Happy Birthday to APCD on its 2nd anniversary! APCD is delighted to be implementing activities for persons with disabilities in developing countries of the Asia and Pacific Region to empower and create a barrier-free society for them.
APCD activities from July to September 2004 began with the "Regional Workshop on Accessible Web-based Information Networking" with 22 participants from 10 countries from 22 June to 9 July 2004. This was followed by the "Thai Non-Governmental Organizations Forum" organized to network with disability-related organizations in Thailand. The next APCD training course from 10-30 August 2004 was the "Training of Initiators for Self-help Groups of Persons with Disabilities towards Rights-based and Sustainable Community Development" with 18 participants from Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand. For Networking and Collaboration, APCD sent missions to the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the Republic of the Philippines to identify focal points and associate organizations at the Governmental and Nongovernmental levels related to disability issues.
Regarding building networks and collaboration, APCD organized the "Seminar for South-to-South Cooperation for the Decade of Persons with disabilities: An Orientation to APCD" inviting potential disability-related Government officers exchange disability-related information among the region. This seminar also included representatives from South African countries and a resource person from the Arab region who shared their countries' situation on the Decade of Disabled Persons. The APCD Information Support team has uploaded the additional country profiles to the website. Countries now uploaded are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
APCD activities in the next 6 months (October-March 2004) include:
| Year 2004 Activities | October | November | December | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9th Newsletter | ||||||||||||
| Community-based Rehabilitation Movement | 20 October-9 November | |||||||||||
| Mission to Samoa | 14-20 | |||||||||||
| Information and Communication for Visually Impaired Persons | 23 November - 17 December | |||||||||||
| Capacity Building of Self-help Organizations of PWDs, Hanoi, Viet Nam | 13-17 | |||||||||||
| Year 2005 Activities | January | February | March | |||||||||
| 10th Newsletter | ||||||||||||
| Mission to Indonesia | 10-15 | |||||||||||
| Information and Communication for All | 18 January - 18 February | |||||||||||
| Mission to Sri Lanka and Maldives | 8-16 | |||||||||||
| Domestic Training Implementation on Peer-Counseling | 1-11 | |||||||||||
| Independent Living | 1-18 | |||||||||||
