Sylvia Quan, Disability Advocate, Guatemala
Background
Syvia Quan was one of the emerging, young disabled leaders selected for the Training and Advocacy event, held in association with the UN Beijing+5 meetings in New York. A blind disability advocate who works with the disability and women's groups in Guatemala, Ms. Quan has reported back on several developments since the conference.
Interviewer: One of the purposes of the Beijing+5 training & advocacy event was to introduce women with disabilities to role models, career options and to establish an ongoing network of women with disabilities at all levels of career development. Did the Beijing+5 conference have an impact in these areas? Have you stayed in contact with your fellow participants?
SQ: The Beijing+5 event was an excellent opportunity to meet women with disabilities who play leadership and key roles in their own countries. Sharing experiences with them gave us imputs for our own actions. Networking has has been the most important results from this Conference; it has allowed us to exchange valuable information in the field of human rights, strategies to promote the participation of more disabled women in the organizations and in the political and social movements in our country.
Information and networking are two of the necessary tools for the empowerement of disabled women in our society, where discrimination against people with disabilities, women, ethnic groups and poverty combine to place women with disabilities in critically vulnerable positions.
I have kept in contact with many of the women that I met in this Conference, and even met with them again in other events later on. Some of the results of these contacts have been translated into concrete recommendations into our local system, where the National Council for the Disabled has taken into consideration in the process of signing several important legal instruments that help and protect the people with disabilities. One of these instruments is the Interamerican Convention about the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against People with Disabilities.
Interviewer: Please describe projects which you have developed or which have been enhanced by your participation in the Beijing Plus five conference? Do these projects make use of approaches learned and/or information disseminated at the Beijing plus Five conference? How?
SQ: In September of 2000, Diana Mejia, Head of the Defense Office for Specially Challenged People and Older Adults of Guatemala's Ombudsman's Bureau, and I started the coordination of the first project directed specifically to women with disabilities in this country. Financial support was provided by the National Council for the Disabled. The project consisted of two main stages:
A diagnosis of the general situation in which women with disabilities live. These conditions included the home and family group, education, health, rehabilitation, laboral and training situation, and sexuality. Women included in this diagnosis were those living in the Guatemala City area, ages 14 and up, with any kind of disability. Around 250 women with disabilities were included in the diagnosis.
Some of the results of this diagnosis showed that most women have very little access to education, health and rehabilitation services. A very low percentage are employed in formal jobs, many work in the informal sector. A common characteristic among most is their low self esteem due to the fact that their families rarely allow them to leave their homes to participate in any kind of activity. Thier knowledge of their own bodies and sexuality is very limited and full of myths.
The second stage of the project, still taking place, is a series of seminars and workshops, exploring topics that were suggested by the women who participated in the diagnosis. Seven workshops were planned initially: two about self esteem, human rights, empowerment, anti-discrimination laws and other legal instruments that protect women's rights, sexuality, and political and social participation of women with disabilities.
Results of the workshops
The participation of women in these workshops has been greater than that projected, which has been a very positive result to the project. The number of participants in each workshop has varied between 70 and 100, initially planned for 80. The important results of these seminars and workshops have been the recommendations provided by the same participants, suggesting more topics of interest requiring exploration. Because of this, Diana and I have asked the National Council for the Disabled for an extension of this project, planned to finish in June of 2001. At the moment, we are in the proposal stage, we have high hopes that this can continue.
A very important result in all this process, is that the need to be organized and to create some kind of women with disabilities movement has greatly progressed. Ever since the National Council for the Disabled (CONADI is the acronym in Spanish) was founded in May of 1997, the women's group has never been considered as an important one, and until now has there been any kind of project or action been developed towards the growth of this particular population.
A proposal was made to CONADI to create a Committee for Women with Disabilites, which was accepted just a few weeks ago and on May 8th, the Committee was formed with 11 representatives of the different grass roots organizations of diabled people, Diana and myself included.
This Committee will be in charge of planning and coordinating the actions to promote and carry out the political and social participation of women with disabilities in Guatemala, and will also work to integrate itself into the general women's movement of this country. This has been a big achievement for the women with disabilities and a big step forward in the development of the movement. Finally some space where women with disabilities can have a voice and be able to make decisions at a political level!
To finish this stage as a project for disabled women in CONADI, the topics proposed for these seminars and workshops are: women's health, violence against women, women's role in the family group, and 4 seminars specifically for young women and teenagers: self esteem, social life, sexuality, and family participation. The importance of mentioning this final stage as a project is that future planning for more activities and further actions will be the responsibility of the Committee for Women.
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