Akemi and Kazu

 Akemi and Kazu - Link to podcast

Akemi and Kazu Kobyashi have been supportive members of the Salvos at Streetlevel in Brisbane for over ten years. Akemi ran the occupational Health and Safety program that became a regular community event and even made me look organized.

Back in 2009 a Japanese fellow by the name of Kazu Kobyashi was looking for a way to serve the community and give back.  He was a successful engineer and Akemi his wife was a social worker.  They heard about the opening of a new work the Salvation Army was planning called Streetlevel and decided to come along and attend the opening ceremony on St Pauls Terrace in Fortitude Valley.

It was a fabulous day and the vision of the project captured both their hearts and this began a journey with Kazu and Akemi that continues to this day.  Akemi and Kazu started attending the Thursday night chapel services and loved it.  They were both popular and enthusiastic members of the community and found ways to get involved very quickly.  

Kazu started by joining the Streetlevel advisory board and attended monthly meetings to give support.  Akemi helped with washing the tea towels and doing some cleaning.  She eventually became the occupational Health and safety officer.   I was doing a meticulous job here but she felt the need to give me a bit of a hand anyway.   We started having meetings to address safety on the site and as we had nowhere else to hold these meetings but in the main eating area, community members started to listen in and put their two bits worth in.  Soon there were 15 people attending these monthly meetings and tasks like putting safety tape on stairs, cleaning out bins and drains and even managing carparks were taken on by the community members and saved our paid staff enormous amounts of time and energy. Feedback and the raising of relevant concerns had a very down to earth element as the people using the facility every day were invited to the table.  Akemi flourished and was a focal point of all things practical at Streetlevel for many years.  She told me what to do, and I approved it and funded it and she filled out the forms and got them to the admin people at our headquarters.  I, rightly so, gained a reputation for running one of the safest and most carefully monitored drop in centers in the city.

Akemi and Kazu wanted to become member of the Salvos and were soon enrolled as adherents and eventually Akemi became a Soldier. 

Akemi and Kazu are both in their fifties but have been keen marathon runners for many years.  Not an ounce of fat on either of them.  When I started my running journey I was struggling to do a ten kilometer run without passing out, but I will never forget the time Akemi announced in the chapel service in a loud and confident voice with that she believed that one day I would run a full 42 kilometer marathon. Everyone cheered and clapped.  I just about threw up.

A few years later I did complete a 42 k marathon and one of my inspirations for this was undoubtedly Akemi Kobayashi who always believed in me and was my number one fan.    

Akemi became central to the operations of the Streetlevel mission and was intimately involved in the lives of many of the people we helped.  She loved them and cared about them deeply.  One time a lady came to us for help on a cold night and was obviously very unwell and distressed.  We gave her food and offered her assistance with accommodation and to get her hospital, but she did not want this and decided to spend another night on the street.  We shut the garage door that night knowing she was at risk and feeling powerless to help.

The next day we discovered that she had passed away in the front garden of a local shop.  I will never forget the wails and cries of Akemi as she expressed her grief at this horrible tragedy.  Her cries helped us all to truly experience this loss and determine to find better ways into the future to make sure this never happened again.

A few years ago Akemi and Kazu lived in Bangladesh for a year or so and she found ways to serve there within the Salvation Army as well.  Back in Australia now Akemi is still passionately involved in the Salvos at Streetlevel in Fortitude Valley and is a source of hope and happiness to hundreds of people doing it tough on the streets and in the supported accommodation houses in this area.  She is a valued member of the team and is in my view, the Mother Theresa of Fortitude Valley; completely unassuming and humble and only tiny in stature, but a veritable giant of love and joy to everyone she meets.

Bless ya