Youth with Disabilities Ramping the Road Map of the Middle East

1. Youth with Disabilities Ramping the Road Map of the Middle East • Identifying the challenges that impede the implementation of developing services and promoting economic development for people with disabilities • Lessons learned by Mercy Corps Intellectual Property Rights of Karen Saba

2. Overview • For Mercy Corps, there are three challenges that impede the implementation of service programs promoting the productivity of people with disabilities. • The Middle Eastern Environment itself - including  local attitudes, social beliefs and national political will • Diverse economic systems within the region • The methodology of donors and foreign aid in funding disability program

3. 1. The Middle East Environment • Local attitudes and political will limit the potential for self-determination of YWDs. • Individuals with disabilities lack the knowledge or support to create effective services for themselves and their community.

4. 2. Diverse Economic Systems • Most qualified PWD service providers with the capacity to empower those with disabilities end up working in the Gulf countries, although most are trained in Egypt and Jordan. • In the Gulf, disability services are totally privatized.

6. 2. Diverse Economic SystemsSlide 2 • The relationship between national and per-capita income and disability rights may be interesting to explore. • While disability service providers and heath care professionals in the Middle East usually have good theoretical knowledge, they lack practical experience, and often exhibit condescending attitudes toward those with disabilities.

8. 3.The Historic Trends of funding Disability Programming • Historically, international development efforts have focused on distribution of durable medical supplies (wheelchairs, etc) and centralizing the medical services into specific location. • Efforts have focused on rehabilitation of PWDs (fixing their bodies) rather than putting the Social Safety- Nets to make them productive members of society. • This approach has contributed to the historical trend of institutionalizing those with disabilities, • It has created assumptions that service providers should control and dictate the services provided to PWDs.

9. Had two tracks Direct capacity training to YWD –through peer empowerment training Integrating YWD in most programs. Main Goal- Decentralization of services. Mercy CorpsMiddle East Disability Program

10. Direct Capacity Training • In Iraq, through small grants, the PWDs implemented the following projects • Small home infrastructure modification Remodeling restrooms and ramping houses • The DPO did the assessment and the bidding and oversaw the entire project • Imagine how empowering it is for a youth to use a restroom independently ! • DPO implemented an education project to teach those with severe disabilities • DPOs did an awareness campaign on bedsores

11. Employment of PWDs • It is not easy to hire qualified PWDs. • The Education System in MENA excludes PWD. Or is not accommodating • In order to even begin to talk about Employment of YWDs, you have to address this practice. • Having policy is not good enough. MENA needs to develop program in this area.

12. Employment of PWD slide 2 • Mercy Corps- has made it a commitment to hire PWDs in the region. • 3 out of the 5 country offices have PWDs working full time. • The argument of not finding qualified PWDs to work in the field is an excuse! • The 3 offices that hired PWDs did it because there was a Commitment by the Country Director to do so.

13. The Value in Hiring YWDs • In order to Fund programs for YWDs, you have to get to know our issues and feel comfortable with our culture. • Hiring local PWDs can help you break those cultural barriers. • This will create stronger sustainable disability programs; and help create a culture of diversity that is needed in the Middle East.

14. Mainstreaming Projects • Conflict and Medication training- Leaders that included PWD. • As a result, we found out that a lot of elected official had PWD family members. • People became more willing to talk about PWD issues. • The disability community is very diverse there is a lot of internal feud among the different disability groups, they should be included in such training.

15. Connectivity • All our internet café’s are physically accessible. • In Lebanon this became a hanging out for YWDs. • In Syria, we allocated some travel funds so we can assist pwd to come to training held in these computer centers. • In Iraq- We used these centers to teach parents of the deaf sign language.

16. Infrastructure • Our engineers in Iraq have been trained on the ADAAG because there is plenty of technical information on the internet on this Code. • PWDs were paid to evaluate the Accessibility standards during construction projects. • In Jordan, I found a capable disabled Architect Designer that I would have liked to use for our Accessibility Education project.

18. Distribution of NFI • Keep in mind that most YWDs live in isolation. We went to their home and did individual assessment using ILP.

19. Recommendations and Conclusions • Promote Inclusion by having PWD input at all levels of program development • by making sure that funding is going to YWDs, not just for services, but also for management, logistics, staffing, etc. • HIRE PWDs; and work with your partners to help them adhere to the local Employment Quotas. • Its especially crucial to establish personal rapport directly with individuals with disabilities. Not just government run organizations. • Learn about the Micro Economic Politics of Disability in MENA

20. Recommendations and Conclusions • Grants to fund disability programs, should be quantify by the number of services provided not by the # of individuals being served. • Serves should focus on individual needs and not on any centralized service providers to avoid institutionalization. • Fund Safety-net programs to integrate PWDs in mainstream development projects. • Use your economic power to and try to change Local Attitudes!

21. Use your economic power to let the Attitudinal Wall Barrier come tumble down! THANK YOU.