Kaoru Yokoyama
Director, Supervisory Office, Duskin AINOWA Foundation

The Duskin AINOWA Foundation is a foundation established in 1981 with the support of Duskin Co., Ltd., and Duskin franchise stores, with the aim of bringing about an inclusive society.

Our work comprises the “Duskin Study Abroad Leaders Program for the Disabled” (hereinafter, “the Overseas training program”), in which Japanese people with disabilities undertake training overseas, and the “Duskin Leadership Training Program in Japan” (hereinafter, “the International invitation program”), in which young people with disabilities from the Asia Pacific region are given training in Japan.

The spread of COVID-19 infections from around January 2020, turning into a pandemic, had major impacts on both programs.

For the Overseas Training program, the 39th group of trainees, who were at their training destinations, had to return home at short notice, and the 40th group of trainees, who had only just been selected, saw their departure postponed, and were forced to modify the plans which they had drawn up.

Farewell party for the 40th and 42nd groups of trainees on the Overseas training program

The 21st group of trainees on the international invitation program, meanwhile, stayed on in Japan beyond the scheduled ten-month training period, living each day taking care to avoid getting infected in a country to which they were not accustomed.

In this situation in which no-one yet knew exactly what kind of virus COVID-19 was, people came to avoid contact with one another to the extent that the new term “social distancing” was born.
For people with visual impairments, “touch” takes on the role of their “eyes”.
For people with hearing impairments, the wearing of masks means that they can no longer see people’s expressions, making smooth communication impossible.

When it became impossible to meet face-to-face and encourage one another, to make connections between people, this brought the isolation of people with disabilities and others in vulnerable positions to a head in other ways, too.

However, thanks to the enthusiasm of everyone in the Human Resources Development Department of the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, the contractor responsible for delivering the training for a maximum of more than nine months during this period, and the cooperation of everyone involved, all the trainees were able to return home safely to their countries without a loss of motivation.

From the 2022 year, the trainees on the overseas training program were finally able to set off, and five trainees came to Japan on the International invitation program. The training programmes finished without incident in December last year, and they returned home.

According to trainees who went to the US, the structure of society and ways of interacting with people changed completely after the pandemic.

With the weak yen, inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and so on, the external environment is a difficult one.

Many of the trainees, including the 22nd group of trainees, who waited over a year and a half to come to Japan, are aiming to develop welfare for disabled people in their home countries and to bring about an inclusive society. We intend to continue to discover hope in the midst of difficult situations, with indomitable spirits, and to work hard on the trainings, together with our companions.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone involved, particularly those at the training institutions, who underpin this work.

Please continue to support the trainees!

Opening ceremony for the 22nd group of trainees on the Inetrnational invitation program