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] "Art for All, Art for Inclusive, Barrier-free Rights-Based Society" opening ceremony will be held at the United Nations Conference Center Bangkok, Thailand..
For more information http://www.unescap.org/unis/front/art2.asp
A Training Workshop on Women with Disabilities: To promote full participation of women in the process of elaboration of an international convention on the rights of PWDs will be organized by UNESCAP, Emerging Social Issues Division (ESID), Population and Social Integration Section (PSIS), Disability Programmes, in Bangkok Thailand .
For more information http://www.worldenable.net/wadbangkok2003/Default.htm
16th Asian Conference on Mental Retardation (ACMR), "Empowerment and Full Participation" will be convened at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, Tsubuka, Japan. ACMR is held every two years since 1973 with 14 participating member countries, aimed at being a forum for delegates to present and discuss about diagnosis, education, treatment, and support for daily life and social activities for those with intellectual disabilities and related developmental disabilities. This ACMR will promote sharing of knowledge, mutual experiences, and ideas of empowerment of participants as established in their respective life styles, cultures, and geographical environment.
59th Commission Session, Phase II. Due to the SARS situation, the 59th Commission Session had to be held in two phases. The first phase held on 24-25 April 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand was mainly concerned with program and management matters, The upcoming phase is intended to enable ministers and senior officials from the capitals of members and associate members of ESCAP to consider the original planned provisional agenda.
For more information http://www.unescap.org/59/phase2/index.asp
the 1st session of the Committee on Emerging Social Issues is scheduled to be held in Bangkok ,Thailand from 4-6 September 2003. This committee is to strengthen the commitment of governmental policy-makers and program planners to adequately tackle key emerging social issues and their impact on the region and specific socially vulnerable groups, including women, youth, PWDs, older persons, migrants, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Life Activities (an organization that pushes the boundaries always seeks ways to provide services that best meets people needs, especially on the quality of life of PWDs and their supportive networks) will organize the 1st International Conference on Disability in Newcastle, Australia with the theme "Creative Community Initiatives for People with Disabilities". The objective is to open pathways to innovation and change to achieve will enhance the quality of life and community acceptance for PWDs. Targeted group are those being interested in disability issues for public, private, and self-help organizations.
A Regional Workshop on Disability Statistics for national statisticians and disability policy makers will be held in Bangkok, Thailand.
http://www.worldenable.net/escapstats/
Suva Fiji. A Workshop for Residential Care for PWDs was held on May 3, 2003 in Suva, Fiji. Dr.Eceling Uluiviti stated there is an Urgent need to train and to effectively monitor residential caregivers for PWDs to expose their talents and abilities of both the disabled and the caregiver was stated in this workshop by Dr. Eceline Uluiviti. She completed a survey in Fiji two main islands, Viti Levu and Venua Levu, aimed to study the number of PWDs and the number of caregivers. She clearly stated that "improving the quality of caregiving needs to receive the commitment of the society and funding by the government and stakeholder in training and monitoring caregiving activities".
A bicycle rally organized by the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) in collaboration with the Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines (TCBL) and its NGOs network, was held on 22 until 24 April 2003 from Bangkok to Lopburi Province, was aimed to congratulate the Royal Thai Government on the final destruction of anti- personal mines from stockpiles under the obligation of the Mine Ban Treaty. This event was also aimed to promote the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, scheduled to take place in Bangkok from 15-19 September 2003 and to raise mine awareness among Thai people.
The bicycle rally consisted of 55 people, including 35 landmine survivors and 20 supporters from the Bicycle Club for Health and other organizations.
For more information http://www.icbl.org/news/2003/319.php
Three visual impaired students out of twelve partially sighted students, who applied for the 2003 entrance exam, passed the exam. They are Anant Sriboonroj, who passed the exam to study at the Faculty of Education of Silpakorn University; Phanomporn Nokamla, who passed to study at the Faculty of Education of the Prince of Songkhla University; and Kanoksak Jampathai, who passed to study the Thai language at Chiang Mai University are the three blind students who passed the entrance exam. All the three students expressed their appreciation to the government for paying more attention to education of persons with disabilities.
( TNA, Bangkok, May 6, 2003)
The Education and Training Department of Athens 2004, the organizing committee of the Paralympic Games 2004, is promoting audiovisual materials on the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2004 with the cooperation of the Association for Blind and Vision Impaired People and the Association of the Deaf in Greece. This is aimed to raising public awareness, and to brief people with visual and hearing impairments of the world glorious sport event. The department has completed an informational material in the Braille for those who have visual impairments and for those who are not able to read Braille a CD with the narration of the events. In addition to this, two information videos have been produced in the sign language for those who have hearing impairments.
For more information http://www.paralympic.org
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