Empowerment Cafe on Disability

Shyrak Association of Women with Disabilities conducted a press conference in the Kazakhstan Press Club on 28 February 2013; it was dedicated to the launch of the project called “Employment of Women with Disabilities: Overcoming the Obstacles to Entrepreneurship Development”, which is supported by the Counterpart International (USAID) and Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund. The objective of the press conference was to announce the launch of the project “Employment of Women with Disabilities: Overcoming the Obstacles to Entrepreneurship Development”, which is supported by the Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund and by “Strengthening civil society in Kazak

Government representatives of 37 Asia-Pacific countries participated in a five-day meeting here today to review regional progress over the past decade in removing the multitude of physical, social and economic barriers faced by persons with disabilities and make development more inclusive. The “Incheon Strategy” to guide disability policies over the next 10 years in the implementation of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022 was adopted in the meeting. http://www.unescap.org/news/asia-pacific-countries-review-regional-progress-promoting-disability-inclusive-development

This was our first visit to Pacific region for the development of Community Based Rehabilitation Network (CBR Pacific Network) and we had a CBR Pacific Forum. Fortunately we got some free time and radio in our hotel room. We found that radio is playing a vital role in connecting the communities, weather information, tourism information, job announcements and all other stuff that local people want to listen. On that time an idea floated in our minds that why not we use radio effectively for people with disabilities. Although it might be not inclusive for all but directly or indirectly it can be made inclusive for all. For example a message or information can be conveyed through someone who in

Physical disability has never stopped triathlete Rudy Fernandez of Iloilo province in central Philippines.  The one-legged triathlete participated during the freedom ride during the 115th   Independence Day of the Philippines. Organized by advocate group Dakila-Iloilo, it was an awareness campaign against human trafficking.  (Photo by Tara Yap)

Being a person who is deafened (post lingual deafness) and an active advocate in disability movement with leading an organization. I have to communicate more than usual. Often people get my number from our website and start calling. Despite that we have mentioned on our website that this number is for text messaging (SMS) only and do not make voice call. Since I cannot attend voice call, I often wonder who is calling and what for? On one hand there is probability that the call is just a wrong number on other hand it can be very important call. This situation really make me frustrated. If the call is from a mobile number where I can send a text message I usually drop the call and send text m

In many documents we read term “impaired” with various disability. Such as “hearing impaired”, “visually impaired”. In our “Pakistan - National policy for Persons with disabilities” which published in 2002, these terms were used. However since long people of Deaf community, identifying themselves as deaf.  On other hand there are people who identify themselves as hard of hearing and also many who like to identify themselves as deafened. And the term “impaired” is taken as negative and obsolete. The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international organization that representing people of Deaf community. Those who use sign