Employment briefly
Irish Campaign to Promote Employment Opportunities
The Government of Ireland will spend approximately L700,000 (Irish pounds) to fund an awareness campaign to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities.. The initiative was announced in July by Mary Harney, Minister for Trade Enterprise & Employment.
The announcement coincided with the launch of the findings of a report, "Social Inclusion and Mental Illness," commissioned by Schizophrenia Ireland with the support of the Combat Poverty Agency. The report examined the views of both employers and mental health service users about employment problems facing approximately 35,000 people with schizophrenia in Ireland.
The overall unemployment rate for disabled persons in Ireland is estimated at 70%. The campaign will be aimed at making employers more aware of the employability of people with disabilities. The campaign will be coordinated by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Details: http://scripts.ireland.com/search/highlight.plx?TextRes=disability&Path=/newspaper
Lebanon Launches Computer Training Center for Blind Youth
A Braille Computer Training Center for Blind Youth was launched in Lebanon in October by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The new center will be implemented by and based at the Al-Hadi Institute for Deaf and Blind Youth in Bir Hassan.
Mervat Tallawy, executive secretary of ESCWA, stated, "This is a unique project which utilizes modern technology to serve visually impaired youth in Lebanon and will enable them to access the labor market on a competitive basis."
In addition to training, the project will also offer a Braille documentation center accessible via the internet or disk to serve visually impaired persons throughout the Middle East region. Details: www.dailystar.com.lb/13_10 _01/art17.htm
Disabled Entrepreneur in Algeria Creates 30 Jobs
David Mashabela lost his legs and two friends in a road accident 25 years ago. After leaving the hospital, he took up shoe repair and supported himself for the next five years. Then he decided that many other disabled people could support themselves if they could find a way to obtain marketable skills.
Mashabela took it upon himself to raise start-up capital from small businesses that were doing well and began to offer training in sewing, shoe repair, knitting, recycling, woodwork and wheelchair repairs. From these small beginnings 16 years ago, the Thembelinhle Center has grown to employ 30 disabled people.
A second center is now under consideration and details are available at http://allafrica.com/stories/200110040292.html
Chinese Ban on University Degrees for Disabled Persons Hinders their Labor Force Participation
There have been several stories in the press in the last year about the barriers encountered by Chinese disabled students who, for various reasons are not often accepted into universities. One story concerned the financial insolvency of a university which had been created for disabled students, had thousands of applicants, but little support.
On September 4, the Irish Times featured a story about Jiang Nan, a slightly disabled woman of 21 who had scored high on the national college entrance exam, but been rejected by the Beijing Mechanical and Industrial Institute where she wanted to study electronics. After being asked to walk before the admittance board, she was told that her limp made her unsuitable for a degree in electronics.
Every July, according to reporter Miriam Donohoe in Beijing, millions of students in China take compulsory medical tests prior to university entrance exams. Ministry of Education guidelines on physical standards for higher education enrolment stipulate that even people with relatively minor disabilities be barred from studying specific subjects.
For example, people whose legs differ in length by more than 5cm, like Nan's, or have a spinal curvature of more than 4cm, are barred from studying marine science, agriculture, forensic medicine, civil engineering and geology.
The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper has reported that of the dozens of universities in Beijing, only 236 students with disabilities have been enrolled in the last five years. There are an estimated 60 million disabled persons in mainland China. The People's Daily newspaper reported recently that the State Council had pledged to improve college access for disabled students within the next five years.
|
