Hopes and Connections

Hi hi .... sigh, I had another problem with Blogger lately which prevented me from publishing post, glad that it's resolved now, phew! This is late news, for those who want to follow up on how Yong Joon's generous donation of 1 billion won for the Japanese disaster relief is being put to use, I received this heartwarming piece of writeup translated by our diligent cloudnine, thank you so much :)

"I'm attaching the translation of the writing about BYJ's medical aid cars sent for the victims of earthquake and tsunami. It was witten by an actress-turned nurse and healthcare counselor, Mitsuko Ishii and posted in Yomiuri Newspapaer blog - yomiDr. http://www.ishiimitsuko.net/ " - Thanks cloudnine!

BYJ’s cars run in Fukushima

Cars donated by Mr. Bae Yong Joon are now running around Fukushima. (Three cars have left Tokyo.)
　
I think I wrote before that my thesis adviser at the graduate school was from Fukushima, and one day this professor said, “An foreign actor is going to donate three medical aid cars to our NPO” I found out later that it was a Korean wave star Mr. Bae Yong Joon.

It was shortly after the earthquake that Mr. Bae proposed to make a monetary donation of 75,000,000 yen to Cabinet Office for the blankets and three cars.

Then it was officially announced that the cars would be sent to the NPO, for which the professor takes on the position of the chairman. It took a while for the cars to complete its interior renovation as well as the exterior work that includes the name of St. Luke’s College of Nursing, names of volunteers, and its project name of ‘Hopes and Connections’, but on May 8th all three cars were delivered to the headquarter of the NPO.

I drove one of those cars to Soma City’s health center in Fukushima and left it to the nurses of the mental care team. We had a press conference there and told that as one of St. Luke’s College of Nursing projects, using this car ‘Hopes and Connections’ project will continue through next March to support mental care of Fukushima people. Areas to be covered are Iwaki City, Soma City, and Koriyama City. Each city has its car. Whenever it was necessary, based on administrative directions, the cars should be used for any medical aid purposes.

Looking back on the past days when I was terribly worried over how we could provide medical support in a long run and also how we should design the contents of medical aid with cars, I remember visiting my alma mater, St. Luke’s College of Nursing. It was a day toward the end of March.

When I actually saw those three cars, not the ones on design paper, they were just splendor and my hearts was full of deep emotion. I was really surprised to see BYJ’s fans who came over to see us off on the day of our departure. His popularity is great indeed.

We have created the official site of ‘Hopes and Connections’. We’ll have to start fund raising. We are planning to post the video clips of running cars, so please visit our site ‘Hopes and Connections’ - URL http://kiboutokizuna.jp/index.html