Japanese Minister for Economic Affairs Akio Isomata with Mr. Jaime C. Del Rosario, Chairman and President of Jesus V. Del Rosario Foundation, Inc., and Mr. Tomoyuki Katano of the Japanese NGO ‘The Volunteers Group to Send Wheelchairs to Overseas Children” at the turnover ceremony at the office of Jesus V. Del Rosario (JVR) Foundation in Makati.
Minister for Economic Affairs, Akio Isomata, of the Embassy of Japan attended the turnover ceremony of “The Project to provide the refurbished wheelchairs for handicapped children in care centers in Manila” on January 24, 2012 at the office of Jesus V. Del Rosario (JVR) Foundation in Makati.
The ceremony was witnessed by Regional Director Wilma Naviamos, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Mr. Tomoyuki Katano from a Japanese NGO “The Volunteers Group to Send Wheelchairs to Overseas Children”, and officials from JVR Foundation, a partner Philippine NGO of the said Japanese NGO.
In the Philippines, wheelchairs for children are expensive, and facilities taking care of handicapped children have hard time securing adequate numbers of wheelchair. Occasionally, due to the lack of wheelchairs for children, they are forced to use adult-sized wheelchairs.
Under the project, “The Volunteers Group to Send Wheelchairs to Overseas Children” gathered eighty (80) used wheelchairs in Japan and sent them to the Philippines after refurbishing them for renewed use. The wheelchairs were granted to five (5) facilities for children with disabilities in Metro Manila. The Japanese Government funded the cost of refurbishment and transportation of these wheelchairs through the Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO projects, which amounted to 801,180 Japanese Yen (approximately 400 thousand pesos).
Minister Isomata stated in his speech, “By utilizing these wheelchairs, the beneficiary children will be able to increase activities in their everyday life with better mobility, thus enhancing the quality of their life.”
The Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects started in the Philippines in 2002. Since then, the Japanese Government has disbursed approximately 165 million pesos for a total of 27 projects in the Philippines under the scheme. Japan believes that this project will strengthen not only friendship between the peoples of Japan and the Philippines, but also the existing strategic partnership between Japan and the Philippines.