June 23, 2009 AM : Welfare Services for persons with disabilities -from perspective of persons with
disabilities
Training Report - Decent work course
Yesterday five participants received the lecture on the Japanese welfare services from a special advisor for the disability issues at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Today participants learned the welfare services from the users' viewpoint.
Lecturer is a special advisor for the INAX Corporation, who is a disability certificate holder and uses the welfare services regularly. She came to JICA Tokyo with her personal assistant by a taxi equipped with a lift.
She was born in Hokkaido. She contracted diseases when she was a senior high school student. Her life was completely changed but she never gave up her life.
“I had to live, in order to live, I needed to work,” she said.
So she tried to look for the place where she could learn design, and she found the interior design course at the National Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities and moved to Tokyo. She experienced uncountable difficulties, prejudices and discriminations, however she overcame one by one and as the result of her hard work, she could find an appropriate job at the private company through employment support services.
Her lecture helped five participants understand how Japanese persons with disabilities use their welfare services and live independently in the community. Although she succeeded in living independently. It is still not easy for persons with disabilities to access necessary information, unless they go out and look for it by themselves.
For the participants, the morning session was not only to know the Japanese welfare services, but also to aware of the meaning of “Decent Work” for persons with disabilities.
