Japanese youth repair dozens of secondhand wheelchairs for Sri Lankan Easter attack victims

Forty-six secondhand wheelchairs that were repaired by high school students here have been delivered by sea to injured victims of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, the Mainichi reported.

Omori Gakuen High School in Tokyo's Ota Ward has been participating in a volunteer program called Sora Tobu Kurumaisu o Oen Suru Kai (Group that supports wheelchairs that fly in the sky), which repairs wheelchairs no longer being used at welfare facilities and hospitals and then gifts them to various countries in Asia.

Since the school's student council began participating in the program in 2000, students have repaired and sent 994 wheelchairs overseas.

The students said they hoped the wheelchairs are of help to people who have suffered grave injuries.

The high schoolers teamed up with university students from the Kanagawa Institute of Technology (KAIT) to dismantle the wheelchairs, make sure the wheels were rotating at the same pace, and replace the brakes.

Daigo Watanabe, a 17-year-old third-year student from Omori Gakuen was quoted as saying, "If the wheelchairs are useful for people who have been injured in the terrorist attacks, I feel great satisfaction from doing this."

In 2006, Omori Gakuen's vice-principal delivered wheelchairs to Sri Lanka with student representatives. "Since we had become so familiar with them, the bombings this year made me very sad," he said. "Being able to come to the aid of people in other countries is a precious experience for the students."

This year, the wheelchairs arrived in Sri Lanka in mid-July. They were delivered to victims of the terrorist attacks through the head of a Sri Lankan foundation that operates a care home for children.