Disability
Blog Post: Posted May 24, 2010, 9:31 pm by Roger Burks
Stand up for their rights, too
Topics: Marginalized Groups, Disability
The last time I wrote here, I talked about the stripping of dignity through exploitative photography. Today, I’m going to write about the widespread abuse of a very marginalised group – as crystallized in a repulsive occurrence earlier this month.
You may have read the news: on May 10, a group of four young men — whose ages ranged from 18 to 20 — bullied a 14-year-old boy. They threatened him with beating if he tried to run. He didn't. And so they victimized the boy, tattooing him with vile imagery and words.
The boy that suffered this indignity — and, doubtless, dozens of other humiliations over his short life so far — is learning disabled. He was targeted for that reason. Unfortunately this kind of abuse happens every day — and, perhaps unknowingly, many of us help perpetuate the mindset that allows it to happen so often.
I acknowledge that I am more vigilant and sensitive — perhaps overly so — to this that almost anyone I know. I’ve walked out of movies when I’ve heard the word “retard” or something similar spoken in dialogue. I’ve lost friends when I’ve confronted and asked them to stop using derogatory language when talking about mentally challenged classmates. I’ve even gotten into fights over this kind of thing.
I think that casually tossing around words like “retard” or scripting entertainment that treats developmentally disabled people as punch-lines is nothing short of abuse. It violates human rights. It further isolates and dehumanizes an already-marginalised population. It reduces people to stereotypes and gives more opportunity to bullies.
I wonder why, for the most part, our society is so nonchalant about making fun of those who are mentally challenged. Is it because so many of them can’t speak for themselves or stand up for their rights?
The thing is, most of us are very concerned for the rights of certain marginalised ethnic or social groups. Honestly, one of the reasons I got into this kind of work was to — figuratively — get between bullies and their intended victims. We rightfully pour our time and resources into supporting the causes of the world’s most vulnerable people. So why do many of us laugh at jokes about one of the most vulnerable groups around — those with developmental disabilities?
I think we can all agree that everyone should have the right to dignity. That we shouldn’t consciously do anything that strips away that dignity. And so, if you haven't already, I’m going to ask you to do two things that might be harder than you think:
- The next time you hear someone say the word “retard,” or refer to something as "retarded," or otherwise use those words in a derogatory way, call him or her on it. Words matter.
- If you’re thinking about seeing a movie or watching a television show that explicitly makes a joke out of someone who’s mentally challenged, make another choice. Don’t support that kind of exploitation.
Change can begin with the words we choose. The choices we make. Small but significant stands that add up to shared action.
You might have guessed that I have a deep personal commitment to this issue: I do. My brother, Danny, is developmentally disabled. And I read this disturbing news story on Saturday — Danny’s 35th birthday.
We all care about human rights and dignity. Together, we do a lot to advance the causes of the vulnerable. So let’s change our minds, then change our words and see what can happen.
If you agree with me, please think about putting this sentence on your Facebook or Twitter: "Words matter. I’m standing up for the developmentally disabled, and against jokes and stereotypes. Stand with me: http://bit.ly/cxerFQ"
Thank you for reading.
Blog Post: Posted May 5, 2010, 4:05 am by Dan Sadowsky
Video: Reintegrating land mine survivors
Country: Colombia
Mercy Corps outfitted a rehabilitation centre in southern Colombia with the latest technology as part of a holistic programme to reintegrate land mine survivors back into their communities.
Blog Post: Posted April 22, 2010, 4:30 pm by Ruth Allen
“Don’t give us aid, give us a chance!”
Country: Mongolia
Congratulations to the Mercy Corps Mongolia team for winning the 2010 Disability inclusion Award given by InterAction!
Their work is living proof of how major strides for disability inclusion can happen rapidly with focused interventions and strong public-private-civil society partnerships. People With Disabilities (PWDs) are among the most marginalised groups in the rural areas of Mongolia where Mercy Corps’ programmes are implemented. In only 15 months since our programming with PWDs began in Mongolia, the team has had nationwide impact through major policy change and fostering a culture of inclusion.
Mandal Urtnasan (Civil Society Director) and Oidov Vaanchig (FIELD Project Officer) hold the approved “National Standards for Accessible Construction and Walkways,” which Mercy Corps helped a task force write for the government of Mongolia. Photo: Mercy Corps Mongolia
As an initial step, Mercy Corps established a diverse multi-agency task force of leading Mongolian organisations and government and private sector representatives to deliver advocacy campaigns designed to improve the accessibility of public buildings and walkways for PWDs. Insufficient access to basic infrastructure prevents PWDs accessing basic public services such as education, health and social welfare, as well as limiting their ability to seek and find employment.
By consequence, most PWDs in Mongolia are housebound and isolated from community life. The task force also studied the legal environment and worked with engineers to design accessibility guidelines that were then presented to the Mongolian government.
In February 2010, the "National Standards for Accessible Construction and Walkways" became enforceable under Mongolian law. Although approval of the standards will alone not automatically result in greater access for PWDs, they do create the needed legal foundation and provide specific engineering regulations for all current and future buildings in the entire country.
This policy victory has also motivated disabled people’s organisations to strive for the full achievement of accessibility for PWDs in all aspects of life. As a result of the Mercy Corps campaign, 23 accessibility ramps have already been built by government and private sector agencies at their own cost and several agencies have also modified their facilities to accommodate the needs of PWDs (including Mercy Corps ourselves!).
The Mercy Corps Mongolia team has shown that successful public education, advocacy campaigns, collaboration with policy-makers and other activities supporting PWDs can be designed and delivered by and for local people without significant external resources.
Approval and implementation of the new National Standards is only a first step in ending the exclusion of PWDs from social, economic and political life in Mongolia. Real change will only be complete when PWDs are accepted as equals with all people in all spheres of life. As one programme participant said, “do not give us aid, give us a chance.” Mercy Corps is committed to continuing its work with all people in Mongolia to help realize that dream.
Again, congratulations to Country Director Dominic Graham, Civil Society Director Mandal Urtnasan, programme team members Nasandelger Zandan, Oidov Vaanchig, Erdenesuvd Nyam, Dashzeveg Enkhtaivan, Chimeg Chuluun, Odkhuu Sanjaa, Saruul Orsoo and all partner organisations that made these efforts possible.
Blog Post: Posted December 5, 2009, 2:10 pm by Tiana Tozer
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities crippled without action and commitment
This July, President Obama signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRDP). The news came to me during a particularly tough time in Basrah, Iraq. We were receiving frequent incoming fire and my colleagues and I had spent far too much time hunkered down in a bunker, sweating in body armor in 130-degree heat.
I have been Mercy Corps’ coordinator for disability rights in Iraq for more than two years, and the ''signing'' made me wonder: How will this help me or the many Iraqis with disabilities I’m trying to serve? I have seen similar declarations and clauses hundreds of times. USAID has a clause about the inclusion of people with disabilities, the World Bank does and the UN talks ad nauseum about it. But what is the actual impact?
So far, not much. According to the UN, the convention marks a “paradigm shift” — but just because you put in down on paper doesn’t mean that attitudes have change. A paradigm shift takes action. The Convention is intended to secure rights for all people with disabilities, but no signatory country is complying with it, so what is the enforcement mechanism? There is none, which makes it a grand but empty gesture.
If we really want to address the disability issue, we need to do three things. First, we must acknowledge the scale of the problem and the fact that we are not effectively addressing it. People with disabilities (PWDs) make up 10 percent of the world’s population, 650 million people, and every day that number increases. The World Bank estimates that 20 percent of the world’s poor have a disability.
Yet when the Millennium Development Goals — the international community’s agreed-upon targets for combating scourges like poverty and hunger — came out in 2000, there was no mention of disability. Sluggish or nonexistent funding flows have followed suit. This has to change; ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away.
Second, aid workers must transform how we address the needs of PWDs. The international community too often “helps” people with disabilities through what are called “supply projects,” massive giveaways of items like crutches and wheelchairs. The problem is that a wheelchair, particularly the commonly supplied 28-pound hospital chairs designed for patient transfer, does nothing but provide a place to sit.
In order for mobility equipment to be effective, it has to be supplied on a demand basis, with the needs of a specific user in mind. The current supply model would be analogous to my collecting 435 pairs of shoes from Iraq and sending them to the House of Representatives with no information about size or width. The Representatives would then need to sort through the shoes to see what fits whom, and then try to make do with whatever was sent. We would never do that. So why do it for people with disabilities?
Finally, we need to effect an attitude adjustment by teaching people with disabilities to be activists and role models. Years ago, as an intern for Congressman Richard Stallings of Idaho, I lobbied for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 1990, when the ADA was signed, the unemployment rate for PWDs was around 70 percent. Today, it is still 70 percent, and some studies even claim an increase in unemployment since the ADA.
What can we learn from this? Real change for people with disabilities is not about getting a ramp or a wheelchair; America is physically accessible. The main barrier for PWDs is the attitudes that the able-bodied population has about them. PWDs are often viewed through the lens of our limitations rather than our capabilities; this situation is even more marked in developing countries.
People with disabilities must be empowered to demand their rights and smash these preconceptions. Advocacy work to create this change is currently being implemented in Russia by Perspecktiva and was being implemented in Iraq by Mercy Corps in 2007-08 until funding unfortunately ran out.
The columnist Charles Krauthammer said, “Celebrating the paralytic's ‘courage’ is the psychological equivalent of calling an accomplished black person ‘a credit to his race’ — it is a patronizing act of distancing wrapped in the appearance of adulation.”
The UNCRDP is a patronizing act of distancing wrapped in the appearance of “rights.” For me and the millions of other people with disabilities around the world it changes nothing. It’s just a piece of paper that world leaders feel good about signing.
Thank you, world leaders, for defining my rights, but I won’t be impressed until you provide the funds to help me realize them. As a start, you can support smart, strategic programmes that help PWDs take charge of their lives, not just squeeze into an ill-fitting wheelchair. Contact me if you need ideas — I’ll give you a programme for PWDs that is inexpensive, effective and empowering.
Blog Post: Posted September 17, 2009, 4:36 pm by Gretchen Ansorge
Jordan's Queen visits Mercy Corps disability-rights project
Country: Jordan
Jordan's Queen Rania recently visited a school where we're helping mainstream children with disabilities.
Her Majesty's visit, which was featured in the Jordan Times, was intended to highlight "the importance of integrating children with special learning needs."
In Balama, the Queen visited a kindergarten classroom where the Mercy Corps Programme "Towards Integration for Disabled Children and Youth" successfully integrated five physically disabled students within a regular classroom.
To date, the structural modifications carried out on local kindergarten schools in different governorates have benefited more than 160 students, enabling at least 40 disabled children to learn and interact with their peers in a challenging integrated setting.
Read the whole article here.
Posted September 15, 2009
Shipping Clothing to Colombia's Landmine Victims
Country: Colombia
Topics: Conflict & War, Disability
Landmines don't choose their victims. Most people who set one off escape with their lives, but suffer permanently disabling injuries. And in Colombia's impoverished countryside — home to one of the highest concentrations of landmines in the world — survivors have few places to turn for help.
Mercy Corps is helping 600 landmine survivors in Colombia rehabilitate and reintegrate into their communities.
As part of our effort, we recently sent donated shoes and sweaters to 240 survivors in Nariño, where Mercy Corps opened a rehabilitation centre equipped with latest technology for physiotherapy, rehabilitation and neurology. The centre, in a remote area near the Ecuadorean border, serves hundreds of people injured by landmines and armed conflict, as well as other people with disabilities.
Our programme provides first-class physical rehabilitation, counselling and economic support. We train local mine action committees in first aid, support local manufacturers of prostheses, and lobby for early warning systems and other ways to reduce mine accidents.
Donated clothing is a small but important part of the project.
You can help lift the hopes of people in need. Help us do more with a donation to our shipping appeal. Your $1 sends £42 worth of medicines, books, clothing and other critical supplies to families in crisis.
Blog Post: Posted August 20, 2009, 5:15 pm by Gretchen Ansorge
Empowering Iraqis with disabilities
Country: Iraq
Topics: Disability
Photo: Mercy Corps
Here, Moaffak Alkhafaji speaks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki at the second national conference of the Iraqi Alliance for Disability Organisations, or IADO. Alkhafaji is the head of the alliance, which Mercy Corps helped create.
The conference — heavily attended by government ministers, representatives, imams and national and international media — took place last week in Baghdad's Almansoor Hotel. Mercy Corps' regional programme director for the Middle East, David Holdridge, also spoke.
Yesterday, Alkhafaji wrote in an email to Holdridge:
On behalf of the IADO board and members, we thank you for all of your kind support to let us get more active to seek our legal rights. Really, your support let us attract Iraqi decision-makers and government to our rights and needs, and let Iraq's disabled reintegrate fully into the community. Thank you.
As the first nationwide alliance of Disabled People's Organisations in Iraq, IADO has gotten off to an impressive start, representing and pursuing the interests of persons with disabilities throughout the country. Mercy Corps continues to offer guidance and support to the alliance, as needed, so that they can continue in their activities most effectively.
Posted April 10, 2009
Life, Interrupted
Country: Central African Republic
Photo: Eric Vaughan for Mercy Corps
Luc Mbarte was awoken by shouting outside his house on the night of May 2, 2007. Seven armed bandits had entered his village, Bokoyan, under the cover of night.
Bokayan, in the largely lawless northwest region of Central African Republic, was a particular target for well-organised gangs taking advantage of the choas caused by years of rebellion and civil unrest. Groups of bandits worked with local informants to target families that could afford to pay large ransoms for kidnapped loved ones. Luc was certain that his name was on the list because he owned cattle, a farm and a small blacksmithing business.
Aware of the dangers facing them, Luc and his family desperately fled into a wooded area nearby to seek the cover of darkness until the bandits left town. These armed men had been here three months earlier and, luckily, he and his family had escaped just in time.
But this this time, Luc was not so lucky. His family was able to find cover in the bush, but he was captured by the bandits. The armed men were very upset that he had fled during their first robbery attempt — and more upset by the fact that the rest of his family had gotten away that night and could not be ransomed.
They shot Luc at close range. He dropped to the ground and feigned death while they looted his house and took a number of his cattle. When he believed they had left, he dragged himself up and sought help. Luc's injuries were severe: a bullet had entered into his side, torn through his rib cage and exited through his stomach doing serious internal damage.
His friends pushed him 20 km along a dirt road in a cart before finding a motorcycle to take him the remaining 20 km to the closest hospital in the city Bouar. His family made their way from the village to rejoin him the next night, their only belongings the clothes on their backs.
Luc stayed in the hospital for two and a half months. He required three blood transfusions and a very difficult surgery. In order to pay the large medical bills he used what little money he had left but quickly depended on local friends and family in Bouar to help. In his absence, his home was looted and his remaining animals taken leaving his family with nothing. The debilitating injuries have left Luc unable to work — today his family struggles to keep food on the table, everyone in good health and the children in school.
Mercy Corps is assisting Mbarte family and more than 400 other vulnerable families in this troubled area of Central African Republic through a cash-for-work project supported by the of the Gates Foundation-funded Global Food Crisis Response Programme. Nearly a quarter of participating families have fled violence and banditry in their villages, arriving in Bouar with no food, shelter or livelihood.
Mercy Corps is providing participating families with monetary assistance during the difficult dry season in exchange for providing day labour for local construction projects — building and repairing public infrastructure like bridges, paths and roads. Luc’s oldest son Hibert is helping rehabilitate local roads. The Mbartes are using the money Hibert earns each day to eat properly, as well as keep several children in school.
Though this programme helps the short term needs of families the Mbartes, many challenges remain. Luc's family cannot return to their home in Bokayan because of continuing insecurity and Luc’s ongoing medical needs. Luc is educated, committed and has experience to run a successful business, but needs capital to start again from scratch. His story is repeated in hundreds of families around this part of Central African Republic.
Mercy Corps will continue to work with families like the Mbartes — with generous support from the Gates Foundation — to develop lasting solutions to these problems, as well as encouraging peace in one of the world's most dangerous places.
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