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Report from Ms. Irina Yamamoto: Sunflower from Argentina

Publication date:2020-04-24
 
Masami Brooks, AMDA Headquarters
 

the Completion Ceremony of the Training

From August to October, 2019, Ms. Irina Yamamoto came to Okayama from Argentina to receive a training at AMDA Headquarters office through the Okayama Prefectural Overseas Technical Trainees Aid Program.

Since the beginning of training, Irina was motivated to study and search about various projects such as AMDA and disasters in Japan by herself. She also learned about the welfare system, her major at the university in Argentina, and visited “Asahigawasou” and “Budou no Ie Mabi”, two welfare facilities which offer services to the people with disabilities or the elderly people in Okayama. She was also actively involved in the activities of “AMDA Junior and High School Students Club”. In August, she and the members visited Kuroshio town, Kouchi prefecture, to learn about the disaster prevention with junior and high school students there in the town.

In three months of her training, she made a remarkable improvement in Japanese. She gave the presentation about the disasters in Argentina, talked in the live radio program, and reported about her training at AMDA, and she has done them only in Japanese.

She was curious about everything, took action immediately and always smiled. Another her strength is that she turned adversity into a happy ending somehow. Although she was small, her existence was as big as a sunflower and cheered us up. For my future activities, I would like to follow her spirit “try everything”, which I learned from her.

 

Gave the presentation in Japanese

Lastly, we are grateful to the International Affairs Division, Okayama Prefecture and the Okayama Prefectural International Exchange Foundation for providing us this precious opportunity. 

The following is her report about the training at AMDA, excerpted from the original report written in Spanish.

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My Experience in AMDA


Fortunately, I received the training at AMDA office in Okayama from August to October 2019. I had only good memories during the time, and this is one of my precious occasions.

 

Participated in the activities in Kuroshio town

On the first day, I learned about AMDA such as the principle and the past activities. I felt that that learning was interesting, and also important for me to understand the daily activities at AMDA. Throughout the training, I learned about natural disasters, the disaster prevention, and the preparedness for disaster responses through the training. In August, I went with AMDA Junior and High School Students Club members to Kuroshio town, Kouchi prefecture, where a large-scale nature disaster might occur when Nankai Trough earthquake happens. We participated in some disaster prevention activities such as an emergency drill and learned various things such as how we should respond and act in case of disasters. Fortunately, this kind of big-scale natural disasters does not occur in my country, and I have never experienced such disasters. Thus, I have not realized the importance of disaster prevention until this program. Moreover, I was very happy that I and the club members, the same generation as me, tried to understand each other to shared various thoughts and ideas things through this activity despite language barriers.
 
 

Visited Asahigawasou

In addition, I visited Asahigawasou, the medical and welfare complex, three times during my training to learn how to take care of the elderly and people with disabilities daily as well as the Japanese Medical and welfare system. There, I had an opportunity to see the facility and their daily activity. For example, I visited a facility where the patients are making crafts to earn some income. I also observed the children with disabilities practice Tee-ball.

Before visiting Asahigawasou, I had imagined the facility such as a silent hospital with suffering people enclosed by white walls. However, it was wrong. I was surprised with and became happy to see children playing happily there. The efforts made by the staff at Asahigawasou to support users against tangible and intangible barriers also impressed me. They encourage the patients to do what they can and give them a hand only when needed. That was a nice opportunity for me to enhance my view of welfare as I could learn the different system from my country.

Thank you very much to AMDA and its staff for helping and supporting me during the training. Thanks to the staff, I learned lots of things and had a good occasion to grow up to be a professional. From now on, I would like to work to improve my country by utilizing the lessons that I learned in Japan.
(Translated by Nozomu Hagihara)
    •  Global Human Resource Development (Education Support)
    •  Japan
    •  Argentina
    •  2019

 
 
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