WBU-ICEVI 2012
WBU-ICEVI General Assemblies: Achieving Our Vision through Empowerment and Partnerships
8 – 18 November 2012
The Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel
Bangkok, THAILAND
ABSTRACTS
WBU Diversity Forum
10 November 2012
Time : 2.30 – 3.30
Title of the Session: Capacity Building
Presenter: Guila Seidel
Chairperson of "Ofek Liyladenu" - Israel National Association of Parents of Blind and Visually Impaired Children
Abstract:
With the birth of a child with visual impairment, parents take on the roles of medical experts, educational specialists, advocates and more. The task of parenting, which in itself is next to impossible, becomes more complex and daunting. When parents come together, emotional support, the sharing of information and their joint efforts build capacity, leveraging influence and empowering them on all levels.
"Ofek Liyladenu" – Israel National Association of Parents of Blind and Visually Impaired Children was established in 1997 when a number of parents who were active on the local level came together over concern for new legislation that was being drafted and would affect the educational needs of their children. Today "Ofek Liyladenu" is the national organization that promotes the needs of blind and visually impaired children in Israel (Arab and Jewish), supporting families and initiating innovative projects in order to maximize the integration of our children into the mainstream of society. The organization is operated mainly by volunteers throughout the country. Celebrating its 15th year it has been involved in changing legislation and policy in education and health, and has given hundreds of parents the skills and strength they need to raise their children as independent members of society.
Presenter: Peter Verstraten, Royal Dutch Visio, the Netherlands
Abstract:
A 2008 EBU benchmarking exercise evidenced the poor representation by elderly VI people in national member organisations. The EBU identified that there was no current evidence or practical programmes that address the low involvement of older VI people in Europe. Older VI people need to be skilled and motivated to engage in civil society, by increasing the benefit to individuals and decreasing cost to them in physical, social and financial terms, and provide them with specific and accessible learning opportunities. In the VISAL project elderly VI persons from different European countries will meet during non-formal sessions both to exchange experience and to receive training on modern topics with a view to increase senior volunteering in the VI population. Experts from VI organisations will develop a VISAL guide together. These experienced experts will train facilitators. These facilitators are responsible for leading VISAL workshops with elderly VI learners. Elderly VI participants will collaborate with elderly persons without VI and organize a national conference on lifelong learning for elderly VI persons. The VISAL consortium consists of the EBU, Age UK, Austrian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted, Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union, Croatian Association of the Blind, RNIB and Royal Dutch Visio.
Presenter: Gerel Dondow, on behalf of the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind
Abstract:
Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As this is the first time that my delegation is taking the floor, allow me to extend our sincere appreciation to all members of the working committee for their tireless efforts in preparing for this 8th General Assembly of World Blind Union.
Mr. Chairman,
It is a great honor for me to deliver this presentation about the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind’s (MNFB) activities at this General Assembly on behalf of my organization, MNFB. And I am very thankful for this opportunity.
Mongolian National Federation of the Blind was initially established in 1978 as an Association of Blind and Deaf Citizens from an initiative by citizens and the support from the government. Until 1990 the Association was supported by the government and ran its activities smoothly and consistently.
With the socio-economic and political changes that took place in 1990 the support from the government ceased making it difficult for the organization to continue running. In 1993 the Association of Blind Citizens spun off from the Association of Deaf Citizens.
In 2001, the 5th General Assembly of the Mongolian association of the Blind appointed a new management team which further worked towards providing a wide variety of activities including learning from international best practices of organizations of the blind in order to expand and develop the operations of the Mongolian Federation.
Effective from that time, we started using computers for our operations and were getting connected to the outer world. In 2005 Mongolian association of the blind became the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind.
Here are some quick facts and figures to show how the external relations of our organization have developed during the last decade.
From 2005 until 2011 the federation was operating without its own premises and office space and rented a room of the Enterprise of Blind People. We had only 3-4 staff and branches in only 5 out of the 21 provinces of Mongolia. We now occupy our own premise with 1060 m2 space in a two storey building and operate with 72 staff.
The MNFB currently includes:
- Rehabilitation and Training Center
- Braille and Talking Book Production Center
- Best FM98.5 radio station
- Best Massage Centers
- Tsatsal and TsagaanShunu music bands
- 23 rural branches: 21 in the provinces of Mongolia and 2 in the countryside districts of the capital city Ulaanbaatar.
In addition to this, , MNFB has made considerable progress in terms of advocacy to decision makers and resolving pressing issues that People with Disabilities encounter. For instance, MNFB successfully facilitated the approval and amendment of Social Welfare Laws and laws that directly or indirectly had a negative impact on disabled people by achieving the insertion of clauses beneficial to blind people. MNFB also played a leadership role in the demand for the Government of Mongolia to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
The following internal factors have resulted in making the MNFB operations today’s level of success. They are:
- There is a team working at MNFB that is committed to constantly improving the conditions of blind people and enabling them to be involved in social life and relationships in an equal way
- The external factor is the cooperation with members of the WBU who always support us directly and indirectly in their operations with us. In other words, the support from you and the information from you that tells us what you do for the wellbeing of blind people in your respective countries always encourages and motivates us.
In addition, projects implemented by the blind organizations of developed countries for capacity-building and strengthening blind organizations in developing countries also produce significant tangible results.
For instance I would like to point out the project implemented by the Danish association of the Blind, with funding from DANIDA, in cooperation with the WBU Asia Pacific Region, in Mongolia and the Republic of Laos from 2006-2009 and the second phase for 2011-2013. The project aims at building the capacity of blind organizations in Asia and the Pacific, particularly in its developing countries.
This project has built our capacity to a great extent. For example, it has raised our awareness on the importance of blind movements at international and national level, convinced us that blind people can make changes once they join together, built the capacity of MNFB managers and members for fundraising, advocacy, lobbying and managing operations.
Within the framework of this project, the MNFB started to pay attention to gender issues and established a women’s council. We also created a long term strategic plan for the organization.
It is also worth mentioning that the MNFB had abundant opportunities for visits to organizations.
For the blind in other countries and learn from their best practices and experiences. For us, this capacity building project was timely and needy and is making an important contribution to raising operations of the MNFB to a new level of development. Using this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to you, DAB and Asia Pacific Region colleagues and friends, for implementation of the project.
The second phase of the project will end in 2013 but we want this project to continue further and to bring its benefits to even more Mongolian blind people.
At the MNFB, we ensure that democratic and transparent systems and principles are pursued in our management and operations and that they result in the increased participation of members. For instance, MNFB organizes its General Assembly every four years when it elects its President and executives. By rule, the President of the MNFB can serve only for two terms. The MNFB is committed to ensure gender equality with an emphasis on the participation of blind women in its operations, decision making and management. The Governing Board of MNFB discusses at Sections and affiliates of the MNFB are all run independently and operate in the field they are specialized in.
In addition, we have women’s, youth, senior citizens, sports and cultural councils actively operating under the MNFB and reaching out to broader target groups.
We have had some good results during the last few years; however there are so many other works that must be carried out in the future. For instance, we have to work towards ensuring that the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which was ratified by the Government of Mongolia, is realistically carried out, to improve the livelihoods of blind people by introducing new IT advancements, to increase access to education and employment for blind people, build capacity of the rural branches and expand the outreach of our operations to those living in remote areas.
Finally, I would like to underline the importance of cooperation with all of you and the support from all of you, in addition to the commitment of Mongolian blind people to create an accessible and enabling environment for the blind and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to work with all the stakeholders.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION
Title of the Session: Intergenerational and Interdiversity Activity
Presenter: Hans Kaltwasser, DBSV Head International Relations
Abstract:
INTERGEN : Bringing different generations together
Each generation has to deal with its own obstacles, but also has its own know-how and skills. Young people as a rule have excellent expertise in the new technologies which might be of greatest benefit to their elderly peers. Conversely, a wide range of daily living skills essential to cope with the numerous pitfalls of daily life for visually impaired people and formerly taught at the traditional schools for the blind are quite naturally at seniors’ disposal. Many younger blind and partially sighted people are lacking just these skills, very often because this knowledge is not included in the curricula of integrated schooling. Hence a mutual exchange of experience and skills between young and old would be of great advantage to both sides. How can we bring different generations together so that they can share their knowledge and experience to their mutual benefit? Based on its on-going work with junior and senior visually impaired people, the European Blind Union designed and conducted the Intergen project which involved six partner organizations from the EBU network. During a two-year working period which ran from late 2008 to late 2009 a series of workshops were held in the participating countries where young participants shared their skills with senior peers who were introduced to devices such as mobile phones, emailing systems and specific accessible technologies. In turn, senior participants passed on their skills by teaching younger people how to perform essential daily tasks such as cooking, ironing or gardening. In addition to running creative workshops, the project steering group by benefitting from input from all participants and developed innovative workshop guidelines to encourage others to organize their own intergenerational projects.
WBU General Assembly Days
14 November 2012
Time : 9.00 – 10.30
Title of the Session: The Role of National Members in a Changing World
Presenter: Aubrey Webson, Perkins School for the Blind
Abstract:
joining disability alliances or networks for promotion of human rights of persons with disabilities must always be seen as a strategy for strengthening the blindness rights agenda and organisations of the blind advocacy.
In 2011, a coalition that included AFUB, Sightsavers, several DPOs and human rights agencies in Africa jointly designed an advocacy strategy that led to Press Statements and a successful Petition to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to defer the process of developing an African Disability Rights Protocol without participation of stakeholders.
WBU-ICEVI Joint Days
15 November 2012
Time : 9.00 – 10.30
Title of the Session: THE RIGHT TO READ
Presenter : Pablo Lecuona, Secretario de Tecnología y Acceso a la Información, Unión Latinoamericana de Ciegos
Coordinador Campaña R2R en América Latina
Abstract:
The WIPO Treaty, from the WBU perspective, what it is, how the system works, impact on developing countries progress to date
En los países en vías de desarrollo, donde se concentra la mayor parte de la población con discapacidad visual, se encuentra disponible en formatos accesibles para este colectivo apenas el 1% de las obras publicadas.
Si bien la tecnología actual podría transformar esta situación permitiendo la transcripción de materiales a formatos accesibles de manera prácticamente automática, el marco jurídico internacional vigente pone un freno infranqueable, por el momento, a la universalización del acceso a la lectura y por ende al derecho a la información, la comunicación y la cultura por parte de personas ciegas, con baja visión y otras discapacidades para el acceso a la lectura impresa.
Desde la Unión Mundial de Ciegos se trabaja en una solución que garantice el ejercicio de estos derechos por parte de la población con discapacidad, al tiempo que resguarda el derecho de autores y editores. Un Tratado Internacional es el camino que debe adoptarse para avanzar hacia una verdadera sociedad inclusiva y respetuosa de los derechos humanos.
América Latina, a través de los gobiernos de Brasil, Ecuador y Paraguay ha encabezado esta empresa en el ceno de la OMPI haciendo suya la propuesta de UMC y promoviendo los debates que hoy nos dejan en la puerta de una posible Conferencia Diplomática para la elaboración del instrumento vinculante.
Como regional de UMC que reúne a 19 países en vías de desarrollo, desde ULAC se ha impulsado con decisión la Campaña Derecho a Leer consiguiendo el apoyo explícito de otros Estados (México, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) que se vio reflejado en la posición monolítica del GRULAC en las negociaciones llevadas a cabo en las sucesivas sesiones del Consejo de Derechos de Autor y Derechos conexos (SCCR) de la OMPI desde 2009 a la fecha.