On the 26th of August, 2022, we had the pleasure to host some of our allies from Japan.
Toshiko Kudo was representing ‘STEP Edogawa’ and Shigeto Itani was representing ‘CIL Hoshizora’. Along with many leaders, they were in Geneva for the review of Japan by the CRPD Committee. They took advantage of their presence in Europe to say hello to us! Thank you also to Kanae Gougis for the translation and Masami Morigami for setting up the meeting.
Toshiko and Shigeto had a few words for the international disability community:
“So my message is to our colleagues in this international community is that meeting with the leaders from other countries is a very important thing. Maybe our nationalities, our cultures, our languages are different. But as a people with disabilities, we face the same difficulties, same barriers. So linking with our colleagues, our counterparts in other countries, that motivates me a lot.And that also allows to make a big movement to advance this advocate movement. So let’s share our good experience, good lessons learned to make a big movement. And I believe this will allow us to achieve our objectives.”
Toshiko Kudo – STEP Edogawa
“My message to our colleague in this international community? Let’s work together. I need your help to get activities of the World Independent Living Network (WIN) much bigger. So let’s work with us.”
Shigeto Itani – CIL星空
ENIL looks forward to future exchanges and cooperation like this one!
