Inclusion International Newsletter: May 2017 No Images? Click here Inclusion News: May 2017Welcome to the May issue of Inclusion News. In this edition we highlight some of the work of our network in building strategies to promote inclusion at the global (General Comment on Article 19); regionally (Europe in Action, Prague) and country level (Self-advocacy in China). One of our shared goals as a global network is to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities have the right to live and be included in all aspects of their communities. The UN CRPD Committee has issued a draft of their General Comment on the right to live in the community. We need to raise our collective voices to ensure that this interpretation reflects our experiences and goals. Join us on our webinar to add your voice to this important issue. Also in this newsletter read about our efforts to strengthen and grow the global movement through our expanded membership and leadership training (Bridge); support to members through Catalyst for Inclusive Education; and building alliances with new partners (International Disability and Development Consortium). If you have any stories or news you would like to share with us please send them to info@inclusion-international.org Join Our NetworkJoin us and add your voice; share your experience; and be part of a movement for change. Inclusion International is the global network of people with intellectual disabilities and their families working together to make our communities inclusive. With leadership from self-advocates and families, our network ensures that the voices of our members are heard in the ongoing work of implementing the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People and the Sustainable Development Goals: Agenda 2030. The commitments in these agendas are universal and the Inclusion International network works to ensure that the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities are kept at the forefront of decision makers minds. Together we learn and share experiences about inclusion in the community; in school in workplaces and we support people and organizations to act as change makers. To learn more about becoming a member as an individual, and organization or a group. If your organisation is interested in joining our network complete the application form and send it back to info@inclusion-international.org The Membership committee will review all applications to ensure alignment with the Statement of Unity. Upcoming Webinar on Draft General Comment on Article 19 The Draft General Comment on Article 19: The right to Living independently and being included in the community is open for comment and Inclusion International will be submitting our response. As with previous Draft General Comments, we will be working with our members in developing our response and supporting members to make their own submissions. The deadline to respond to the Draft General Comment on Article 19 is the 30th June 2017. We will be hosting a webinars on the General Comment on 24th May at 9:00-10:00 EST (click here for Time Zone converter) The purpose of the webinar is to:
Catalyst for Inclusive Education Rolling out Country Initiatives A catalyst is an event or person(s) causing a change. Like a spark that starts a fire, a catalyst by formal definition is designed to increase the rate of a reaction. Catalyst for Inclusive Education aims to advance inclusive and quality education for all, by creating momentum globally to effectively include persons with intellectual disabilities. Since our launch in October 2016, Catalyst for Inclusive Education has received requests for support and expressions of interest in Catalyst from over 25 organizations around the world. The Catalyst team has provided technical expertise to members ASDOWN (Colombia) and Plena Inclusion (Spain). Work with PFPID (Nepal) and IHC (New Zealand) is underway, and the team is also consulting with Inclusion Africa on how to best move forward in the region. The team is currently busy working with members, and organizations who have expressed intention in joining Inclusion International, in Peru and Paraguay. Next week the Catalyst team will begin scoping missions in each of these countries in order to analyze the current landscape of education as well as the various stakeholders and key actors involved, so recommendations and a plan of action can be developed. Are you trying to advance inclusive education in your country or region? Do you have successful strategies to share? Do you need access to expertise and information that can help you make progress? Tell us how you would like to become involved. The International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) Inclusion International is an active member of the IDDC working with other members to advance inclusive approaches in development programmes and spending. As a member of the IDDC working group on inclusive education, we are campaigning for funding in education with an emphasis on inclusive, quality education (see our joint call to invest in Disability-Inclusive Education). The IDDC network is an important mechanism for Inclusion International and our members to influence the way other organizations (Handicap International; CBM; Sightsavers etc.) include people with intellectual disabilities in their policy and programming work and at a country level to connect our members with these groups. This year the General Assembly and a workshop on: Inclusive Economic Empowerment of Youth with Disabilities took place in Oslo, Norway. Supporting Leaders and Advocacy in our Global network BRIDGE module 2 for Eastern and Western Africa for English speaking countries took place in Nairobi from 5th to 11th May2017. The initiative led by IDA and IDDC drew 31 participants with diverse disabilities from 10 countries The second module comprises of intense sessions and deliberations on:
Inclusion Africa was represented by two participants, Mihret Nigussei a family member from Ethiopia and Jane Akinyi a self advocate from Kenya. In total 3 people with intellectual disabilities participated in the training, the 2 other self advocates from Nigeria and Uganda being members of Down syndrome International Fatma Wangare from Inclusion Africa was part of the facilitation team which had diverse facilitators who brought to life inclusive facilitation and complimented each other through-out the training sessions Global Self-advocacy Report translated to Chinese We would like to thank Inclusion China for translating our Global Report on Self-advocacy and for sharing information about their national self-advocacy Forum held on March 16th. Following their participation at Inclusion International Self-advocacy Leadership Summit held in Florida last year, Inclusion China was encouraged to organise their own self-advocacy forum at national level. The forum was attended by more than 30 self-advocates from Beijing, Xiamen, Tangshan, Changsha, Guangzhou, etc. Self-advocate Ms Lai, who attended the Global Conference in Florida shared her experience with the group and encouraged other to discuss what it was important to them. Self-advocates worked in groups to share experiences about independent travel, independent living and inclusive employment. Europe in Action: Love, Life and Friendship You can still register and join more than 200 people from across Europe to engage in interesting discussions about Love, Life and Frienship and listen to the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The 2017 “Europe in Action” conference will be jointly organised with Inclusion Czech Republic and will take place in Prague from 1-3 June 2017. Register now! JOBS UN consultancy vacancy on political and public participation of persons with mental and intellectual disabilities, posted by the Inclusive Political Processes Team – UNDP. Upcoming events
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