Sembrando Cultura de Prevención
"Colombia Prevents as Family"
Hernando Ayala Melgarejo (disnetco@yahoo.com)
The new social methods undertaken to approach disabilities in all scenarios to increase development has reached so many sectors in Colombia that now it has a multiplying effect in preventing physical, sensorial, and mental restrictions. The essence of the "Colombia Previene en Familia" campaign is to posit this criteria for a national advocacy campaign that, since 2000, have been implemented, jointly and articulately, by the social society and government and facilitated by the office of the Executive of the Republic through the Office of the First Lady and the Care Plan for the People with Disabilities - PNAPD 1999 - 2002.
The "Colombia Previene en Familia" campaign has opened spaces for communication and broadcasting a concept being seeded through cultural strength among the whole population. Prevention covers everybody equally and, among the people with disabilities. It transcends health so as to include all areas of social development that, being they mismanaged, become a cause for disabilities.
The "Primer Diálogo Nacional sobre Derechos de los Niños con Discapacidad" (First Dialogue on the Rights of Children with Disabilities) took place on September 13, 2001 and launched the campaign. 500 parents of children with disabilities from all the country, professionals who work caring for these children and legal professionals gathered there. Its goal was to seed the message fore the caring and inclusion of children with disabilities so as to eradicate a country's growing abandonment index that corresponds to several factors. Among those, the most important is family and social break-up.
"Local Conversations on the Prevention of Disabilities" is another essential activity in the campaign. Public workers, professionals, leaders, and parents have the task of gathering their communities to teach them on the methods to eliminate the causes that generate disabilities by building protective environments.
Another method for communicating this idea is the direct message in the Media to communicate ideas related to the central concept in the campaign to further prevention within the family.
To accomplish this task, another method is the direct messages carrying ideas pertaining to the family prevention campaign through the Media. A teleconference and an exhibit on messages about prevention and inclusion complete the campaign in the Media. Knowledge about this idea is also broadened by the printing and distribution of a booklet called "Colombia Previene en Familia" (Colombia Prevents as Family) that includes basic information on health and good practices.
As key element for the teaching of inclusion among Colombians we should advance the idea towards true collective living in equity, the campaign leaders created two countrywide art contests for children and youth. It is a literary contest for short stories where the children can release their imagination to narrate stories that include testimonials from children with disabilities that have soared in their will to overcome barriers and integrate themselves. The story can also narrate situations in which people with extraordinary capabilities to include kids with disabilities. There also is an invitation to express these ideas through a drawing contest divided into two categories. One, for children 7 to 12 years old, and from 13 to 17, the other. "Colombia Previene en Familia" is the great campaign to make people participate round the idea of prevention of disabilities.
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