Dear all,
I am an Italian disabled student, I use a power
wheelchair to move around, being affected by an unknown disease similar to
muscular dystrophy.
I am a member of the Italian UILDM- Unione
Italiana Lotta contro la Distrofia Muscolare (Italian Union Against the
Muscular Dystrophy), and I also participate to my town’s mobility group,
dealing with abolishing architectural barriers and several other issues
connected to disabilities.
I had the great chance to meet some of you
personally in Sweden, at the International Conference on Independent Living in
Stockholm, november 2008. I take this opportunity to greet you all: Adolf, Hubert,
Judy, Kalle, Kapka, Marylin, Paul, Susanne. I hope you are all doing well!
As for the others, I suscribed to the
disability mailing list, connected to the Univeristy of Leeds, many years ago.
I have always referred to the list as a useful information source. Hopefully
this time too my call will not stay unheard!
But let’s come now to the very issue of this
email of mine.
An Uzbek friend of mine, who attended with me
an MA in International Development, is now working for UNDP Uzbekistan, and
namely on a project for disabled people. The project is called ACCESS:
promoting Accessibility, Civic Consciousness, Employment, and Social Support
for people with disabilities.
The main goal of the project is to widen social
integration and employment opportunities for people with disabilities through:
a) increasing public awareness and creation of
positive images of disability;
b) improving coordination and strengthening the
capacity of state and non-state agencies in the implementation of national
legislation in the field of disability,
c) promoting accessible physical environment
and
d) creating a system of social support in the
employment of people with disabilities.
It is a joint project between UNPD and the
Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Uzbekistan. The project helps the
government of Uzbekistan to make commitments towards improving the well- being
of people with disabilities and is also meant to lobby for the ratification of the
UN Convention on Disability Rights by the government of Uzbekistan. UNDP
partners are the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the
Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Education, the Republican Center for
social adaptation of the children, the General Prosecutors, the Ministry of
Justice, the State Committee for architecture and construction, mayors'
offices, the Coalition "Accessibility", and many other NGOs and other UN agencies.
In order to start the project, UNDP Uzbekistan
plans to send some key government implementors of disability policies to other
countries, in a sort of ‘Study Tour’
meant to give Uzbek people knowledge about disability issues, policies, law as
implemented elsewhere.
So my friend’s request was if I knew anyone,
any institution who could host the people from Uzbekistan and organize some
training for them. All the expenses would be covered by UNDP Uzbek and the
Uzbek government. It would be just a matter of ‘knowledge spreading’, so to
say, helping Uzbekistan to make an important step towards the empowerment of
people with disabilities and towards the implementation of best practices in
terms of pro-disabled policies.
My guess was that maybe the following institutions
could help:
- ILI or STIL in Stockholm certainly have a
great experience as for independent living, though this is maybe a further step
when other basic issues (such as accessibility to the physical environment,
special education needs, rights...) need to be tackled. However, I figured you
were certainly a great person to be contacted, Mr Radtzka, and you too, Mrs
Berg!
- The Leeds Disability Studies Centre
- the US DREDF, did I spell it right, Marylin??
- the Washington DDS, what do you think Judy?- maybe Kalle through the GPDD??
Anyway, I do hope you can help!!
Thanks for reading so far
Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Best wishes,
Maddalena Botta
Mobile +39-333-6027117
Home phone: +39-030-2521849
Passa a Yahoo! Mail.
La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato,
antispam e messenger integrato.
http://it.mail.yahoo.com/
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