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Monday, January 24, 2011
Paraplegic man's 5,000-mile trip home from Dhaka
Wheelchair user Peter Donnelly, 24, will use buses, trains and ferries to travel 5,000 miles back to St Helens.
Peter Donnelly thought his life was over when he broke his back aged 19A paraplegic man from Merseyside, who has been volunteering in Bangladesh, is travelling home overland to raise funds for charity.
He is raising money for the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) on Dhaka's outskirts where he has volunteered for the past four months.
Mr Donnelly broke his back at the age of 19, in a motorcycle accident.
The CRP treats people with disabilities and assists them in their rehabilitation.
'Amazing job'Mr Donnelly is aiming to travel across 14 countries including Nepal, China, Russia, Germany and France before reaching the UK.
He began his journey on Sunday night by catching a bus to Siliguri in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Mr Donnelly is aware that the journey will be difficult, as many of the countries he will travel through do not have enough facilities for people with disabilities.
He said: "The first reason I'm doing this is that I am raising money for the CRP, which does an amazing job in one of the poorest countries in the world.
"Secondly, I'm doing it to raise awareness of what can be achieved when using a wheelchair and how everything in your path might not be perfect but it is still possible.
"When people with a disability are seen more in public then others will understand their difficulties and adjust to them."
'Changed my mind'Mr Donnelly was studying for a business and management degree at St Helens College, when he became paralysed.
He said: "Soon after the accident, I thought my life was over. I was not sure what this new life could offer me.
"I had stereotypes in my head about people in wheelchairs.
"Somewhere along the way I changed my mind. I don't let this stop me from doing anything and I actively go out looking for new challenges like sky-diving, scuba-diving, bungee-jumping and triathlons - I've done them all."
During the journey he aims to speak to wheelchair users in different countries about his experiences.
Source: BBC News
Monday, January 17, 2011
WB Development Marketplace - Small Grants for India - Inclusive Business
| WB Development Marketplace |
From: Maria Veronica Reina mreina@worldbank.org
WB Development Marketplace
http://wbi.worldbank.org/
2011 Country DM - India: Supporting Inclusive Business Models to Scale
The Competition is in Opened status.
Competition No: India DM2011
Award Pool: $650,000 USD
Competition Type: Country Specific
Competition Status: Opened
Country: India
Region: South Asia
Email: dm-india-support@ifc.org
Sectors: Financial and Private Sector Development, Small & Medium Enterprise Development
Themes: Supporting Inclusive Business Models to Scale
Website(s): www.dm-india.com
http://wbi.worldbank.org/
2011 Country DM - India: Supporting Inclusive Business Models to Scale
The Competition is in Opened status.
Competition No: India DM2011
Award Pool: $650,000 USD
Competition Type: Country Specific
Competition Status: Opened
Country: India
Region: South Asia
Email: dm-india-support@ifc.org
Sectors: Financial and Private Sector Development, Small & Medium Enterprise Development
Themes: Supporting Inclusive Business Models to Scale
Website(s): www.dm-india.com
Apply Now! http://www.dm-india.com/apply-
Jointly organized by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the Development Marketplace Program, this competition is focused on identifying Inclusive Business Models that can scale impact in the States of Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa. Inclusive business models are those offering goods/ services and contributing to income generation of the poor in financially sustainable and scalable ways. They productively integrate those living at the base of the economic pyramid into their value chains as consumers, producers and/or distributors. Examples of functional areas where these models play a key role in fostering the development agenda include, but are not restricted to, health, water, sanitation, energy, education, financial services, agriculture, vocational training and livelihood support.
The India DM will award 13 winners, selected by a jury of experts, in April 2011. Each winning project will receive USD 50,000 in two installments over 24 months. IFC Advisory Services will monitor the grant implementation over the 24-month period. Organizations may be considered for second stage financing as well.
• Partners http://wbi.worldbank.org/
• Jurors http://wbi.worldbank.org/
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) http://wbi.worldbank.org/
The India DM will award 13 winners, selected by a jury of experts, in April 2011. Each winning project will receive USD 50,000 in two installments over 24 months. IFC Advisory Services will monitor the grant implementation over the 24-month period. Organizations may be considered for second stage financing as well.
• Partners http://wbi.worldbank.org/
• Jurors http://wbi.worldbank.org/
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) http://wbi.worldbank.org/
Book: ONE LITTLE FINGER
ONE LITTLE FINGER: Malini Chib; Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044. Rs. 350.
Cerebral Palsy is a neurological condition that makes body movement and speech extremely difficult. Once this is understood, it will be easy to appreciate what a stupendous task it would have been for Malini Chib to have come this far. And also, how important it is that she recounts her arduous journey, which she has been pursuing with the aid of just that one little finger.
One Little Finger is the autobiography of Malini Chib, a baby who survived despite the doctor's conviction that she would not. A traumatic birth process, however, left her with cerebral palsy. In an indifferent society, which then had very little tools for people like her, Malini fought hard to live a meaningful, independent life.
In the book, she records her experiences from childhood to adulthood, her struggles with day-to-day activities, and the slow, but steady, success she achieved in managing them. In her battles against a world that was sensitive, she had help and support from friends, the family, and well-meaning colleagues. At no point could it have been easy, though the book sometimes makes the most challenging of situations sound simple. Malini's undying optimism and cheer at times camouflages the complexities and the formidable obstacles she encountered.
Here is a book from one whose growth into adulthood broadly coincides with the advance in medical and rehabilitation intelligence on cerebral palsy. She found herself in extremely hostile situations and got out of every one of them, and in that there is a lesson for others, able or differently-abled.
There is a frank openness in a Bildungsroman that endears any reader to the central character — Malini has caught that pat on. “I have had a hard time accepting that I am trapped in a rejected body. A body that is not sexually attractive…Like most women, sometimes I craved to be in the arms of a man. Most men look at me as asexual,” she confides honestly.
She confides in the reader every little secret, every emotion, success, frustration, and humiliation. She holds international degrees in Women's Studies, and Library Sciences and Information Management and has a job as an event manager. Malini also founded Able Disabled All People Together (ADAPT) Rights Group. In a very unique way, Malini has also been the cause for some significant sweeping changes that have taken place in the disability sector in the country. Mithu Alur, Malini's mother, to whom the book is dedicated, founded the Spastics Society of India — an organisation that heralded wholistic education and rehabilitation services for persons with physical and neurological difficulties.
Malini's enthusiasm and joie de vivre is mighty infectious, and that makes One Little Finger the book for a dark day. Its child-like fist pumping will pick you up and convince you that triumph is just one little finger away.
Urgent need to assess impact of films on awareness on disability
| Urgent need to assess impact of films: Govind Nihalani | |
| Indiantelevision.com Team (17 January 2011 9:00 pm) | |
MUMBAI: Renowned filmmaker Govind Nihalani today said there was urgent need to assess the impact of films and other initiatives taken for creating a greater awareness among the general public about the problems of the disabled. Inaugurating the 8th edition of the first of its kind travelling educational film festival, the We Care Filmfest 2011 on Disability Issues in Mumbai, he expressed the hope that the Tata Institute for Social Sciences which had a disability centre would help in this regard. He said it would be interesting to know if the festival, which had been held since 2003, had in fact made any impact on the institutions where it was held or on the people who had come and seen the films. He said that the We Care FilmFest was the only festival in the world which was travelling to educational institutions including mass communications institutes and disability institutions. Speaking at the function held at the YB Chavan Centre here, United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan National Information Officer Rajiv Chandran made a call for corporates and others to come forward to support the venture financially if it had to grow, since it was presently been run solely by Brotherhood, the non-governmental organisation which had launched it. He said the UNIC had decided to recognise the Festival since it lived up to the aspirations of the Convention passed by the United Nations in May 2008 on the rights of the Disabled. Renowned ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar said that parents did not often recognise a disability - especially if it was mental - early enough to take action to check it. He said that he had cone across many cases where a child was prevented from doing what he wanted just because the parents did not realise his aspirations. He hoped the Festival would correct such misunderstanding and bring about greater awarness. Festival founder Director Satish Kapoor said he had started the Festival in a very small manner but the response had encouraged him to take it all over the country. He said this year the Festival may travel to all the SAARC countries under the auspices of UNESCO, and had also been invited to Turkey. The Festival had received films from all over the world. This year a total number of 67 documentary films in four categories - up to one minute, up to five minutes, up to 30 minutes, and up to 75 minutes - from India and from various other countries like the USA, Canada, Israel, the UK, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Nepal etc. are being exhibited. Senior Consultant (Media) B B Nagpal said this was not a festival, but a mission through cinema to create greater awareness. He said an impaired person may be disabled, but the society as a whole was often handicapped because it failed to understand that the disabled did not want pity, but equal opportunity. He hailed the move by Bombay High Court Chief Justice Mohit Desai in holding a meeting with NGOs and government officers in Mumbai last week and recommending that disability should form part of the MBBS Course. Sandeep Marwah of the Asian Academy of Film and Television said he had supported the venture from its very first year because of the importance it gave to creating awareness and for reflecting only disabled achievers in the films shown. Rao Saheb Shekhawat, MLA Amravati; and director and story-teller Amole Gupte were also present among others. The Filmfest was launched in the presence of various local partners - both government and non-governmental - of Mumbai including the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, (AYJNIHH), the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the SNDT Women's College,the ADAPT, the Helen Kellar Institute for Deaf & Deaf-blind and Trinayani- working on Disability Awareness and Support. Cinema Lovers is online partner and promoting the film festival through web. Other partners are Apang Jeevan Vikas Sansthan, Amarvati, Chetna Apangmati Vikas Sansthan, Kolhpur and Svyam, Thane. The We Care Filmfest on Disability Issues was launched by Delhi-based non-governmental organisation Brotherhood in 2003 and has become a brand when it comes to film festivals on disability, both nationally and internationally. The Festival is unique in nature, as it is a travelling film festival which will travel to 25 venues across India after the Mumbai launch. Its founder partners are the United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan (UNIC), UNESCO, the National Trust which functions under the Social Empowerment Ministry, and the Asian Academy of Film and Television (AAFT). A Preview Committee meeting held at Marawah Studios, Noida and at the AYJ National Institute of Hearing Handicapped, Mumbai, selected 28 documentary films for the 8th edition of the We Care Filmfest. |
EU promises 'Accessibility Act' in 2012
European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding told MEPs last week that she will present a proposal for a 'European Accessibility Act' before the end of 2012. This new legislation is seen by the Commission as a key element of the European Disability Strategy, which was unveiled last year.
BACKGROUND
According to official statistics, 80 million people in the European Union (or one out of every six citizens) are affected by some kind of disability.
The EU Directive on 'equal treatment in employment and occupation' (2000/78/EC) entered into force on 2 December 2000, and makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against people with disabilities.
In July 2008, the European Commission published a proposal for a directive that would extend legal protection against discrimination in fields other than employment. However, the proposal was not accepted by all member states.
In November 2010, the Commission presented a European Disability Strategy, which outlines the initiatives it will take during the current decade (up to 2020).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was agreed in 2007 and has been signed by all of the 27 EU member states. The UN Convention was recently (on 23 December 2010) ratified by the European Union.
The EU executive is getting ready to launch a major study that will identify and analyse the barriers which prevent people with disabilities from making full use of public buildings, transport and all kinds of services.
The results of this study will provide the basis for developing new EU legislation on accessibility standards.
Vice-President Reding spoke about the overall goals and scope of the 'European Accessibility Act' when she addressed a special meeting of the Disability Intergroup in the European Parliament, which took place in Brussels last week (13 January). The meeting was attended by MEPs and by organisations representing people with disabilities.
"I will work hard to get all the actors on board to make sure that products and services, public buildings and spaces become more accessible to all our citizens, and to this end we will launch a study to identify the issues at stake," promised Reding.
"Based on this study I will propose an accessibility act in 2012. I know that I can count on the European Parliament to support this crucial issue," she said.
Challenges and opportunities
Currently there are some 80 million people with various kinds of disabilities in the European Union, but this number is expected to increase in the coming years, mainly as a result of the growing proportion of older citizens in the population.
Reding is determined that the EU should try to be a world leader in developing products and services that are accessible to people with disabilities. "Europe should become an exporter of those goods and services," she said.
The vice-president believes this is important not just for ensuring fundamental rights and equal opportunities, but also as a way of creating jobs and growth by taking advantage of growing market opportunities.
To make the most of these opportunities, the Commission will develop common standards for ICT (information and communication technologies), the built environment and product design.
Reding hopes that it will be possible to agree on common standards not only at European level, but also in cooperation with other major players in the global economy.
"We should work with our partners on other continents in order to get global standards being put in place," said Reding. "We have already started to do so with the United States, and with other partners at international level, and in the end we hope that will bring coherence into our standards."
The Commission vice-president cited progress made in the USA under the provisions of the 'Americans with Disabilities Act', which has been in force since 1990. "I think we should learn from this positive experience and go ahead in Europe too," she said.
New legal framework
Reding noted that the Lisbon Treaty provides a legal basis for main-streaming disability issues into other policies, and also gives a legal status to the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. In this new framework, the Commission is obliged to make sure that the needs of people with disabilities are taken into account during the development and implementation of all EU policies and legislation.
Another important development is that the European Union has recently concluded the process of ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is the first comprehensive human rights treaty to be ratified by the EU as a whole.
"The Convention will formally enter into force for the EU in a few days, on 22 January," confirmed the Commission vice-president.
Reding explained that the Commission will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention at the level of the European Union, in cooperation with the other EU institutions and also with the member states.
All the EU's 27 member states have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and most of them (16) have already ratified it.
POSITIONS
The European Disability Forum (EDF), which brings together more than 50 national and European organisations representing people with disabilities, expressed satisfaction with recent developments. Yannis Vardakastanis, president of the EDF, said that "the UN Convention and the European Disability Strategy together present a unique opportunity".
"The rights that are enshrined in the Convention need to be delivered," said the EDF president, although this will be a "difficult challenge" for the EU institutions. "It goes without saying that the disability movement, from the grassroots level to the European level, is very much interested and determined to take part in the implementation process."
UK MEP Richard Howitt, a member of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, congratulated vice-president Reding on her commitment to developing new EU legislation on accessibility, which he described as "the most important innovation" in the European Disability Strategy unveiled in November 2010.
Howitt encouraged Reding to continue making the case for a comprehensive anti-discrimination directive at EU level, based on the proposal that was published by the Commission in July 2008. In this regard, he invited the Commission vice-president to work with the European Parliament in order to put pressure on those member states that have been blocking the adoption of such a directive.
Dutch Green MEP Marije Cornelissen welcomed Vice-President Reding's suggestion that there should be a concerted effort to ensure that people with disabilities can take part in the next elections to the European Parliament, which will be held in 2014.
Cornelissen also called on the Commission vice-president to continue pushing for a comprehensive anti-discrimination directive at EU level. "No opportunity should be passed up to mention how important it is that this directive goes through," she said.
NEXT STEPS
- 22 Jan. 2011: European Union officially becomes party to United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- 2012: European Commission to publish proposal for 'European Accessibility Act'.
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