Publication > Newsletter > Newsletter 13 > APCD Missions

APCD Missions

Mission to Mongolia

APCD and Representives of Disability-related Organizations APCD identified the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour as the focal point organization in Mongolia during the mission from 12-15 July 2005. The team met 16 organizations of persons with disabilities in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. There are 31 disabled people's organizations including 21 provincial organizations of persons with disabilities as well as 9 organizations in Ulaanbaatar. The Mongolian National Federation of Disabled People's Organization was established in 1997 by the initiative of 12 NGOs. The Government of Mongolia and the National Federation of Disabled People's Organizations translated the BMF and published it along with a Disabled Persons NGO Directory 2005. The mission team met Mr. Tserendash Ouynbaatar, General Director of the Lobby Center which is the focal point for the Disability Act. Thirty political party members are collaborating and reviewing the current Act on Disability. The Center is preparing to change the Disability Act into a Rights-Based Act.

Mongolia has a National Coordination Council on Disability consisting of the Ministry of Health, Education, Construction, Foreign Affairs, and Social Welfare and Labour along with 3 PWDs from the National Federation of Disabled People's Organizations.

The mission visited the Takhilt Rehabilitation Center, a hostel with a rehabilitation program run by a medical doctor who is also a PWD. This hostel provides 2-weeks training with approximately 500 PWDs trained annually. APCD also visited the National Rehabilitation and Vocational Training Center for the Disabled active in the area of community-based rehabilitation.

Mission to Sri Lanka/the Maldives

APCD undertook a mission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 17 to 24 August 2005 in order to collaborate with the Government Focal Points, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Social Welfare in Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Higher Education, Empowerment and Social Security in the Maldives. Disabled Peoples' Organization in Sri Lanka

The Ministry of Women Empowerment and Social Welfare, organized a one day meeting for the APCD team to meet with more than 20 disabled persons organizations. The Minister of Women Employment and Social Welfare, Hon. Madam Sumedha G. Jayasena who opened the meeting stated the policy of the Sri Lankan Government on protection and empowerment of persons with disabilities has resulted in many services including the CBR movement. Dr. Padmani Mendis, APCD Resource Person in CBR noted, the mainstreaming of PWD in society and the significance of the CBR program.

The mission visited non-governmental and disabled peoples organizations; Rehab Lanka Institute, Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped, Joint Front Association, FRIDSRO and the Sri Lanka Confederation of Organization of the Handicapped People.

At the Rehab Lanka Institute run by disabled persons they shared their knowledge on management of vocational training for the disabled, the production of different types of wheelchairs and their cooperation with companies to market their products. Mr. Cyril Siriwardance explained his movement, as a member of the Sri Lanka National Council on Disability, to help the tsunami affected disabled persons and his involvement in the planning stages of an "accessible new city" in those areas.

The team met with the DAISY Lanka Foundation of the Blind and other visually impaired organizations, which provides many activities on ICT visually impaired persons.

The Joint Front Association and FRIDSRO actively support organizations for PWD. Activities by these organizations include promotion of the CBR program, capacity and leadership development, information and data development, inclusion of PWDs in all development, public awareness raising, particularly in the media sector, accessibility, and legislation issues. The mission visited Kandy and the CBR movement in one community where the Buddhist monk played an active role.

The mission participated in meetings organized by the Sri Lanka Confederation of Organization of the Handicapped People. Some former participants of APCD's Non-Handicapping Environment shared how they utilized their knowledge gained.

In the Maldives, the mission made a courtesy call to the Minister of Higher Education, Employment and Social Security, H.E. Mr. Sharif Ahamed. The cooperative relationship with the governmental focal point organization was exchanged. The mission visited the Division on Social Security, an implementing unit on disability issues and was welcomed by Mrs. Dheena , Deputy Director and her staff who received CBR training in India. In the Maldives, this government organization solely plays its mandate on disability work.

The mission visited the Center for Persons with Special Needs, which is under the Ministry of Higher Education, Empowerment and Social Affairs. The major outcome of mission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives were: confirmation with focal point organizations of APCD in these two countries for future collaboration, learning about the activities of the different disability-related organizations, and updating of information and digital image of disability-related organizations.

Pacific Forum: Fiji

The APCD mission team undertook a mission to Fiji from 30 July to 5 August 2005 and participated in the "Pacific Regional Workshop on Disability", 1-4 August 2005 in Nadi, Fiji. It was organized by the Pacific Island Forum Country Representatives to the Forum , in collaboration with International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCAP-Pacific Operations Centre, Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) and the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF).

Participants for the workshop included representatives from the Governments of Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Resource Persons were from Vision Pacific Charitable Trust: New Zealand, PDF, DPI Asia Pacific Region, and the Oceania Sub-regional Office, Fiji Disabled People's Association, Fiji National Council for Disabled Persons, ILO, Social Policy and Organization Development Consulting, Consultant- Rehabilitation International, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Senese Junior Preparatory School and the Fiji Ministry of Education.

It was officially recorded in the Report of the Workshop, under: 7u. "The importance of APCD in implementing the BMF was recognized. APCD indicated that it is considering establishing a regional mechanism in the Pacific to meet the growing demand for empowerment for people with disabilities and this was warmly welcomed", and under 8.iv, the Workshop recommended that "APCD is urged to increase the involvement of Pacific people in its empowering of people with disabilities". APCD identified five new focal points in the Federated States of Micronesia, Niue, Nauru, Palau and Kiribati as well.

The mission team exchanged views with donor organizations during the Workshop such as the European Commission, UNESCAP-Pacific Operation Centre, ILO, as well as the international organizations such as RI, DPI and PDF, Vision Pacific Charitable Trust: New Zealand, and Inclusion International.

Mission to Indonesia

An APCD Mission was dispatched to Indonesia from 7-11 September 2005 to confirm the Department of Social Rehabilitation and Services, Ministry of Social Affairs as APCD's Government Focal Point Organization.

The "Accessibility Seminar" on 8 September was the first cooperative activity with the Department with former APCD training participants, Department officials and representatives of relevant organizations attending. This seminar served as a follow-up for 12 former Indonesian participants. They could share their outcomes with each other concerned and facilitated their networking and collaboration. Outstanding post-training activities were presented by representatives of 11 former participants; 7 participants from the Non-handicapping Environment Training, 3 participants from the Web-based Networking Training, and 1 participant from Information and Communication Technology for Visually Impaired Persons. Recognizing that former participants have been active in facilitating "access" in both the built-environment and ICT, APCD appreciated a proposal for a national training workshop to be organized by the former participants.

In Jakarta, the Mission visited 16 NGOs which belong to the Indonesia Disabled People's Association and exchanged views on possible future cooperation. It was quite impressive to see that DPI-Indonesia has been promoting not only the national policy/legislation on disability but also community-based income generation for PWD.

The Mission visited several Indonesian NGOs and identified excellent activities to support PWD with a view to PWD's effective participation and empowerment, community involvement, and collaboration with civil society. One of these NGO is Mitra Netra Foundation in Jakarta, which has supported the education and employment of VIP since 1991 through effective resource mobilization and collaboration with the private sector. They have contributed greatly to the Foundation's activities. Another remarkable NGO is the Community-based Rehabilitation Development Training Center (CBR-DTC) in Solo City. CBR-DTC has been famous for their training of "facilitators" for CBR and other community development projects, and professionally caters to the needs of local and international NGO and provides tailor-made training courses.

APCD anticipates these Indonesian organizations will become Associate members of APCD.

[

] [

] [

]