AFGHAN AMPUTEES TO GET TILING PLANT

The Yomiuri Shimbun, February 27, 2005

A humanitarian organization is setting up a factory in Kabul to provide
employment for amputees who lost their legs during the years of war in
Afghanistan or to land mines.

A delegation from the nonprofit organization, Ecoplate and Dustproof Mask
Association, left for Afghanistan on Feb. 19 to finalize arrangements with
Afghan government officials. The delegation is being led by Takaaki
Hashida, the NPO's deputy director.

The NPO, based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, helps intellectually
handicapped people in Japan to provide for themselves through incomes
earned from the production of flooring tiles and dust masks.

In Kabul, in addition to producing the tiles, the factory will manufacture
prosthetic limbs. Proceeds from sales will be used for wages and operation
costs.

Ecoplates, a Japanese-derived word combining ecology and plates (tiles),
are made from scrap marble and bricks collected from construction sites.
The materials are crushed and put into a mold, which is filled with
cement, producing 30-centimeter-square mosaic tiles.

About 50 people at eight facilities and schools for the handicapped
produce ecoplates in Japan. The tiles are used to decorate public squares
and pathways.

In a previous visit to Afghanistan in January, a delegation from the NPO
met Martyrs and Disabled Minister Sediqa Balkhi, and briefed him on the
merits of ecoplates.

Shortly after the meeting, a trial project was set up with five disabled
workers making ecoplates at a government workshop.

"Afghanistan is rich in marble," Hashida said. "We can pick up bits and
pieces of scrap marble and transform them into marvelous decorative tiles."