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Please Help Japan

16 March, 2011 General News - Thank You, ARC Supporters!

Dear all friends,

As you already know, Japan is going through very tough time because of
the enormous earthquake and tsunami in the northeast. MOre than 10000
people are assumed to have taken lives, and There still has been many
aftershocks, including very big ones. It’s freezing in the affected area,
and people are trying their best to survive and rescue.

My family lives in the south-west, so they didn’t get affected. But I
have many friends who live in affected areas including Tokyo, and they
are having very insecure time because of terrible disaster.Stores are
full of empty shelves, and transportation is stil not under total
control. Many power cuts and some water shortage. Even worse, the
nuclear power plants are leaking, and some radioactive things started to
fall. Being in Thailand, I’m so very worried about my country, and I
have never felt so insecure about Japan before in my life.

If you could, please help the victims. The Nippon Foundation, one of the
most trusting foundation in Japan, has set up English website to
collect fund. Please read the email from my friend at the Nippon
Foundation, and I would appreciate any help you can contribute. Please
spread the words on Facebook, Twitter, and your email networks. We
really need your help in Japan. All I hope now is that all victims can
go under safe roof and warm environment with food and water. And I do
hope and hope that we have hit the worst part, and we can recover from
this point.

With much gratitude,

Yoshimi

—————————————-
Yoshimi Horiuchi
Always Reading Caravan (ARC)

—————————————-

————– Original message follows ————–
Subject: The Nippon Foundation/CANPAN, Northeastern Japan Earthquake
and Tsunami Relief Fund
  Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:22:22 +0900
  From: Chiba Hisao <h_chiba@ps.nippon-foundation.or.jp>
    To: Chiba Hisao <h_chiba@ps.nippon-foundation.or.jp>
Dear Friends and Colleagues

This is Hisao Chiba, the Nippon Foundation.

Thank you very much for your sincere concern for the Earthquake in Japan.
Today, once again I’d like to ask your kind support to the below initiative by the Nippon Foundation.

As of today, we have received about 55,000 USD from overseas countries and 500,000 USD within Japan.
However, we shall need more support from all of you. Please kindly share below information to your network.

Thank you very much for your kind support and concern.

Hisao Chiba

**************************
The Nippon Foundation is at the forefront of assistance activities in support of those affected by the earthquake/tsunami of 11 March 2011
that hit the northern part of Japan.

We are now accepting donations to establish a fund for the emergency relief/reconstruction projects.  The donations can be made online by
credit card on our following website:
     
http://members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=1080

It would be highly appreciated if the above information should be circulated among your colleagues and friends as widely as possible.

With many thanks and best regards,
All staff of the Nippon Foundation

Target the Market: A Blind Mouse Shopping Under the Sky

20 February, 2011 General News - Happy Blind Life in Thailand

This weekend, Parn, my ex-roommate came to stay at my place. So we decided to go for shopping at a nearby local market and cook something for dinner together.

 

Now, the market… Actually, I love them. What I mean by market here is of course not the conventional supermarket with air conditioner. What I love is the traditional fresh market under the sky. When I travel to a different country, I cannot miss a visit to a local fresh market. I miss the local dialects thrown back and forth in the local

  • Sunday market in Kochi, Japan, my hometown. I smile to myself how we got shocked to find lots of chicken cages right in front of the chicken meat shop in Kerala, India. (You can imagine how fresh the meat can be, right?) In a way, it gives me a sense of locality much more than museums and famous infrastructure, as markets are filled with things that directly speak to all senses.

     

    Here in Thailand also, you can find fresh market anywhere, and they are filled with mouth-watering smell of freshly cooked food, cheerful calling voices of all sellers, and people of all ages. How I wish I could go there as often as I like! It would be so great to be able to walk casually to the market after work and get some fresh food that you cannot get in normal roadside stalls.

     

    But the problem is, a local fresh market is a huge challenge for a totally blind woman to walk around. Wait, let me put it again. I can walk around, yes, my O&M teachers, but to get what I need?? Hmmmm… that’s a different story. The small vendors constantly changes their spots. The market is normally packed with people, so my beloved white cane cannot be of much help (Otherwise I’d trip and poke a dozen of people there). Certain things are quite easy for me to detect, like grilled corn on the cob, grilled chicken, fresh and not-so fresh seafood, pungent durian, etc. But what about Chinese cabbage and tomatos? Eggs? Meat, yes, because I can hear the butcher cutting meat with bones with a big butcher knife. But how about bread and uncooked rice? Hmmmm, right?

     

    So a visit to the local market is a kind of luxury for me at the moment. Actually, there is a trick: I could take a motorbike taxi, and let the driver accompany me. But sadly speaking, those motorbike drivers are not keen shoppers like us many women… Someone techy out there, please invent a cool device that can shout out “Passing a meat shop!” and “Fruits to your right” to me.

    • Welcome to APCD Empowerment Cafe: Click to Access!

    17 February, 2011 General News - Happy Blind Life in Thailand

    As many of you might know, I’m working part-time at APCD (Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability) near Victory Monument, Bangkok. Today, I want to share a piece of news from there.

     

    From Feb. 3-5, APCD hosted an intensive working session to kick-start a new project called APCD Empowerment Cafe, or ECafe for short. It’s a nice and cozy cafe, but you don’t have to fly all the way to Bangkok to enjoy our coffee.

     

    Actually, it’s an online information platform, where baristas (like journalists in this sense) from 5 subregions of Asia Pacific region post interesting news, innovation, latest research, personal stories, videos, and photos about persons with disabilities.

     

    We are a team of 12: 1 cafe owner, 1 chief barista, 6 baristas, 1 chef, and 3 cafe staff, including persons with and without disabilities.

     

    As a barista mainly in charge of East Asia, I am determined to portray both positive and negative side of disability. Just like anything else in the world, there are both brighter side and darker side for disability. Persons with disabilities, just like you and me, have jumped up and down in joy and nearly drowned in tears out of despair. People with disabilities are as diverse as people without disabilities.

    It’s just that people have seen and shown negative side of disability much more than positive side of it.

     

    If you want a cup of information or a bite of knowledge, please visit our cafe.

     

    We also have

    Facebook page and Twitter.

     

    If you like the taste of our coffee/tea, please spread the words about us so that we will have more customers.

    The more, the merrier!

     

    Last but not least, if you have an interesting news/article to share, please send it to me via email.

    I am happy to cook it into a cup of coffee and serve it in our ECafe 🙂

    Spontaneous Story-telling in Suphanburi Province

    3 November, 2010 ARC on the Road - General News

    On Oct. 30-31, I visited a village in Suphanburi province again, to get to know this community a bit more, and to talk about what this village and ARC can do together.

     

    I got on the shared wagon (rot-tuu) from Victory Monument. It took around 2 hours to reach the Khao Shang Mak Temple, where Aj. Wiboon, the bookworm of the community came to pick me up with 2 nieces of hers.

     

    Aj. Wiboon welcomed me warmly and we had a nice and cozy dinner over her homemade tamarind nam-prik and fried fish. Her house is located near a canal, and surrounded by many trees. I enjoyed much fresher air compared to that of Bangkok, and the chorus of little insects all around. The songs of crickets mingled with voices of frogs always make me miss home.

     

    After dinner, the little girls and her friends who came to stay there came peeping at me. I knew it. They saw me carrying 3 enormous books that I carried all the way from Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok, and couldn’t wait till opening them.

     

    So the time they usually watch TV turned into spontaneous story-telling time. We all enjoyed reading from the beautiful picture books, and they brought out their own books afterwards. It’s funny that reading stories to each other brings up a totally new side of the book. Of course, reading by oneself is fun too, but to share it with friends and family is something different.

     

    After kids were put into bed, Aj. Wiboon and I taled a bit about our reading activity. She wants to open two rooms of her house to be made into public library in the village: one room for storing books, and another for reading room. Luckily, her house is located just between two villages, so we can invite children from both communities. I also shared ARC’s wish to include all kids, including those with disabilities, and she agreed to work with public health centers to ask for information about children with disabilities. Just before we were about to collapse out of sleepiness, we decided to work on our first trial mobile library activity in December. She generously offered to let volunteers stay at her house, and promised any necessary assistance.

     

    Next morning, we hurriedly ate some rice soup for breakfast, packed up, and went altogether to the nearby temple. The children really enjoyed the ride at the back of the track. They were screaming like anything every time the car makes a thrilling twists and turns.

     

    As we reached the temple, people were already gathered around, chanting. So we sneaked in, and the kids and I got to introduce ourselves after the chanting. It’s a small community temple, and they seem to get together quite regularly. Totally different from those gorgeous-looking temples were tourists often go. We had a very nice lunch there with all the vegetarian dishes that each person brought from home, and here it comes again, the spontaneous story-telling.

     

    It was even more fun this time because we had more children. And there was P’Nuch, a very lively story-teller. Children were so eager to read each line that they even started to reserve their favorite pages 🙂 I asked Aj. Wiboon to videotape it, and it will be soon available for you to watch on Youtube.

     

    What I feel great about this village is that there are so many community members who are willing to help us. P’Nuch, the story-teller, happens to be a master-graduate from Silapakorn University, and majored in ceramic art. She promised to help when ARC goes back to do the caravan activity in December. There is another powerful leader, Uncle Pan-yaa, who has lived in the village for decades. He said he will tell local folk tales and legends in the community. How lucky we are to find such a perfect village!

     

    Anyone in Thailand and wants to join us on our caravan in December in this village, you are most welcome na! Please write to us at

    bookworm@alwaysreadingcaravan.org

    I will make sure to come back and tell you how the caravan went in December…

    えーー？ATMのカード作っちゃいけないんですか？

    7 October, 2010 ある盲人の幸せな生活 - つれづれに

    先日、やっと労働許可証が取れたので、早速アークの口座を開設しようと思い立って、今日バンコク銀行へ行きました。
    今までは、こちらで支援してくださっている方の口座をお借りしていたのですが、できるだけ早く、お金も自分たちで管理したいと思ったのです。

    ところが、いざ行ってみると、視覚障害者は口座が開設できない、という新事実を知らされてしまいました。もし口座を開きたかったら、晴眼者とこなければいけないのだそうです。
    しかも、もっと驚いたことに、もし晴眼者と来たとしても、私の名前でATMカードは発行してもらえないのだそうです。
    あまりにもきょとんとしてしまったので、説明してもらいました。
    答えはこんな感じでした。

    １．視覚障害者が一人で口座開設できないのは、書類の記入ができないから。書類の記入は、その書類に署名する者と同一人物がしなければならないため、それができない視覚障害者には無理。

    ２．ATMの機械は、視覚障害者には仕えないようにできているため、カードを所持することができない。第三者に個人情報が漏れることが好ましくないことも原因。

    タイだけにかかわらず、金融機関が私たち視覚障害者にとってあまり使いやすいものでないことは多いですし、よく話にも聞いていました。
    でも、どうしても「口座を開設する」などという単純なことでさえ一人ではできないのかと思うと、情けない気持ちを隠すことはできません。
    それに、二つ目のATMに関する禁止事項には、説明を聞いたあとでも戸惑うばかりです。
    なぜ、一部の人に仕えないようなATMを国中に作っておいて、重要な顧客層になりうる視覚障害者に「あんたたちには仕えないからあーーげない！」と行ってしまうのでしょう？
    ほかの銀行に先んじて、音声案内や数字キーのついたATMを作れば、新たに何十万という視覚障害者層を顧客のターゲットにできるばかりか企業の社会的責任を果たしているとして、銀行としての印象がよくなること間違いないと思うのですが。。。

    １１月２４日、２７日、アークどこでも本読み隊、東京報告会のご案内

    7 October, 2010 Uncategorized @ja

    皆様

    こんにちは！相変わらずの筆不精で、
    ご無沙汰してしまっておりますが、お元気でお過ごしでしょうか？

    今回は、東京での報告会のお知らせをしたくてメールさせていただきました。い
    つもご支援くださっている皆さんに実際にお会いし、日ごろの感謝の気持ちをこ
    め、活動の様子や、アークが目指すものなどをお伝えできればと思って企画いた
    しました。
    できるだけ多くの方に参加していただくため、場所と雰囲気を変えて、２回行
    います。第１回は大き目の会場でタイの現状を含めたご報告を、第２回は
    カジュアルに昼食を囲みながら座談会のような雰囲気で、皆さんにより参加して
    いただきながらご報告をさせていただこうと思っております。

    もしよろしければ、大まかな人数を把握させていただけるよう、報告会に参加い
    ただける方は、事前にご連絡いただけますでしょうか？正式な参加の可否はもう少し先になってからお聞きいたしますので、今回
    は「土曜日の報告会に行きたいと思う」ぐらいの大まかなお返事でかまいません。
    どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

    ２０１０年アークどこでも本読み隊活動報告会

    第１回：
    日時：　１１月２４日（水）　１８：００－２０：００
    場所：　日本財団２階大会議室A
    http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/org/profile/address.html
    参加費：　無料

    第２回：
    日時：　１１月２７日（土）　１０：００－１２：００
    場所：　タイレストラン サワディー 渋谷道玄坂店
    http://www.sawasdee.ne.jp/Dougenzaka.html
    参加費：　１０００円（昼食のタイ料理ランチ、通常休日は１１８０円のところ、
    お店のご協力で１０００円にしていただきました）

    おいそがしいこととは存じますが、ご参加いただければ大変幸いです。
    皆さんからのお返事を、楽しみにお待ちしております。

    堀内　よしみ

    Announcement: ARC Project Presentation in Tokyo (Nov. 24, 27)

    7 October, 2010 General News - Thank You, ARC Supporters!

    Dear friends and supporters of ARC,

     

    It has been more than 8 months since I left Japan to set up ARC here in Thailand. The progress that we made seems tiny, but I believe that 1 is much much greater than 0.

    To share our progress and talk about our future path, we are going to organize two presentation event when I go back to Japan in November.

    I think most of the English readers here are not in Japan, but in case you could join us on either date, please send us an email to

    bookworm@alwaysreadingcaravan.org

     

    The date and place are:

     

    1. Nov. 24 (Wed.), 18:00-20:000 at the Nippon Foundation (Meeting room on the second floor)

    2. Nov. 27 (Sat.), 10:00-12:00 at Sawasdee (a Thai restaurant in Dogenzaka, Shibuya)

     

    We hope to meet as many people as possible, and paint our dream even more colorully!

    How Many Strangers Do I Talk with Throughout a Day

    18 September, 2010 Happy Blind Life in Thailand

    This is a list of people whom I talked with throughout a day today on the way to and back from work.

    Note I excluded simple thank yous and sorrys from

    This list.

     

    1 Soy milk vendor auntie (I asked her to put basil seeds)

    2 Security gard lady at Wong-wiang-yai station (She helped me get on the train)

    3 Security guard guy at Siam, who helped me to transit

    4 Security guard guy at Victory Monument who took me to the sandwich stand in the station

    5 A lady who walked with me on the overhead bridge towards Rajvithi Hospital

    6 A girl who looked for bus No. 12 for me

    7 Bus conductor to whom I told the bus stop that I get off

    8 An auntie who walked with me to the gate of my working place

    9-10. 2 security guys at Aree Station.

    11. Security guy at Siam

    12. BTS driver (at

     Wong-wiang-yai station. He was waiting with me till the security guy ran up to meet me).

    13. Motorbike driver in my soi. (He even gives me free ride all the time.)

    14. A newly moved-in neighbor at the apartment, who turned out to be one of the security ladies at Wong-wiang-yai station! She always wares a bangle with small bells, and she shook it like anything to let me realize who she was J What a surprising end of a day!

     

    People ask me how I learned Thai language so quickly, but now you see it, right? If you talk with more than 10 people on the street (besides your friends and colleagues), you would be able to speak; no other choice!

     

    And trust me, through such a small chitchat and conversations, these people really make my day, even in the most depressing situation.

    First-Ever Mobile Library

    25 July, 2010 ARC on the Road - General News

    This was literally our first-ever mobile library activity. We brought around 70 books to Railway Park near the famous weekend market (Chatuchak Market), and conducted various activities in the afternoon, such as story-telling, fun reading, songs, and games. Actually, we planned to start around 2 PM, but soon after our banner was put up, kids started to stream in. No choice for us, but to start around 1:30, right?

    We did a bit of ice-breaking with the help of a volunteer who plays the guitar. An adorably charming girl came up to sing the famous elephant song to the crowd to kick-start the program.

    Then follows the story-telling. A lovely couple read a story using Japanese kamishibai, and kids were totally drawn into it. To get them excited again, a friend of us did some warm-up activity.

    Even though we did not have any advertisement veforehand, nearly 30 children and their parents gathered to join us. The best part was that the parents started to read to their kids. So we managed to involve not only children, but grownups, whic is quite important.

    By 6 PM, we were happily exhausted and ready to hit the road again. Since this was our first group activity as Always Reading Caravan, I was quite nervous about it, actually, and happy to tell you that gained enormous confidence in capability of our team and the positive path ahead!