Museveni meets Ashinaga Movement founder

President Yoweri Museveni has commended the Ashinaga Movement founder and one of the leading philanthropists in Japan, Yoshiomi Tamai, for his charitable work in Japan and the world and for realising the dreams of hundreds of orphans through education.

The President was meeting Tamai who was accompanied by the Ashinaga Movement Africa director Yukidi Owazaki, and three Ugandan students Geoffrey Kayiira, Vialey Lutaaya and Emmanuel Marvin Maseruka who are beneficiaries of the movement and now work voluntarily with the organisation.

Maseruka is also one of the winners of this year's innovation award by the Africa-Japan Youth Alliance for SDGs Ideas for Global Change.

Museveni and his guest talked about the movement's work in Japan and Uganda. The President thanked them for the annual scholarships to Ugandans and urged them to provide more skills-based scholarships that will enable the students to get jobs when they return home.

Tamai was born in Osaka in 1935. Following the loss of his mother in a traffic accident in 1964, he began investigating the state of traffic accidents in Japan.

He became a critic, attacking the inadequacies of the healthcare and legal systems. In 1969 he founded the Association for Traffic Accident Orphans. From 1998 he took on the role of President at Ashinaga, which he continues to this day.

He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Asahi Social Welfare Award (1989, 2003), the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Medal (1995), the Global Award for Fundraising (2012), the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal (2015), and Eiji Yoshikawa Bunka Award (2016). He has also published numerous works over the years about the Ashinaga movement.

Ashinaga provides students with the financial and emotional support necessary for them to progress academically and realise their life goals.