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August 18, 2008
Training Report : July 25, 2008 PM : Learning from former participants through JICA-Net (TV conference)
Today's program is to learn from the activities of former participants through JICA-Net. JICA-Net facility enables to organize TV conferences regardless of distance constraints. This year, it was connected with two former participants of this course, Ms. Rekha Sriyani from Sri Lanka and Mr. Try Suphearac from Cambodia. Both are the participants of the course in 2007.
Ms. Rekha is a social service officer of the Department of Social Services, Central Province of Sri Lanka. Using the ideas and knowledge gained in Japan, she planned an “Income Generation Program for People with Spinal Cord Injuries.” In Sri Lanka, people with spinal cord injuries were depressed and dependent on family and government, and they cannot have future plans or look for new jobs. In order to solve this situation, she put the above program into practice.
After returning to her country, she started a variety of vocational training programs such as making brooms, candles and greeting cards, growing mushrooms, packing spices, etc. She has carefully chosen the training subjects considering market needs. She also considered that most of persons with spinal cord injuries use wheelchairs and chose suitable activities which wheelchair users can do. She also organized peer counseling among people with spinal cord injuries and also social rehabilitation such as training in wearing cloths and toileting etc. The pictures showed that these activities empowered the people with spinal cord injuries and they could regain confidence.
Mr. Try is a representative of Watthan Artisans Cambodia (WAC): A cooperative of Cambodian handicraft producers with disabilities. His project title is “SMILE HANDICRAFTS - To provide handicraft skill training and continue employment for persons with physical and intellectual disabilities.”
After the training in Japan, he started new training courses in wood carving and tailoring and 23 trainees are taking these courses and produce marketable products. Initially he tried to get grants but he failed. But he started again from the beginning and carried out these programs with smaller but several donations from other organizations. Now the products of WAC are sold even to European customers through internet. You can visit their website at http://www.wac.khmerproducts.com/
Mr. Akira Terashima, Planning Committee Member, participated in this program and he gave overall comments to both of the speakers. All the participants also contributed to the session by asking questions or giving comments.
Through JICA-Net, the participants could have real-time communication and opinion exchanges with these two former participants. They could see that neither Ms. Rekha nor Mr. Try gave up when they faced difficulties. Through these good examples of former participants, they could have clearer image of how they apply their learning in Japan to their activities upon returning to home countries.
We are deeply grateful to Ms. Rekha and Mr. Try for preparing the presentation materials and taking part in today's session.
http://www.jicafriends.jp/vocational/gi2008/training/v0725pm.html
Posted by jicafriends at August 18, 2008 05:57 PM