In my country everybody dreams about visiting Japan, since this country seems to be very mysterious. We, Kazakhstany people, believe, that Japan is so different from other countries, different in the sense of culture, people and environment. When I arrived in Japan in September 2006, I understood that Japan is really different in many aspects.

After arriving in Osaka, I met many people from Duskin Ainowa Foundation, JSRPD, as well as other 5 Duskin trainees. We, the 8th Duskin trainees, were from different countries with different cultures and religions, but the Duskin Leadership Training united us, made us friends, friends forever!!!

On September the 4th we had our opening ceremony in the Duskin main office, and it was there, that I understood, how lucky I was. During that day I met many people with severe disabilities. I had never seen such people in Kazakhstan, so, at first, seeing a person with a respiration system, I was frightened and surprised at the same time. At that time I could not even imagine, that severely disabled people would become very good friends of mine.

The next day, full of impressions, expectations and hopes, I went to Tokyo.

In my country I studied conference interpretation at university, so I really love studying languages. But when I was studying Japanese at Toyama Sunrise, I understood how difficult and complicated Japanese language was. But, our teachers were real professionals. Their approach was completely different from that of my country’s teachers. Our Japanese class looked like a very funny game with lots of players and interesting situations. So, after a very short period of time, we could speak Japanese. Moreover, thanks to my Braille teachers, I could read and write Japanese Braille in a short time, though Japanese Braille was the most complicated, compared with Kazakh, Russian, English, and German Brailles.

During the 3 months of Japanese language lessons, I went to many different places with other Duskin trainees. For the first time in my life I saw the sea, drunk salty sea water, and put the kite in the sky. Fantasic experiences. I like the Japanese language, I tried to speak whenever I could. I spoke with station staff, while being guided from one station to another, I spoke with people in the train, I spoke with anybody I met during my training. Speaking to people, I learnt a lot about Japan, its culture, history and geography.

For the first time in my life I did not spend the New Year with my family and friends. but this made my Japanese New Year unforgettable. I went to Kumamoto to Ikezawa Family’s house for 6 days. When I arrived at their house, I could listen to magnificent melodies, from the violins played by my 2 small host sisters. For the first time in my life I tried Basashi – raw horse meat. In my country we never eat raw meat, but I love challenges, that was why I ate it. Delicious! During these 6 days we went to the Kumamoto castle, stayed the New Year Eve at the foot of Mount Aso, relaxed in hot springs, played card games with children and talked about Japanese culture with father and mother Ikezawa. It was really an unforgettable time. I will never forget my Japanese family and my New Year in Japan.

It takes about 40 minutes by car from my house in Kazakhstan to a ski resort. But in my country there are no ski teachers for disabled people, so only in Japan I got an opportunity to learn skiing. My teacher, Mr. Suzuki, always supported me morally, saying, that I am learning very fast, that I have a good balance. That’s why I managed to start skiing soon. We were getting on lifts and going up the high mountain, and, after reaching the highest place, skied down. I love high speed, I love exciting moments, when my blood rushes with adrenaline. That is why I was skiing as fast as possible, despite my teacher always stopping me from doing so. It was really exciting! Even when I fell on the snow, I was laughing and enjoying these wonderful moments of my life.

During my individual program, I learnt lots of things in Japan, I made many Japanese friends, I visited a lot of beautiful and famous places!!!

My individual training started in Koyukai – an association of institutions for disabled people. There I met Miss Noriko Igarashi and many other people, who were very friendly and helpful. I spent a lot of time with Miss Igarashi, and, talking to her, I learnt a lot and understood a lot. This training provided me with lots of knowledge concerning intellectually, visually and physically disabled people.

Finishing the training in Koyukai, I went to DPI Japan for 3 weeks. I dreamt about training in DPI since my first days in Japan, so, my dream came true. The staff at DPI was so kind and friendly, and we became friends very soon. I learnt a lot about the new convention on the rights of disabled persons, about advocacy, and about DPI and its activities. I will never forget our dinners with Mr. Miyamoto, Mr. Sai, Mr. Miura, and other staff. We talked a lot about Japanese culture, disabled people and about Japanese Comedy Rakugo. Even now I am contacting the DPI staff as often as possible.

For the first time in my life I went to a Center of independent Living – CIL. Many leaders of Japanese IL movement, such as Mr. Nakanishi, Ms. Nakahara, Mr. Tsukada taught me a lot about the IL movement, the role, concept and management of CIL. Everyday I got on 2 trains on the way from my independent living experience room to my Human Care.

Here, at Human Care, I understood, that personal assistant service is extremely important for PWDs, peer counseling is necessary to empower PWDs and that mistakes are very important, because these make us more mature.

The Human Care training was a crucial one for me, I understood what I wanted to do in the future. I am very grateful to the Human staff.

I spent more than one month in Osaka, at ICCB. I met many people, many blind and visually impaired people. I learnt how to create a home-page from Matsumoto Sensei, and I understood that even a totally blind person, who lost his eye sight not so long time ago, can overcome his/her stress and can become a perfect teacher.

The staff was so friendly and helpful, that I did not feel any problems while eating, going out, moving from one floor to another. In the evenings I often had dinner with some members of the staff. I made many friends there. Field trips, barrier free checks and entertainment were all unforgettable. I am very grateful to Miss Kitai, Miss Nishigaki, and Mr. Matsumoto, my home-page sensei, and to all of the ICCB people.

This CIL provided me with unforgettable and perfect training. All of the people there were so friendly, I made so many friends. I visited severely disabled people’s homes, talked a lot with them, learnt lots of things about institutions for the disabled and about their life at Mainstream.

I also had lots of experiences, such as playing basketball, bowling, picking strawberries, supporting a baseball team in the stadium, singing karaoke and visiting Hiroshima. In my country I had also wanted to play basketball or bowling, but everybody said that it is very difficult, that it is better not to do it. So, I always gave up, and it was always damaging to my confidence. But at Mainstream, I became more confident, more open, and began to love my life even more than before.

The lectures about negotiations, Japanese welfare systems, PA service, training and recruitment of new staff, action plan after returning to one’s country– all of these things broadened my mind, my understanding of PWDs, and my understanding of myself. We went to many places to have fun, but even from having fun I learnt lots of things. Enjoying oneself, one’s life is extremely important. When a person is having a lot of different experiences, he/she becomes more mature. When a PWD receives a necessary personal assistant support, he/she can do everything that he/she wanted or dreamed to do. That is what I understood at Mainstream.

I spent one week in Saitama, learning Judo from a very famous blind politician, Mr. Ushikubo. I had never met such a wonderful, interesting, unusual person. He taught me about politics, PWDs, happiness, way of working and enjoying the moment. This training changed my viewpoints. I really learnt many things in the sphere of Judo and many things about myself.

Although I can hardly see, God gave me lots of different abilities and talents. But before coming to Japan, I wanted to use all these abilities only for myself, for my career, for making money. But here, I learnt, I understood with my entire heart, that I should use my talents and abilities for the happiness of people who surround me, for making people’s lives better, for bringing happiness to the world. This changed me a lot.

In Kazakhstan I always tried to show everybody, that I am not disabled, that I just have a weak eye-sight. I tried to become a non-disabled, I tried very hard. I thought that blind people were very pitiful, I discriminated PWDs myself. But here, in Japan, I learnt to take my disability positively, I understood that even if I cannot see well, I don’t need to pretend, I understood that it is very funny and interesting to be disabled, because our lives are more interesting than that of many of non-disabled people. I started using a white-cane, and now I don’t feel ashamed to use it. I hated using the cane in Kazakhstan, and I began to love it in Japan!!!

I want to start a disability movement in my country, so, first of all, I want to create partners with the same thinking, same goals and dreams.

In my country people with disabilities know almost nothing about their rights and fundamental freedoms, their sphere of personal experiences is very narrow. So, I want to share with many PWDs what I have learnt in Japan, share with them the information about our rights. It, I am sure, will increase the number of my partners.

I also want to help establishing a support center for students with disabilities in the national university of Kazakhstan. When I was studying in the university, I faced lots of problems like the lack of information access, the lack of any basic support. If we have a support center, many PWDs will be able to receive necessary support and study what they want to.

My dream is to create an organization of movement and service for PWDs. This organization will deal with barrier-free and rights-based movement, as well as provide PWDs with guide-helper service, personal assistant service, and empower PWDs so that they will be able to do what they want to do, to live independently, to make self-decisions and to take responsibilities for their actions. So, this is my dream. I will work hard with my partners in order to make my dream come true.

The Duskin Leadership Training Program in Japan has really changed me a lot. I learnt a lot, understood a lot, and now I want to do a lot. I am very grateful to all the staff of Duskin Ainowa Foundation, to the staff of JSRPD, and to all the Japanese people, who supported me during my training. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. I will never forget Japan, I will never forget the people, I will never forget what I learnt here.

God, bless Japan, God, bless Japanese people, God, bless us all!!!