By Malak Hasan
RAMALLAH, December 5, 2017 (WAFA) – The youth group “Bhmtkom” Tuesday organized the first national conference for Palestinian youth with disability under the title of “And I am a part”, as part of the project “For effective youth with disabilities to create positive change.”
The project is the result of partnership between the Palestinian Vision Organization, the Norwegian Association of Disabled (NAD) and Diakonia in Palestine. The conference held in the Palestinian Red Crescent in al-Bireh, focused on the topic of adapting to support the integration of people with disability in all walks of life.
Over 150 young women and men attended the conference from all over the West Bank, which was facilitated in cooperation with rehabilitation programs in the West Bank and the Palestinian General Union of People with Disability (GUPWD).
Amer Daraghmeh, south coordinator of the Palestinian Vision told WAFA that youth with disability are demanding more rights and services, yet the most basic components of their daily life are not adapted to their needs. “Streets, ministries, transportation, and many more places are not adapted to their needs.”
He said he views this conference as a huge step to the better because it is a step to educate youth with disability about their rights and also come with mechanisms and recommendations to improve the livelihoods of persons with disability.
The conference, which is seen as the first of its kind, has brought together representatives from the Ministry of Local Governance, the Engineers Syndicate, the Municipal Development and Lending Fund, the Ramallah Municipality and the General Personnel Council to discuss the reality of persons with disabilities and pinpoint the shortcomings of each official entity.
The representatives of all bodies agreed that more could be done to ensure accessibility for people with disability and inclusion in their communities.
The conference attendees shared personal accounts about how the lack of adapted services is affecting their daily lives and ability to integrate in the workplace, street and schools.
After a four hour debate and exchanges between the representatives and audience, the conference came out with several recommendations and mechanisms to be presented to the cabinet in the upcoming weeks and discussed on a high level to be implemented before the next year.
These recommendations included, providing sign language in ministries and official entities, future meetings with organizations that work with people with disability and the private sector, meetings with ministers to discuss the rehabilitation of ministries that are not accessible, a special committee on the cabinet’s level to follow up with the implementation of measures related to people with disability, and a strict penalty against people who violate accessibility laws in new structures.
Some other recommendations included, motivating municipalities to respect accessibility laws and focus on the rehabilitation of people with disability to have the skills and ability to compete in the marketplace.
Areej Jubi, manager of the people with disability project by Diakonia and NAD told WAFA that this conference is the first of its kind because it focuses on youth only. “We worked with Palestinian Vision, which doesn’t usually work with this category of youth, because we wanted to encourage all institutions that work with youth to remember that youth with disability are still youth and should be included.”
She said people with disability have been neglected for many years and the entire Palestinian society must believe that they are part of the Palestinian community in general.
“We are trying to normalize the topic of disability and ensure that not only institutions make sure to work with people with disability, but also change internal policies to ensure equal access to jobs and opportunities,” she added.
Jubi said that the conference has been very fruitful and intensive and that the audience was very engaged and managed to voice its concerns in a very constructive way.
“We will follow up with the recommendations and make sure they are delivered to the right people and are soon implemented on the ground.”
The project also included workshops for 75 young women and men who were trained on human rights, campaign’s management and vital daily skills to help them navigate their lives. The participating youth have in turn elected an organizational committee for the conference and conducted a study to determine the main topic of this year’s conference.
Daraghmeh said they hope that December 3, 2018 sees a new Palestine, one that is more accessible and adaptable for people with disability.
M.H./M.K.
