VVI was awarded the Hellen Keller Sullivan Award
CWAJ was selected as a winner of Helen Keller Sullivan Award for VVI’s long time contribution to the visually impaired society. The announcement was made by Mr. Okumura, Director General of Tokyo Hellen Keller Association, who said “This is a unanimous decision at the selection meeting”. This is thanks to the strong recommendation by Mr. Chuji Sashida, Executive Director of National Committee of Welfare for the Blind in Japan currently, who was invited to VVI Anniversary Event Life is Climbing in April, and also as the first VI student at Waseda Univ. in 1974, he helped us as our adviser in starting the early stage of VVI activities. The award ceremony was held on October 10 and was attended by Heidi Sweetnam, Yoko Moskowitz, Masako Yanagita, Eri Nakase, and Nancy Tsurumaki.
Teaching English at JVDCB
Do you speak English? Then you can teach English! That is, you can help visually-impaired adults build up their English skills as they retrain for jobs at the Japan Vocational Development Center for the Blind and Low-Vision (JVDCB) in Yotsuya. For autumn, we have enough volunteer teachers, at the moment, but please contact Vicky or Kozue if you would like to observe a class. Classes are taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 13:00 to 14:30. Please consider joining our group. For information, contact Vicky Muehleisen at vicky@waseda.jp or Kozue Handa at khanda@nifty.com.
VVI’s 50th Anniversary in 2025- Concert and Booklet
In 2025, CWAJ celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Volunteers for Visually Impaired (VVI) Committee providing unique and meaningful programs in English for Japanese with a visual impairment. A concert will be held on Thursday, November 6, from 19:00 to 21:00. The venue is the Sumida Triphony Small Hall, near Kinshicho Station.
Rika Sugata, 2021 CWAJ Scholarship for the Visually Impaired (SVI) recipient, will perform on the piano, and Seina Kudo will sing soprano. Tickets are now available from Peatix, so please check the CWAJ website for more information.
Plus the 50th Anniversary Booklet Team has been working very hard to put the final touches on the document, before publishing it in October. The booklet team has worked for over two years on this project, and we are all looking forward to viewing it soon.
Looking for a Japanese Co-chair for VVI to start in January.
We are looking for a Japanese co-chair for VVI. This is a very important role (helping to coordinate VVI’s activities), but the main jobs are to send in reports of VVI activities to the board, and to help to coordinate three VVI meetings during the year. If you would like more information about the job, please contact Eri Nakase at vn4e-nks@asahinet.jp or Nancy Tsurumaki at nancytsurumaki@gmail.com. Margaret Maeda has already agreed to be the Non-Japanese coordinator.
Co-chairs: Nancy Tsurumaki and Eri Nakase
