PURPLE
HEART
PROJECTS
Life in the exotic land of London
With a broken heart from the bereavement of loved ones and distrust of people, I left Japan for the foreign land of London.
I have suffered from an eating disorder and even entered a rehabilitation centre because of the loneliness and struggles of living in a place where I knew no one, the cultural differences and could not speak English. At that time, I received a five-month-old Yorkshire terrier from a gipsy seeking money for £100, living in poor conditions. I named him Scruffy “Suku” and he spent 21 years with him. I had always thought it would be easy to live without human contact, but Suku became an irreplaceable part of my life and was with me wherever I went. Suku’s presence helped me through a series of bereavement self-loathing and self-doubt. Having the routine of a two-hour walk with Suku every morning was the first step towards mental stability and a positive start to the day.
Fellowship with diverse people,
Understanding others changes me
London is a place where people of many ethnicities, many religions, immigrants fleeing war zones soldiers just back from the battlefields, poor people on welfare and wealthy people from all over the world move in and live with a diverse mix of values and ethnicities. As such, it was also a city where people were shunned if they could not assert their own opinions. When I was studying psychology at university, my classmates ranged in age from their 20s to 70s and included people with disabilities and LGBTQ people from a wide variety of religions, nationalities and ethnicities. I still remember being overwhelmed by the class of 70 people, all with their own questions and suffering, attending the same lectures, which often turned into debates due to major differences of opinion. At the invitation of a university friend, I spent my weekends serving hot food to the homeless at a nearby church, making use of my speciality of cooking. In the course of engaging with them as a volunteer, I learnt that people can lose their homes under different circumstances, and my prejudice against homeless people was dispelled. I realised that the first step towards eliminating prejudice and discrimination against others is to get involved with and understand people who have had spectacular upbringings and experiences, which was unthinkable for me living without inconvenience in peaceful Japan.
This real-life experience became the starting point for the establishment of the non-profit organisation Purple Heart Projects.
Not fitting into the framework,
The existence of people who do not fit into the framework and find it hard to live
Later, when my dog Suku, who had always been by my side, passed away at the age of 21, I returned to Japan with a sense of sadness and loss. During my days with my dog Suk, I realised that sweating, which had been a routine, would lead to mental stability. In search of solace, she went to a training gym to continue exercising, which she was not very good at, and struggled desperately to get used to Japanese customs, which were difficult to get used to. Looking at Japan from the perspective of my long experience of living in London, I felt that in Japan, people live within a set framework, and while this is seen as a virtue in many areas, those who fall outside of that framework are separated by a huge wall and endure without any help. I feel that this is one of the reasons why the number of people who withdraw from society and commit suicide is so high in developed countries. Also, among those who fit within the framework, many people live with the daily feeling that life is difficult. By extension, they are affected by mental illness and are diagnosed with developmental disorders and adjustment disorders at psychosomatic clinics. There is a wide variety of small-scale communities, and many people who are blessed with opportunities manage to survive by belonging to a community.
Be considerate of others,
Sometimes reaching out to others,
Create a society without divides
When I returned to Japan, my Japanese language skills were not good enough, even though I was born in Japan, and had lived in London for most of my adult years, I was in culture shock from living in Japan’s isolation. When I was in the gym, I was slandered online by someone close to me, which closed me off again. I decided to escape again to a place where I didn’t know anyone and didn’t speak the language, so I rented an apartment alone in Paris for three months and spent all my time in the gym, where I happened to stop by ‘café Joyeux’, a café run by people with Down syndrome and autistic spectrum disorder. There, their lively and innocent appearance healed my wounded heart, and I also remembered the many insights I had gained from volunteering with the homeless.
I thought it would be meaningful for me to pass on the experience of respect for individual differences that I had cultivated in London over the years to Japanese society, where people with disabilities tend to be divided. What if I could pass on the ‘realisation through my experiences’ to those who are currently suffering and feeling hard to live with? With this in mind, I want to convey the significance of creating opportunities for people with disabilities to challenge themselves and play an active role in society so that they can learn and realise the importance of learning from each other.
This is what led to the decision to establish the non-profit organisation PurpleHeart Projects.
(特定)PURPLE HEART PROJECTS
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会社概要
特定非営利活動法人
Purple Heart Projects
150-0012
渋谷区広尾4-2-20
オープンレジデンシア広尾
ザハウス South court 311
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