OUR
SHELTERED WORKSHOP
"KURATE-YUTAKANOSATO"
WORKING MEMBERS OF OUR WORKSHOP
aluminum can collection(recycle)
manufacturing of vinyl bags
floriculture
making cookies
Name: Masato
Hasegawa
Country: Japan
Occupation: Director
of sheltered workshop
for people with developmental disabilities
I
participated in two study tours of
American social welfare services,in 1995 and in 1996.
These tours were arranged by an organization called, in Japanese, the Human
Service Kenkyuh Kai, and in English, the Japan Human Services Association.
Both tours were advised by Professor Yoshikazu Tomiyasu of the Department
of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo.
Through these visits,
we learned that the social value of people with developmental disabilities
was lower in Japan than in Europe and America.
We think that the social value of people grows out of the social consciousness
of others in society. This means that the social value of people with developmental
disabilities will be changed when other people change
their feelings about them.
When we realized this,
we thought that
we had to do something.We'd like to network about "self advocacy".
However, this term is not popular in the small community where we live.
We always get valuable information about welfare for people with developmental
disabilities from the Internet. And we exchange views on the Internet by
e-mail with people who know about these issues.
So we thought we should have an Internet home page where we could communicate
in Japanese with Japanese everywhere, and in English with all of the world.
