Fourth – methodological workshop – was held 7 of September 2010 to establish techniques of following the implementation of CRPD in four specific fields – access, education, employment and support services.
There were nine representatives of DPOs and host lecturer Biljana Brankovic who shared her experience on reporting UN Committee on CEDAW report.
September 2, 2010. | 10:22 | Tanjug
Serbian representative Mr. Damjan Tatić was elected in expert team UN aimed to monitor CRPD implementation.
At the meeting of state parties who ratified CRPD (89 states) Mr. Tatic was elected in Committee for rights of persons with disability, with 11 other experts.
Mr. Tatic already has experience in UN as he participated in Ad Hoc Committee which delivered CRPD 2006.
Serbia ratified CRPD in 2009.
CRPD is the first Convention in area of human rights that UN adopted in 21 century and its aim is to protect and improve the rights of 650 millions of persons with disability world wide.
Since the 2nd Virtual Career and Education Day has been very successful, our partner web sites from Serbia (www.infostud.com) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (www.posao.ba) will join MojPosao in organisation of the first regional Virtual Career and Education Day.
Regional Virtual Career and Education Days will be held from 13th till 20th October 2010 at www.dankarijera.com. This time, companies and educational institutions from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will join Croatian exhibitors and present themselves for the first time in this virtual manner.
Virtual Career and Education Days connect its visitors with successful companies offering employment possibilities, as well as with educational institutions providing information about the possibilities of additional education and professional development. The fair will also give an insight to the latest global employment market trends, and will emphasize the importance of knowledge investments in order to achieve professional success.
The fair is based on interactive communication, extending its reach to potential employees and students outside regional borders.
Companies and educational institutions on the regional Virtual Career and Education Day will be presented in one of three ways, each of which offers different features and includes a different number of virtual rooms. Golden stand is designed with five separate virtual rooms providing a comprehensive company presentation, its products, services and all benefits for its employees. Silver stand offers three virtual rooms, while Bronze stand provides one virtual room which can hold basic information on the company.
The novelty of the regional fair is also the possibility of becoming a Regional exhibitor. Regional exhibitors will be presented through five virtual rooms, but will also have an individual platform within the fair which will be present in all participating countries.
Virtual Career and Education Days also provide direct employer-employee and educational institution-student contact through workshops and discussion groups.
BLIC, 27. 08. 2010.
The first Center for professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disability was open in Belgrade, yesterday. This Center is a part of National Employment Bureau and its aim is to help improving the status of persons with disability on labor market.
Minister for Economy and Regional Development Mr. Mladjan Dinkic open the ceremony.
Mr. Dejan Jovanovic, the Director of NEB said that this Center will have important informative role as employers, persons with disability and their organization will have one place to get all necessary information on employment of persons with disability.
– This Center as a premise is equiped with human and technical resources to fulfill its role in implementation the Law on employment the persons with disability – pointed Mr. Jovanovic.
Minister Dinkic said that the first results of new Law on employment the persons with disability are encouraging as 1100 persons with disability got job since May this year. He stressed out that in the next year we could expect to employ another 7000 persons with disability. Minister also added that employers who have no opportunities to employ persons with disability paid about 150 millions dinars in Budget and that money will be used for training programs and new job possibilities.
Mrs. Gordana Rajkov, CIL President, said that in Serbia we have just 13% employed persons with disability out of total number of disability population. Out of this percentage just 1% is engaged in economy and production. She also said that one of the problems is lack or inadequate information.
ESTABLISHED OFFICE FOR PROMOTION, ADVOCACY AND PROTECTION THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITY AND THEIR FAMILIES
Our interest should be easy access to rights and their denial and endagerment should be punished. Until we reach such standard it is justify to give support and help those who are in need.
CHILDREN ARE OUR TREASURE. WE SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE TO THEM.
Our goal – families with children with disability are specific in many ways and extremely vulnerable. Our goal is preservation those families and their strengthening. Our vision is to enable children with disability growing up and striving to future free of prejudices.
More on www.osmehmolim.org.rs
CIL members from Belgrade, Smederevo and Nis were invited to Bor on 6 of August. Tere was an initiative of group of enthusiastic persons with disability to start CIL new branch organisation.
We are very satisfied that our network is going to be expanded and our ideas promoted more.
Initiative is started and all further activities will go that direction.
Partnership for better life
Center for Independent Living Serbia is one of grantees for Public works Program with the project „Support to independent Living of persons with disability in Serbia”.
This project is funded by Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and National Office for Employment and will be implemented in Belgrade, Jagodina, Nis, Cacak and Leskovac. During five months 48 unemployed persons will work and be trained by persons with disability for the Personal assistant job.
Ceremony of official public promotion and delivering working contracts started at July 13 in Jagodina, than July 14 in Belgrade, July 15 in Nis, July 16 in Cacak and the last promotion will be July 19 in Leskovac.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor is pleased to announce the appointment of Judith Heumann as the Special Advisor for International Disability Rights. Special Advisor Heumann will lead the Administration’s efforts to develop a comprehensive strategy to promote the rights of persons with disabilities internationally; coordinate an interagency process for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; ensure that foreign assistance incorporates persons with disabilities; lead on disability human rights issues; ensure that the needs of persons with disabilities are addressed in international situations; and conduct public diplomacy, including with civil society, on disability issues.
During the July 24, 2009 announcement of U.S. signature to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Secretary Clinton noted that “expanding opportunity and supporting human rights are among the most important guideposts of our foreign policy.” The Secretary further noted that “discrimination against people with disabilities isn’t only an injustice, it is a strain on economic development, a limit to democracy, a burden on families, and a cause of social erosion.” For these reasons, the Secretary expressed her commitment “to make support for people with disabilities a central element in the State Department’s strategy worldwide.”
Prior to her appointment, Ms. Heumann was the Director for the Department on Disability Services for the District of Columbia. From June 2002-2007, she served as the World Bank’s first Adviser on Disability and Development, and Lead Consultant to the Global Partnership for Disability and Development. Ms. Heumann served as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the U.S. Department of Education from 1993-2001. Ms. Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in the disability community and a lifelong civil rights advocate for disadvantaged persons.
The third workshop on monitoring and implementation CRPD in Serbia was held on 30 June 2010 in Nis.
There were 7 participants who listened and participated very actively in discussions about the importance of CRPD for disability movement in Serbia, the status of civil society in Serbia, the situation in Serbia since CRPD ratification and monitoring mechanisms and the role of DPOs in writing the alternative report on CRPD implementation in Serbia.
The host at the workshop was representative from Association for protection the mental health of children and youth and who reported on their experience in writing alternative report for Convention on Children’s Rights.
The second workshop on monitoring and implementation CRPD in Serbia was held on 23 June 2010 in Belgrade.
There were 17 participants who listened and participated very actively in discussions about the importance of CRPD for disability movement in Serbia, the status of civil society in Serbia, the situation in Serbia since CRPD ratification and monitoring mechanisms and the role of DPOs in writing the alternative report on CRPD implementation in Serbia.
As in Novi Sad our hosts were representatives from Autonomous Women Centre who talked so inspiring about their experiences in writing alternative report for CEDAW.
Kristina Chew, 21 June 2010 I
n the case of students with disabilities—autism like my son Charlie and with multiple disabilities—what ought to be the main focus? Is it academics or more functional areas like life skills and vocational training? Keep in mind that many of these students will not be attending college and may only be able to work in sheltered workplaces, and/or assisted by job coaches.
Is that the way we should be thinking or are we undermining what these students might potentially learn by not ’rounding out’ what they are taught to include lessons in literature, in social studies, science?
An Enormous Challenge
This question is highlighted in a June 19th New York Times article about the struggles of public schools to teach students with multiple, severe disabilities. The plight of 20-year-old Donovan Forde is highlighted: as a result of a traumatic brain injury that happened when he was only 5 months old, Donovan cannot walk or talk. Should he be learning subjects like science and English, the curricula very much adapted to accommodate his cognitive disabilities?
Donovan’s mother, Michelle Forde, likes his special education high school, Public School 79, the Horan School, in East Harlem, where she feels he is welcome and cared for. But she wishes his teachers would spend more time working on his practical challenges, like his self-abusive habit of hitting himself in the face so hard that he has to wear thick white cotton mitts most of the time, even when he sleeps.
Instead of having him work on basic academic goals, like identifying shapes and coins, she wishes he had physical therapy more than 30 minutes, twice a week, because it is generally the only time during the day he is taken out of his wheelchair, except when an aide takes him to the bathroom to change him.
Troubling Comments
A quick glance at some (thankfully not all of) the comments to the New York Times article suggests—more than unfortunately—that many people have a long way to go as far as understanding why all students have the right to a free and appropriate public education.
Writes one reader in a comment that over 300 people ‘recommended’ (I didn’t):We are spending 5 to 10 times as much on students who will never be the backbone of society, never be able to consistently hold a job. Indeed, many will be shuffled off to expensive group-home settings. Many more will be wards of the State in other, less desirable ways. In our desire to do everything for everyone, state and federal politicians and lobbying interests have carved out special-niche mandates that significantly reduce our ability to serve those who will one day serve our country best.
Providing an education for students like Donovan and for Charlie is not a waste of resources. Far from it, it’s a sign of the humanity of our society and—I know I sound idealistic here, but so be it—of what sets our society apart, that it’s the law to educate students with disabilities.
My son Charlie can talk a little and he does not have any physical disabilities. As Charlie has gotten older, more and more of his learning has been what is called ‘functional’; has been about teaching him ‘skills’ that involve ‘self-care’ and ‘daily living’ (teeth brushing, household chores) and that, it’s hoped, might prepare him for some kind of job. He still receives speech therapy and occupational therapy, with the subject matter of both of these determined according to what might best help him in his day-to-day experiences, needs and interactions.
Charlie does not read; he’s currently working on various sight words for places, things and the like. Since he was in preschool, teachers and therapists have been trying numerous methods and curricula to teach him the alphabet and reading. It was just a few years ago that Charlie mastered the alphabet (he is 13 years old). I still always feel the tug of hope: Maybe, maybe, and who knows but perhaps Charlie is able to read much more than he appears to, but just hasn’t revealed this yet to us. That is, Charlie is not being taught to read with a view towards reading books but to help him navigate the world a little better. And isn’t that what reading is for, for many?
Still, I often feel a tug: Shouldn’t we be challenging Charlie more? Have we ‘given in’? Charlie is only 13 years old; isn’t it too early to have ‘narrowed’ his education down to teaching him the skills for a job?And then I feel exactly like Donovan’s mother, who, as quoted in the New York Times, says ‘ “The only goal I had for him was when he was in the hospital after the accident, when the nurse told me he wasn’t going to live……He’s here, and he’s 20 years old. So he surpassed his goal. He’s alive.”
Yes, Donovan is here and Charlie is here, as are so many students with disabilities and we need to make sure that they have access to the education that they need. I believe the onus is upon us all to keep finding new and different ways to teach students with so many different needs, to do all that we can to help them learn and grow and achieve their full potential.
It’s the least that we can do.
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