There is something that reminds me of a piece of soap that sells for 1,000 yen and is so beautiful that it can be mistaken for the real thing.
Last year, when my second brother and his wife and my cousin visited Yokohama, I tasted candy-like soap at the shop in the Red Brick Warehouse, not realizing it was soap.
次に紹介された「B'S・行善寺」は、石川県白山市に建設された地域コミュニティ施設でした。福祉・医療施設としての高齢者デイサービス、障がい者生活介護や保育園、内科クリニックに加え、交流施設として天然温泉、食事処、ウェルネス(健康増進施設)、温水プール、フラワーショップなども揃っています。
様々な人びとが「ごちゃまぜ」に集まり、交流できる場所であり、施設全体が障がい者の就労支援にも貢献しているのです。この施設のプロデューサーで、社会福祉法人佛子園 理事長の雄谷良成さんは、父のお寺で孤児や障害者とともに育ちました。
自分が大人になり、世の中を見渡すと障害者たちへの差別や、仕事に就けない現実を目の当たりにします。お寺を継いで、その怒りをぶつけるだけでは変わっていかないと感じ、「周りを変えたのは日々の交流でした」と述べているようなとりくみを始めだとのことです。
そして、楽天ソシオビジネス川島薫社長(自身も左足に障害を持つ〜これが私の個性〜離婚を経験したシングルマザー)にも感銘を受けました。楽天の三木谷浩史社長から、低いHC(ハンディキャップ)者採用率を向上させるために立ち上げた子会社の社長を打診され、「自力で稼ぎます。親会社に頼らない自立の道を探します」と引き受けた志の高さに驚かされました。
"B'S Gyozenji," which was introduced next, is a local community facility built in Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture.
In addition to day care services for the elderly, day care for the disabled, nursery school, and internal medicine clinic as welfare and medical facilities, the facility also has a natural hot spring, a restaurant, a wellness center, a heated swimming pool, and a flower store as exchange facilities.
It is a place where people from all walks of life can gather and interact, and the facility as a whole contributes to supporting the employment of people with disabilities.
The producer of this facility, Yoshinari Yutani, President of BUTSUZOEN Social Welfare Corporation, grew up with orphans and handicapped people at his father's temple.
When he became an adult and looked around the world, he saw discrimination against the disabled and the reality that they could not get jobs.
He later took over the temple and, feeling that simply venting his anger was not enough to change things, he began to engage in the kind of activities that he describes as "daily interactions that changed the world around me.
I was also impressed by Kaoru Kawashima, President of Rakuten Sociobusiness (who herself has a disability in her left leg - this is my individuality - and a single mother who has gone through a divorce).
When Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani approached me to serve as president of a subsidiary he had set up to improve the low HC (handicapped) employment rate, I told him, "I will earn on my own. I will look for a way to become self-reliant without relying on the parent company." I was surprised by the high level of ambition with which she accepted the position.
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障害者の雇用を創っていくだけではなく、働く人には「できることで頑張ればいい」と励まします。そして、社内につくったコンビニでは、決済をキャッシュレス化し、知的障害者でも接客サービス(カゴの商品を袋に入れて渡す)の仕事を任せ、すぐに黒字化させています。
さらに地方にも目を向け、野菜の水耕栽培にも着手し、現地の採用面接にも立会い「自分が必要とされる場所がそこにある」、チャンスを提供し続ける姿勢に感動させられました。彼女の気合いには、とうてい及ばないところですが、できるところで自分なりに努力できればと思いました。