The Process of Inclusion in Brazil and in Latin America

By Maria Amelia Vampré Xavier (federacaonacional@apaesp.org.br)
International Relations, Instituto APAE SP; Chair, Communications Division Inclusion Interamericana

Inclusion in Brazil

In recent years, Brazil has been demonstrating a great advance in the understanding of what really means inclusive education, inclusion in work and social inclusion for persons with all types of disabilities. This process is not uniform in view of the huge size of our country, with large economic and social unevenness, which give us the doubtful status of being the country of worst income distribution in the world!

It is undeniable that the Brazilian Government, through its Ministry of Education and the Secretaries of Education distributed in the states, are making curricula adaptations and in a way - forcing - a large number of teachers to reflect on their role as special educators so that they can accept in their classrooms disabled pupils and even street children, slum children, because Inclusion means: education for all, and this involves everybody. In Brazil, with its 160 million inhabitants and, unfortunately, with a high illiteracy rate and lack of professional incentive to teachers, plus an excessive number of pupils in classrooms, the task of implementing real Inclusion and not just Inclusion in name is, doubtless, a task demanding the courage of giants!

During the last 3-4 years, the growing interest on the topic of inclusive education has generated several Brazilian books as well as conferences and meetings held all over the country. In October 1999 a meeting was held at Unicamp, a famous University in the State of São Paulo, under the coordination of Dr. Maria Teresa Mantoan, an authority on the subject in Brazil (Leped/Unicamp acts as counselor to almost 1000 schools in our country). The event had the presence of a large number of municipal Secretaries of Education from São Paulo cities and other states such as Belo Horizonte-MG, Vitória-ES, Cachoeira do Sul-RS.

The APAEs and Inclusion International

As one of the founders of APAE (Association of Parents of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in Brazil) of São Paulo, since 1962 I have been in contact with people abroad with very progressive approaches such as Professor Gunnar Dybwad and his late wife, Dr. Rosemary F. Dybwad, when she was the International Director of(then) NARC, The National Association for Retarded Children, in New York.

The Dybwad couple, founders of the worldwide organization, now known as Inclusion International, did not have children with mental disabilities. However they had in their warm hearts a deep respect for parents like us who had not the slightest idea how we should handle our emotions and fears about our child with problems of walking, speaking, thinking, whose future filled us with fear.

As the Dybwads' first visit in 1966 was to APAE São Paulo, it was natural that in the largest city in the country the vision - a very hazy vision - of a larger world movement should spring up, beckoning us to follow the rhythm of more progressive countries. We learned to put aside the notion of a charity organization, created to give help to those children who were called "fools," without human value, an idea which, unfortunately, still prevails. Thus, in this year 2000, barely starting, it is in São Paulo, at APAE SP, that a revolution is taking place regarding educational ideas which, no doubt, will have repercussions all over Brazil.

New Trends

In 1997-98 the then President of the National Federation of the APAES, Congressman Eduardo Barbosa, helped the Federation to develop a Strategic Plan which established the Inclusion process as an important target without any turning back.

As a result of the new policy within the institutions, at the APAE SP, for instance, have launched its Inclusion Project having social inclusion and inclusive employment as essential targets of the new approach.

Recent reports from Inclusion Interamericana showed progress:

- The Managua Declaration, a result of the 1st International Seminar on Intellectual Disabilities, Nicaragua, November 1993, with the presence of 130 persons from 36 American countries, generated optimism and continental unity;
- Integration was accepted as a general policy in all countries;
- The Managua Declaration gave attention to globalization, regionalization and opening toward strengthening of civil society and educational reforms;
- A link between economic and social aspects was emphasized;
- The importance of linking education to work was also studied;
- It was made clear that CILPEDIM, recently renamed Inclusion Interamericana, is the organization of the Americas which promotes and defends the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Current obstacles

- There is lack of economic resources to expand this work as well as a lack of continuity in planned projects;
- The governments of Latin-American countries are not really committed to Human Rights; and
- Inclusion Interamericana does not yet properly channel information from one country to the other.
It is not news that the work in the American Continent is difficult, with advances noted in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, which are countries economically and politically more advanced than others in the region. However, for someone like myself, in my special position of a mother of a son with multiple special needs, things achieved recently are of great value.

Conclusion

My son, a man with physical and intellectual disabilities, therefore, with multiple needs, was educated in segregated schools as it was the custom around 40 years ago. I believe Ricardo would have developed so much more as a person, would have been valued whilst a member of the community, if so long ago we had had the vision that special schools resolve nothing, are very expensive and few, and create the wrong stereotypes that persons with intellectual disabilities are "sexual fiends", "feeble minded with high psychopathic levels" and not the clean, dignified, honest and loving people who wish to have their own place in life such as the ones that I have met in my 39 years of work at the APAEs.

There are innumerable initiatives taking place in this huge country, in far away regions, where dedicated teachers who receive low wages, providing inclusion in their modest classes, close to forests and rivers, for all children looking for help, since there is no other option available. Acknowledging the typical difficulties of our country, we see that there is in the Brazilian soul the enormous courage of facing the difficulties life brings with all the energy inherited from our forefathers. It is this spirit that forms the complex tissue of Brazilian life, full of imperfections, but full of enthusiasm, faith, hope, in the certainty we shall succeed in building the inclusive society we dream of, when every Brazilian person, no matter his color, origin, intelligence level, social position, a person with disabilities or not, will have his human rights fully acknowledged and respected.