Tag: Guest Blog

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Japan: Bicycles that expand children’s potential in Cambodia

by Sachie Togashiki

 

In my research about the positive contribution of the use of bicycles to children’s education in developing countries, I found CBB Cambodia. This is a Japanese NGO (non-governmental organisation) consisting of about 20 university students who support Cambodian children by providing bicycles. In spring and summer 2015, the CBB Cambodia devised and managed microfinance to provide Cambodian children with bicycles. A member of the organisation engaged in this project recorded her experience in the organisation’s blog.

The writer, Kumi Sakahashi, realised the influences of bicycles on Cambodian children’s dream job. This is because she encountered a Cambodian boy, Kea, who was about to drop education in his elementary school to support his parents. After CBB’s intervention, Kia did not have to leave school and went to a junior high school. It was because, in spring 2015, CBB Cambodia provided 33 people including Kea with a bicycle. This helped Kea to reduce his commuting time to the school and spend more time on housework and his study. This experience enabled Kea to raise his expectations from becoming a teacher to a doctor. Ms. Sakahashi heard this from Kea in summer 2015. She concludes the blog post by stating that the use of a bicycle enabled Kea to go further places where he saw many different people, resulting in a change of his dream job.

This blog post is significant because it shows the importance of bicycles in terms of widening children’s future possibilities. Ms. Sakahashi explains that without access to advanced education opportunities, children in Cambodia can only be a teacher or a farmer. Jobs requiring far more training such as being a doctor, require much greater opportunity. However, most children in Cambodia give up to go to a junior high school. This is because, according to a crowdfunding website that CBB Cambodia devised in 2014, although there is an elementary school per a village, there is only one junior high school per 3-4 villages, which makes it difficult for children to go. Ms. Sakahashi also argues that, however, with a bicycle, they might be able to continue their education and to aim to get their dream job because bicycles save the time. The children can save money as well as time by helping their parents work. Therefore, bicycles might play a significant role to help children get an education.

 

Source CBB Cambodia: Ready for Japan - Bicycles beyond borders
Source CBB Cambodia: Ready for Japan – Bicycles beyond borders

 

Sakahashi, K. (2015, September 4). A bicycle that expands children’s potential [Web log post].Retrieved from http://cbb-cambodia.org/a-bicycle-expands-possibilities-of-kids.

CBB Cambodia [NGO] (2014, November 28). 100 bicycles for children in Tomato who cannot go to their school. Retrieved from https://readyfor.jp/projects/cycle_beyond_the-borders.

Sachie Togashiki is our Guest Blogger, unveiling some of Japan’s bicycle culture for the fortnight from 11th April to 24th April.

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Japan: Bicycles – A way for disarmament

by Sachie Togashiki

 

This online news article that I found is about the exhibition Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique held in the art gallery of Tokyo University of the Arts. In this exhibition, audiences can see art objects which are made of materials which used to be guns.
After Mozambique became independent in 1975, a civil war occurred and lasted until 1992, after which many weapons used in the civil war were still left without proper removal. Then, the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), started the project Transforming Guns into Hoes, which was instructed by Dinis Sengulane, General Secretary of CCM. In this project, guns were exchanged with agricultural implements, bicycles, or sewing machines. Bicycles in Japan were donated to this project. Thanks to the project, about one million guns have been collected and most of the weapons collected were safely destroyed and others were used for making art objects, which are exhibited in Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique.

 

Bicycles – a way for disarmament
Source: Tokyo University of the Arts – Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique

 

This article expresses the necessity of bicycles. Because bicycles are needed by people in Mozambique, CCM members were able to exchange weapons for bicycles and other useful implements. This means bicycles might make the world better in terms of disarmament strategy. The issue of leftover weapons can be better solved, partly thanks to bicycles. In this way, bicycles can be used for maintaining peace – as seen in this exhibition.


Sachie Togashiki is our Guest Blogger, unveiling some of Japan’s bicycle culture for the fortnight from 11th April to 24th April.

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Japan: Medical Use of Bicycles – enjoyable rehabilitation

by Sachie Togashiki

 

I found an interesting article about the development of bicycles for rehabilitation for hemiplegic patients. Sufferers of apoplexy, a percentage of which is overrepresented in mortality rate in Japan, tend to have a secondary disease, which is hemiplegic, after surgery. In order to recover from hemiplegia, rehabilitation is needed, but it usually bores patients or needs someone’s help. To solve this problem, two authors, Hiroshi Shoji and Takeshi Aoki at Chiba Institute of Technology, are trying to develop bicycles for easier and more fun rehabilitation.

How does it work?

The attraction of using bicycles as a rehabilitation tool is its sustainability, non-boringness, and refreshing feeling which comes from outside exercise. Although there is the attraction which the authors can make use of, they also need to cover some anxieties such as safety and uneasiness when pedaling. In order to guarantee safety, a foot which is not paralysed is applied a load to, so that a rider cannot pedal too fast, which results in a stable and low pedaling speed. In addition, a load is applied also to reduce patients’ uneasiness caused by a feeling of unbalanced heaviness depending on feet. The authors used an electrically-powered tricycle made by YAMAHA for an experiment and succeeded in keeping a low pedaling speed by applying a load to a healthy foot. They are going to conduct an experiment to mitigate patients’ uneasiness and to develop a smoothness when pedaling.

Significance

The article is crucial because this is an academic article which was published as a documentation of JSME (The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers) Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics and it shows a new significant way of using bicycles. Because riding on a bicycle is lots of fun and can be done without any permanent help, the authors suggested using bicycles for rehabilitation for the hemiplegic patient, which means bicycles can be used not only for town development and disarmament, which I will report on in two upcoming posts, but for medical uses. The use of bicycles as a rehabilitation tool might enhance patients’ motivation to recover from hemiplegia and contribute to a more positive future.

Additionally, in order to get the article, I paid for it, while most of the Australian articles are available for free. This made me think about freedom for students to research in Japan, which might be a little poorer than Australia.

 

Shoji, H., & Aoki, T. (2014). Development of rehabilitation bicycle for hemiplegic patients. Proceedings of the JSME Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics, 14(3P2-G03), 3P2-G03(1)-3P2-G03(2) Retrieved from http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110009967356

 

Sachie Togashiki is our Guest Blogger, unveiling some of Japan’s bicycle culture, from 11th April to 24th April.

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Japan: Bicycles for healthy and environment-friendly town development

 by Sachie Togashiki

In looking for evidence to show the social changes made by the use of bicycles, I found an interesting video. In the video, a Japanese man, Satoshi Hikita, who works for a television station, and who commutes by bicycle for 24 km, delivered a lecture about using bicycles for environment-friendly and healthy town development. The video contains the interview Mr. Hikita gave after his lecture. The lecture was delivered in Nichinan, Miyazaki prefecture, where he was born, on 8th July 2011. Mr. Hikita gave interesting arguments to explain how bicycles contribute to town development.

Main arguments presented

He claims that using bicycles has benefits for both individuals and society. Individual benefits are: promoting fitness, saving money, and furthering familiarity with local town environs. On the other hand, the social benefits are mitigation of traffic jams, reduction of traffic fatalities and medical expenses, and eco-friendly traffic. He also argues that these benefits cannot be achieved by using cars because they emit carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming; people don’t exercise when they drive a car, which is not healthy, and using a car might be more expensive in the longer term because oil prices will rise more and more.

Mr. Hikita argues that town development can benefit by promoting bicycles because the immediate appeal of the local environment can best be felt on foot or on a bicycle. This means the more people use bicycles in the town, the more they can personally and directly feel the attraction of the place. He cites the examples of Tokyo in Japan and cities in the United States; where young people prefer to go, enjoying the city on foot or a bicycle, not a car and have been developed through people’s interaction and communication. Mr. Hikita maintains that riding bicycles encourages us to interact with people and to fully appreciate our local environment, as well as being a convenient mode of transport.

Comment

After watching this video, I was intrigued by Mr. Hikita’s idea of how the planning of cities and towns was influenced by the use of bicycles. Even though I lived in Tokyo before coming to Australia, I didn’t notice that people best enjoy in the city on foot or a bicycle. I agree with Mr. Hikita when he says that cities can’t be enjoyed by cars because so many interesting places are missed, such as lots of interesting and mysterious shops or galleries on narrow streets where cars can’t go through. As he insists, a town’s attraction can be found not by cars, but by bicycles. If town planning includes promoting the use of bicycles, not only can people have an enjoyable town, they have healthy and eco-friendly lives today and tomorrow.


Sachie Togashiki is our Guest Blogger, unveiling some of Japan’s bicycle culture for the next fortnight from 11th April to 24th April.