At the invitation of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Gordana Rajkov, Member of Parliament of the Republic of Serbia, gave presentation on position of people with disabilities in Serbia and the current situation regarding disability issues.
The introduction to this meeting, held on 9 January 2008 in premises of American Embassy in Belgrade, was given by Michael Harvey, USAID Mission Director to Serbia. There were around twenty representatives and associates from various programs and departments of USAID in Belgrade.
Gordana Rajkov’s presentation contained information on legal and factual position of people with disabilities in Serbia, meaning available data on number of people with disabilities and legal framework on disability issues, as well as basic data on poverty, education, employment and political and civic involvement of people with disabilities. Among all it was mentioned that in Serbia around 60% of people with disabilities live below the poverty line, around 50% have only elementary school or are literate, only 13% of people with disabilities are employed, and around 60% of them do not participate in social life of the community.
This presentation was a basis for discussion on what could be done in future, and of course, opened many questions raised by participants. One of the questions was related to employment of people with disabilities, meaning how much capacity is there to get people with disabilities into labor force. There were also questions related to discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the question on general attitude towards people with disabilities.