room, 4th Floor, Sakai City Hall

・Introduction of the awarded organizations, the Screening Committee Chair, and the award organizer
・Award presentation
・Remarks by the representative of awarded organization: The Support of Vietnam Children Association (NGO)
・Remarks by the representative of awarded organization: Go! Fly! Wheelchairs (NPO)
・Remarks by the Screening Committee Chair Masahiro Terasako
・Dialogue between mayor, awardees and the Screening Committee Chair

○ Representative: Mr. Shigeru Sekiya, President
○ History
・April 30, 1990: Established a non-governmental organization, the Support of Vietnam Children Association (SVCA), with the aim of supporting children with disabilities in Ben Tre Province in Vietnam
Following its inauguration, the SVCA embarked on assisting the Province in constructing a school and a hospital for children with disabilities and equipping commune clinics with medical devices and supplies. Along with financial cooperation, the Association also started examining child patients with disabilities in the Province’s communes.
・1998: Proposed the introduction of Maternal and Child Health Handbook to the Ben Tre Province Department of Health (By 2004, all the communes in the Province were using the Handbook.)
・2003: Awarded the Vietnam President’s Friendship Order
・2016: Established an early intervention center for infants with disabilities
・Up to the present: Has focused its efforts on providing medical care and education for children with disabilities and training local human resources responding to a request from the local authority.

By seeking action from the national and local governments of Vietnam, the SVCA popularized the adoption of the Japan-initiated Maternal and Child Health Handbook system in the country. In addition, its support activities for children with disabilities extend beyond hard infrastructure, such as construction of buildings, and cover soft infrastructure, such as development of human resources through training. These efforts are meaningful, holding promise for further growth and sustainability.
Moreover, the locations of the Consulate General of Vietnam in Sakai City and the SVCA office in Kyoto City, a part of the Kinki region, help Sakai citizens to feel that the SVCA is familiar to them, contributing to transforming their mindset and behavior. All of these elements are highly valued.

Motivation for Activities
Thirty years ago, I, Akemi Bando, SVCA Secretary General, was teaching a special class for children with special needs in Kyoto City.
Having wished to know the actual circumstances involving children with disabilities abroad, I visited Ben Tre Province in Vietnam in March 1990. There I met four children with disabilities and their families, who were struggling earnestly to live in a harsh environment without electricity and lacking medical equipment, even after a lapse of 15 years from the end of the Vietnam War. I also met with and was deeply impressed by the enthusiasm of senior officials of the Ben Tre Province’s administration, who were planning to build a school for these children by pooling money from their own salaries together. Having thought about what others can do to help them, we launched fund-raising activities for the school construction, and this is how the SVCA was founded.

Purpose and Activities to Date
In the infancy of our Association, we continuously assisted in improving the hard infrastructure, starting with the construction of the Ben Tre provincial school for children with disabilities and the provision of facilities and equipment for the school, followed by the opening of pediatrics and rehabilitation departments in a provincial hospital and provision of facilities and equipment for those departments. We then assisted in providing about one-third of the commune clinics in the Province with essential equipment and supplies for maternal and child health care and a new rehabilitation room endowed with required equipment and supplies. In 1998, the SVCA proposed the introduction of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook of Japanese origin, which is now in use across Ben Tre Province. Coming from the bottom up, the Maternal and Child Health Handbook system was later adopted by the Vietnamese government as a project under its Ministry of Health and has started its nationwide operation this year.
Presently, at the request of the local authority, the SVCA produces training materials and provides technical cooperation in three areas: medical area (care of high-risk neonates, pediatric emergency and critical care, care for pediatric renal disease, and rehabilitation); educational area (training designed for teachers of regular elementary schools in preparation for establishing an early rehabilitation center, a school/kindergarten for children with disabilities, and special classes for children with special needs); and community engagement area (training designed for community health administrators who work in each community for children needing to stay at home due to their severe disability or young age).

Values/Aspirations
Located in the Mekong River delta, Ben Tre Province used to be economically challenged as the sole province unconnected with other provinces by land bridge. From back then, Ben Tre Province has proposed one new project after another while regarding “children as valued to create a better future”, and we have worked together with the Province in its endeavors. In tandem with the Province’s recent economic development, our support activities are transitioning to upgrading its soft infrastructure. In Ben Tre Province, all relevant departments act as one, transcending the barrier of bureaucratic sectionalism, and work together with community residents toward “community-based rehabilitation”. We have much to learn from their dedicated efforts, and there is no unilateral donor-recipient relationship between us. “What can our lives be used for?”, “How are we going to be connected with others to do our job?” and so on; we have learned countless things from them.
In 2019, proposing the introduction of a system of special classes for children with special needs at regular schools, the SVCA provided relevant guidance to Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and extended technical cooperation for the establishment of a pilot school under Ben Tre Province’s leadership. If proceeding smoothly, we hope that this will become the second initiative coming from the bottom up and spreading throughout the country in the future.

Thoughts on receiving the award
For the last 30 years since 1990, we have visited Ben Tre Province several times a year to witness how the province, once exhausted by the 30-year-long Vietnam War, has risen from the ashes of the war and been developed. While wars are a major factor causing disabilities in people, peace can be achieved by accepting people with disabilities as equal partners in society and creating a new future with them. Our 30-year work with the people of Ben Tre Province has taught us about this. We would like to savor the joy of receiving this honorable SAKAI Peace Contribution Award with everyone in Ben Tre Province who deeply appreciates the preciousness of peace and to thrive on this honor in our continued efforts toward building a better future for children.

The Support of Vietnam Children Association has continuously provided assistance for children with disabilities, currently focusing on Ben Tre Province.
We have much to learn from their initiatives of supporting children by means such as popularizing in Vietnam the Japan-introduced idea of
protecting children’s lives through the Maternal and Child Health Handbook.

○Representative: Ms Michiyo Yoshida, Executive Officer
○ History
・May 17, 1998: Established Go! Fly! Wheelchairs　
・2002: Awarded the 1st Partnership Grand Prize　
・2004: Commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to implement the NGO Capacity Building Program (NGO Consultant)
・2007: Held a Japanese-Thai Forum for People with Disabilities in Bangkok, Thailand
・2014: Produced “Guidebook to bus riding for wheelchair users” for use in Sapporo City
・2015: Awarded the Yomiuri welfare and culture prize (organized by Yomiuri Light and Humanity Association)
・2017: Awarded Hokkaido Shimbun Press volunteer encouragement prize (organized by Hokkaido Shimbun Syakai Fukushi Shinko Kikin, literally Hokkaido shimbun press social welfare promotion foundation)
・2018: Held a commemorative lecture meeting for its 20th anniversary; Conducted the youth dispatch program “Go! Carry! Wheelchairs”;
Launched the JICA Partnership Program “Transfer of wheelchair maintenance and repair skills in Bali”
・Up to the present: The 3,000th wheelchair has been transported to Vietnam

For over 20 years, the Go! Fly! Wheelchairs has made steady efforts to gather wheelchairs no longer in use in Japan, provide maintenance on them according to the needs of users, and have them delivered to people with disabilities in developing countries by travelers going abroad. Since its inception, the NPO has delivered over 3,000 wheelchairs to at least 80 countries.
This initiative supports independence of people with disabilities. In addition,such a unique activity as engaging travelers in delivering wheelchairs will hopefully serve as an opportunity for Sakai citizens to become more interested in international cooperation and thus deserve high recognition.

Motivation for Activities
I, Michiyo Yoshida, met children and adults with disabilities during my visit to Bangladesh and Nepal in 1997. This encounter led me to believe that wheelchairs would enable them to travel to school, attend festivals and extend the horizon of their daily lives in many more ways. While there were some excess wheelchairs at special-needs schools in Japan, the high cost of sending them by sea freight almost derailed my desire.
At that time, I was introduced by a friend of mine to Mr. Yagyu, then a 4th-year medical student at Hokkaido University. He previously took wheelchairs with him to two Asian countries as his checked baggage when he went on seminar trips, and this was appreciated by the recipients. Travelers can transport wheelchairs as volunteers without too much trouble and at no freight cost. Impressed by this excellent idea, in May 1998, Mr. Yagyu and I took the lead in establishing Go! Fly! Wheelchairs.

Purpose and Activities to Date
Our vision is to realize a society where everyone can live their lives in a way that is true to themselves by breaking the boundaries of disabilities and transcending national borders. Holding up this vision, we have gathered wheelchairs no longer in use in Japan, provided maintenance on and repaired them, and had them transported by outbound travelers as their checked baggage for direct delivery to hospitals or other
facilities in developing countries. To date, we have transported more than 3,000 wheelchairs to 81 countries across the world, each of which was tailored to the specifications and needs of users and carefully delivered to them. Following study tours to recipient countries and interview surveys, we started organizing a “wheelchair maintenance and repair workshop” overseas in 2015 to train local people to ensure　longer and safer use.
In Japan, we have embarked on offering wheelchair rental and maintenance services and hosting the maintenance workshop program “Wheelchair School”, thereby supporting people who are not covered by the existing public welfare system or reached out to in society.

Values/Aspirations
Long established as a non-profit organization, we are blessed with the support of our members and volunteers to our social activities, for
which we are truly grateful. The oldest among volunteers working on wheelchair maintenance is aged 82, and many of early supporters among our members have now reached senior age. With “wheelchair” as our keyword, we have always striven for bilateral engagement while sharing fulfilling experiences and information.
Bringing in a new generation is essential for the survival of an organization. With an increase, though slightly, in the number of student volunteers and working adult volunteers with us, we hope that they will continue to support us so that we can sustain our activities in the future. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 70 million people worldwide need a wheelchair. This business year, unfortunately, the spread of COVID-19 has prevented people from traveling.
However, we are fortunate enough to be provided with support from two companies who have started transporting several wheelchairs in each of their sea freight containers.

Thoughts on receiving the award
We appreciate your finding us though we are a small group in Hokkaido carrying on quietly with our activities. This opportunity allowed us to learn that Sakai City has continuously promoted its activities on human rights and peace on a global scale throughout its history. The vision underlying our activities comes from the same source as yours. Taking advantage of being accorded with this Award, we wish to discuss again within our organization what our vision means to us. Given the scale of global needs for wheelchairs, each unit we transport is merely a drop in the ocean. However, by pursuing one thing single-mindedly for long years, we are now blessed with such a good fortune. Thank you very much indeed.

Go! Fly! Wheelchairs has been conducting distinctive activities of recycling wheelchairs and having them delivered to those in need by outbound travelers.
Travelers being asked to lend their services for the delivery will have deeper interest in international cooperation or become more involved in international activities through this experience. The Organization’s effort to develop personnel in this way is particularly significant.