"From Being Supported to Becoming Supporters" - Matsudo's inclusive work reaches classrooms in Nepal

The NPO Nakayoshi Gakuen Project conducted a Japanese culture experience class at a school in Lumbini State, Nepal, in collaboration with "Happy Work Matsudo," a vocational support facility (Type B) located in Matsudo City.

In this class, "soba" (buckwheat noodles) produced by Happy Work Matsudo was used as an educational tool for Japanese culture. The local students learned how to use chopsticks while tasting the noodles. The children smiled as they experienced Japanese food culture for the first time, fostering cross-cultural exchange that transcended national borders.

Happy Work Matsudo is a vocational support facility (Type B) where individuals with disabilities acquire skills and work as restaurant, agricultural, and product staff. "Tojo Soba Ko," a restaurant run by the facility, has been designated as a recommended product of Matsudo City.

This initiative is more than a simple introduction of Japanese culture. It is a practical application where the skills, products, and daily work of people in Matsudo crossed the ocean to become learning materials that support the education of Nepalese children.

"Learning Connected to the World" Linking Local Matsudo and the World

Nakayoshi Gakuen collaborates with schools, local governments, businesses, and welfare facilities in its home base of Matsudo and across Japan. Under the theme of "supporting the world with Japan's best products," the organization deploys educational support activities in 10 countries worldwide.

During the recent activities in Nepal, they conducted lessons for experiential learning of Japanese culture through Japanese greetings, instruction on using chopsticks, and tasting soba. Eating soba was a first-time experience for the local students, who also challenged themselves to use chopsticks. Although puzzled at first, they were seen laughing and teaching each other as they experienced this food culture.

Nakayoshi Gakuen emphasizes more than just "delivering things." Its goal is to transform work and learning born in Japanese regions into educational materials in classrooms worldwide. By returning the feedback to Japan, they create a loop where local workers can feel that their daily work supports someone somewhere in the world.

From Encountering Happy Work Matsudo to Realization in Nepal

Nakayoshi Gakuen has visited Happy Work Matsudo multiple times to observe the users working and see how they make soba. While tasting the soba, they shared stories of Nakayoshi Gakuen's global educational support activities, saying, "Your work will one day connect to the learning of children around the world."

Those words became a reality in the classroom in Nepal.

The work accumulated by individuals with disabilities within their local community became a learning material in the field of international cooperation, bringing smiles and learning to children. This attempt does not close the activities of welfare facilities "only within the region" but connects them with the world to create new social value.

From "Being Supported" to "Becoming Supporters" — A Return-Loop Model Introduced by UNESCO

Nakayoshi Gakuen's initiative is featured in UNESCO's "Inclusive Education in Action" under the title "From being supported to becoming supporters: A return-loop inclusive learning model." In this case study, the project is described as a circular educational model in which Japanese students with disabilities create educational materials and peace-related works for children in conflict and poverty zones abroad, deliver them, receive feedback from the field, and deepen their own learning.

At the core of this model is the idea of not fixing the roles of "those being supported" and "those supporting." The Inclusive Education in Action case study also notes that the objective is to transform learners with disabilities or children in crisis from simple recipients of aid into active participants who support one another.

The collaboration with Happy Work Matsudo extends this philosophy into the realms of welfare and employment. The work of people at a Japanese vocational support facility (Type B) served as an educational material to deliver Japanese culture to Nepalese children. In other words, the work of people who tend to be seen as "on the receiving end of support" in welfare settings has become a force that supports children around the world.