Report on Recent Events held in the Iberian-American Region
Chile
An international seminar was held in Santiago, Chile on October 25th and 26th of this year in preparation for a global forum on aging in civil society in Madrid in 2002. Among the participants were representatives of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Perú. During this seminar a document was produced outlining the extent to which aging is an increasing concern in Latin America, what the problems are, and how civil society will handle a population composed of more elderly persons than ever. The issue was also raised that with an increasingly elderly population, the concern for disability issues will also grow. The contents of the document are open to preliminary debate and discussion in preparation for the Madrid forum.
Costa Rica
The 16th Iberian-American Seminar on Disability and Social Communication was held November 12-14, 2001 in San Jose, Costa Rica. This year's theme was "The Image of Vitality and Empowerment of People with Disability", presented by Dr. Federico Montero. He spoke about the historical development of the disability movement for equality, and the perception and attitude toward disability in Latin America within a historical perspective. One major focus of his presentation was the anti-discriminatory legislation that has been passed regarding the issue in Latin America, paying specific attention to the equal opportunity acts. As a conclusion, he challenged the participants by presenting new goals and action plans to further the empowerment of persons with disabilities and equality in civil society.
Portugal
A Conference on "Information Society and Visual Impairments" was held in Lisbon on November 19th. This conference focused on societal inclusion of people with visual impairments through access to information technology resources. Among the speakers were, Tim Crammer, former President of the National Federation for the Blind, who spoke on the Problems and Solutions related to accessibility for the visually impaired to information technology. There were also workshops on Braille, electronic books, the Internet, and other specialized topics.
Bolivia
The Bolivian Confederation of Persons with Disabilities (COBOPDI) held a congress on September 21-23, 2001. The purpose of this event was to elect new representatives on the national level to work in the new administration. The president elected is Demetrio Marca as President and the board will tackle the project of creating an organizational infrastructure able to deal with the issue of disability in Bolivia. To contact COBOPDI, send an e-mail to demetriomarca@hotmail.com
In October 15-19, 2001 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, several Iberian-American organizations on disabilities got together to discuss their experiences in mobilizing the disability community in Latin America, including an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of disability organizations in the region. There was a proposal for an information web, which would allow each organizations and governmental agencies to exchange and share information with others who are also striving toward the goal of bettering the quality of life for citizens with disabilities and their families. One of the products of the meeting was The Santa Cruz Declaration, which emphasized the need for solidarity in the disability rights movement, commitment to justice, equal representation and democracy, ethical responsibility, respect for diversity, and cooperation among organizations.
Argentina
On the 3rd and 4th of October of 2001, in the city of Buenos Aires a conference was held regarding "Citizenship and the Right to Social Integration for Disabled Persons". This was held in conjunction with the National Congress of Argentina. More information on the events of this conference and the proposals that were generated there can be accessed by sending an e-mail to jornadas_discapacidad@hotmail.com or by writing to Foro Pro: Venezuela 584 - CP.:1095- Buenos Aires - Argentina - Tel/Fax: 4331-7469 / 4331-5256.
Ecuador
In Quito, during July 18th to the 21st, the first Latin American consultation on "Disability, Role of the Church and Future Strategies" was convened. This meeting focused on the church's attitude towards people with disabilities and involved participants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Cuba. According to Rev. Noel Fernández Collot, Latin American coordinator of EDAN, they proposed the following actions to integrate the disabled into the church:
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To eliminate the architectural barriers that not only will be of benefits to people with disability, but also to the old persons, pregnant women, children and others.
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To propitiate means that allow to blind, deaf and deaf blind persons not only participation in worship services, but in church life.
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The use in services of an inclusive and appropriate language and liturgy that do not exclude them.
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To use didactic materials that facilitates the understanding of the Gospel to all the people that need it.
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To promote the training of church leadership for appropriate pastoral care of the population with disability.
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To eliminate the over protection and sorry feeling and to propitiate accessibility to population with disability to training that will allow the arrival to positions of leadership.
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To set special interest in the pastoral care to people with disability in the indigenous sector.
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To facilitate, according to the necessities of each country, the development of Disability Prevention Programs.
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Whenever the conditions allow it, this work should be based on an ecumenical effort.
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