I wanted to personally thank everyone who participated and supported YouMeWe with KIWL and the KIWL 500 ride on behalf of the team, the 28 homes we are connected to now with about 1,400 children.
I remember in 2017 when I was visiting the Ueno Zoo with my family and outside the giraffe enclosure the phone rang. My friend Lori who worked with Billy. She said the Knights in White Lycra may be reaching out as they are looking for a NPO to sponsor. I remember asking “do they actually wear white lycra?”
And so hung up the phone looking back at the giraffes. An animal you would never believe if someone explained it to you, you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it.
So too is the Knights in White Lycra group. Seeing is believing.
Not just from a few information meetings or even driving a support vehicle but the drive and dedication of the fund raising, the arrangements, the reservations and cancellations. The adjusting and pushing forward when many would have easily given up or thrown in the towel.
It is a true labor of love.
I used to love to enter a train wicket in Japan knowing one could go anywhere in the country. Now I marvel at the reality that you can do the same on a bike with everything you need stuffed in a saddle bag rain or shine, uphill or down.
People often ask why I do this work with the kids.
I am somewhat keenly aware that there may be more sand at the bottom of my life’s hourglass than above. And how important it is to make each moment last.
That’s why we especially appreciate the support for the work we do with YouMeWe. Some kids we have known since they were toddlers and we see many graduate and move on but many stay in touch because we have been the only consistency in their lives as staff rotate and principals retire.
At the beginning of this year we hosted Staff Seminars with TELL. We learned about ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) you can take a test and if you score more than 4 you are considered a survivor. I scored a 6. That tells you a little about why I do this work.
I can walk in a room and tell who has been abused right away. Who was spat in the face by their mother everyday, the cigarette burns on the little hands and arms, the shame, the screams of “Mama! Mama! from the rooftop basketball court of the children’s protection services center wondering why she won’t come.
I often remind everyone that we do not ask to be born but when we are, despite our circumstances, we deserve everything that life has to offer.
The joy of giving is that we are not giving but sharing and the "sharer" is just as enriched as the "recipient". If during everyday life, these kids are trying to find their way and getting on with it, imagine during COVID...yet we stayed in touch where possible online or face to face when possible. Talking to aged out youth, it was never the gifts but the time that adults spent with them and reminded them that their lives mattered.
We care about people in the good times and share in the bad times. As we are herd animals.
The baby crying makes us look up even if they belong to a stranger. That is us.
So as computers arrive and we set up Macbooks and Thinkpads and ship them out, the kids are being offered coding, language lessons, and SMART goal training to reach towards the life they want and not the beginning they received.
We had connections with 5 homes in Tohoku and 5 in Tokyo when we started on this journey and now stretch to Saitama, Chiba, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagasaki. Soon to start in Hiroshima. Many of the aged out kids work with us to teach online or run the NPO while going to school or looking for more permanent jobs.
We have started a recruitment service for the aged out kids and will start reaching out more to companies looking for staff and connect with those 1,600 kids turning 18 every year.
We have the Empower Village where they can join online or in person and find out what services or connections are available to them. We will be starting TikTok/YouTube videos by our team targeted at all the things they have learned and want other kids to be aware of as they grow into themselves.
Thank you again for every pedal, every hill come rain or shine and for reminding the kids that they are the hidden assets of Japan.
Regards,
Michael Clemons
Founder
