Yotsuba Market- Manufacturing and Sales in the Area of Child-Raising

(Oita Godo Newspaper, March 7^th 2010, evening paper)

"Yotsuba Market" is a community for parents who are raising physically-challenged children who made handicrafts and accessories in the free time while raising their children sold their products at Yotsuba Market on March 13rd and 14^th from 9.30am. It is the first time for them to have the market in a parking area. It would be cancelled due to rain.

Executive Committee Leader, Fujita Takako (37) = Oita City Ueno Minami= enrolled her eldest daughter to Hibari En, a facility for mentally-handicapped children in Beppu Development Medical Centre. Together with fellow parents whom she met in the kindergarten, she made handicrafts and put together with the others' products. They planned to open a market together.

About 100 items including bags made from scrapped cloths, preserved flowers, decorations, hand-made soaps, and silver crafts were sold at the market.

They also found the place to open the market from an acquaintance. Fujita, the leader, said, "There are some high-quality goods among the products that we made. I really want to open this market for the parents who have children".

Comments:

It was really nice to hear that housewives in Oita Prefecture are proactive to find ways to spend time productively, while they are fulfilling their responsibilities to take care of their children. If this activity is sustainable, it might result in economic growth in Oita Prefecture.

NUGROHO Katarina Marsha Utama

Indonesia

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM3