The Roosevelt Award for Ecuador: an opinion
By Daniel Wappenstein (kinetiko@uio.satnet.net)
The Roosevelt Award was established in 1995 and is destined for those countries making important contributions in the disability field. The United Nations World Action Program for Persons with Disabilities has full participation of persons with disabilities as a major goal. This is how it was understood by the government of South Korea. This nation was awarded with US$50,000 and it decided to boost the fund, making it equivalent to a million and a half dollars.
Seven years later the Roosevelt Award is given to Ecuador, but contrary to the purposes, the government decides to use the money to conduct a national mass media campaign to explain about the trip of the President to New York. The problem is that the message does not contemplate the actions of the government on disability, simply because there are none.
But this is not the worst: according to a very old and questionable study and never openly discussed results, 13.2% of the population of Ecuador presents a disability. Now we are beginning to receive the results of the latest population census where some incorrectly stated questions on disability were included, more as an afterthought than as a serious attempt to understand the needs and expectations of persons with disability within the situation of our population. The other problem is the lack of real action on the part of Non-Governmental Organizations. Since they do not participate in the decision making process on disability issues, there is no coordination and the scarce resources do not reach persons with disabilities.
There is a process by which particular situations are interpreted within the social domain. This is how something affecting a group of people becomes an issue for those directly involved, then a social issue for society at large. This process also operates concerning a topic like disability, which starts to become a social issue as it transcends the person and the family, as it involves a society which must respond. In generic terms, disability follows the same paths of situations which acquire meaning as social constructions.
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