Happy New Year from Ibasho

Dear Friends, Happy New Year! We in the Ibasho family wish you all the best for a healthy and happy 2013, and look forward to an exciting year ahead! As we look back at 2012, we have much to be grateful for, especially the support and encouragement we have received from supporters like you.  And it has paid off! We started Ibasho in 2010 with just a few people but great passion and a belief that we can make a difference.  And we have already made meaningful progress and captured the attention of communities around the world that are grappling with the universal question of how we can all age with dignity and […]

Role for elders in the world to end child marriage

“It’s not just throwing money at the problem. The idea is to ensure that the standards are respectful of the customs and traditions of the community.” Desmond Tutu One of my favorite organization is The elders, and I just read an article “Desmond Tutu campaigns to end child marriage.” http://www.theelders.org/article/tutu-promotes-campaign-end-child-marriage After reading this article, I cannot stop thinking about the way in which we can tap into the valuable resources that elders in the world can offer to be a part of the solution of this problem. We have enough elders with wisdom and experience who can mentor young individual. Although one can only make a small contribution, the sum […]

Key to successful projects

Many academic literature and articles suggest the importance of “multi-disciplinary collaboration” to create an innovative care/environmental solution for facing our aging society. I do agree upon the approach, however, theorists tend to forget to address the real issues in a real world situation. After working on projects outside of academia, I have learned that “Theories are beautiful things, but real world is not as orderly as theories suggest… ” None of the theories warned me “there are some people who just do not get along.” When dealing with “experts” may add more complexity, because they have such a strong and different worldview. As a result, collaboration effort can easily turned […]

Ibasho starts from me and my friends

My good friend always told me “charity starts from home…” She opens up her house to organize sleep over party for the children with severe physical disabilities, and coordinate other charity functions for the people in need around her neighborhood. I always admire her effort, and feeling a bit guilty about not being able to help my neighbors as much as I could or to simply spend quality time with my family due to my frequent travels to work overseas. I have been staying at home lately, and have more time to reconnect with my friends. Most of my friends are not in the field of aging, but we almost […]

Should I be wealthy?

“Are you from a wealthy family?” I have been asked this question several times in last few months. I honestly did not understand why anyone would ask me this question. Then, I always answered, “No, I am not from wealthy family. My husband and I are not wealthy either.” While I was at a TV interview, I decided to ask the interviewer “why” she posed the question– I assumed that she needed to at least clarify this question for me. She looked a bit surprised and answered, “Because you started a not for profit organization to help older people both in developed and developing countries. Doing something like this may […]

Intervie: Dr. Power and Dr. Kiyota at Rockefeller Bellagio Center

Dr. Power and I spent 4 weeks in the Rockefeller Bellagio Center in Italy in last April, developing a concept that aims to respond “global aging” issue. It was such a wonderful experience. We were surrounded by 12 other very social minded establish scholars and practitioners from various background. We were able to re-visit our thoughts and collaborate together to advance the Ibasho initiative in a breathtakingly beautiful Rockefeller Bellagio Center in Italy. I am sharing our short interview that was prepared by Rockefeller foundation. I look forward to your comments about our ideas!

I lost everything by the Tsunami, but we still have each other

“We should create the place where our grandmothers will not feel being served all the time, otherwise they will not come back to the gatherings. Then, they will stay inside the temporary house without socializing with others…” “We should build the cafe where our elders are the ones to serve tea, rather than being served. They like to do be useful to others ” The Tsunami victims who live in the temporary housing communities, repeatedly, made these comments. Although the contexts are different, it reminded me of the elders in long term care facilities in other parts of the world. I have been pondering about “what does it mean by […]

Driving through disaster area in 11 months

We arrived in Ofunato, and drove through Tsunami affected areas (as you can see in the video clip). As you can see from the video, the devastation caused by the Tsunami was so severe and wide spread, and I could not comprehend what I was looking at from the car window. All the open space in the video was high-density area with multi-story buildings, and 70,000 mature/large pine trees were there at the beach side before the Tsunami. All the pine trees exept for one were vanished instantly… Although the magnitude of this Tsunami was so devastating and many lives were lost, local residents were amazingly resillient and inspiring. They […]

Ibasho cafe at Tsunami disaster area in Japan

I am going to Tsunami disaster area from today, and work on a project: creating an “Ibasho cafe,” partnering with OperationUSA. We will visit disaster area and meet with people who live in temporary housing community, and work together to create an “ibasho”. This cafe is NOT going to be a “senior center” where elders have scheduled visits to socialize with others and receive care, but the place where elders are involved in design, construction, and operation by providing their wisdom, experience, and compassion to the community. We envision this cafe to be a social hub where people of all ages will come and spend their time as they wish. […]

Please join us for Ibasho garden reception!

Please join us for a garden reception and presentation by Emi Kiyota On the Philosophy and Projects of Ibasho Date:May 12, 2011 Reception: 5:00-8:00 pm Presentation: 6:30 pm by Emi Kiyota, Ph.D. Topic: The Philosophy and Projects of Ibasho Location: LeadingAge National Office 2519 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20008-1520 Enter through the offices of LeadingAge, on the corner of Connecticut Ave and Calvert St.. diagonally across from red line metro stop @ Woodley Park-Zoo. Ibasho is an innovative new organization that seeks to create places for elders to live in safety, comfort and dignity, where they are valued as people full of history and experience. The concept is simple: […]

Dear Friends in the Ivory Coast

Many people in Ivory Coast are suffering from the current conflict. One of our friend, an Ivorian catholic priest sent me several images (with his comments). These pictures were taken at a large cathedral in the center of Abidjan. This cathedral was such a beautiful building located in a serene site when I visited last year. People in the city are evacuating to this cathedral and this place is completely overwhelmed. As you can see, even the church is not necessary the safe place for them. They are worried about the gun shots and debris from the bombs. Many friends of mine have reached out to me and express their […]

Is Perfection the answer?

We all know that most older adults would like to live at home — after all, why wouldn’t they? I know I would. As a result, the people who work in long-term care for elders strive to create places that feel like home. But what is a “perfect home”? In long-term care, we try to create a place that is efficient, clean, and safe, with everything we need always accessible. But in our own homes (at least in mine), things are often inefficient and not necessarily clean, and it’s not always easy to find what I want. So why do we still want to live at home, where things are […]