Activities and Events - Leonard Cheshire Disability - South Asia Regional Office (LCD-SARO)

Given below is a summary of activities and events that have occurred during this quarter -

LCD  South Asia Regional Office

• As part of the Mobility and Health research programme conducted by SARO, IFRTD invited SARO Regional Representative to visit the Asia forum meet in Nepal and present the research findings and an advocacy plan. During this period, the Regional Representative also visited many stakeholders (government, NGOs, DPOs) to set the ground for LCD interventions in Nepal.
• At the Asia Transport Forum, hosted by Asia Development Bank in Manila, SARO Regional Representative, Mr. Rajendra, spoke on the need for an accessible transport system.
• Programme Manager and Manager, Inclusive Education of SARO facilitated sessions on 'Community Based Rehabilitation' and 'Inclusive Education' in the 'Training of Trainers' programme held by ActionAid, India, for disability activists.
• Programme Manager and Programme Officer visited the flood-affected areas of Bihar (India) and conducted a situational analysis of persons with disabilities in relief operations. This would form a basis to initiate community-based rehabilitation services in Bihar. A proposal for the same has been developed and sent to the National Council of India.
• In collaboration with the Commonwealth Foundation, SARO is in the process of organising a 3-day conference on “Disability in Commonwealth Asia” from 6th to 8th of December 2008.

India

This quarter, the Cheshire National Council of India organised a meeting in Mumbai for all the Cheshire Home representatives. Regional Representative and Manager, Inclusive Education of SARO attended the meet and presented activities that Cheshire Homes could take up in the future.

A Livelihood Resource Centre has been established at Cheshire Home, Bangalore. The Centre is fully staffed. A stakeholder consultation was recently organised by the LRC for persons with disabilities and their family members

15 Physio and Occupational therapists from Sydney University were placed in 5 projects at Prakasam, Nagapattinam, Coorg, Coimbatore & Madurai for 4-6 weeks. With support from the therapists, the projects have developed proper intervention plans for persons with disabilities.

Bangladesh

• Regional Representative along with Ms Tanya Barron (LCD International Director) and Mr. Imtiaz Mohammed (Senior Programme Manager, Asia) visited and interacted with the Managing Committee of Cheshire Home, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• UNICEF, Bangladesh has shown an interest to collaborate with LCDDB, Bangladesh on the rights of Autistic children. In this respect, LCDDB's name has been included into UNICEF's working group.
• WHO, Bangladesh has incorporated LCDDB's name into their Psycho-Social sub-cluster national group.

Pakistan

• Following the success of the Disability Resource Centre (DRC) in Mansehra, another DRC has been set up at Islamabad, Pakistan. This DRC would be working closely with National/Federal/Provincial governments, INGOs, NGOs and DPOs.

Sri Lanka

• An accessible playground was constructed in Trincomalee through funding support from USAID. This is the only accessible playground in Sri Lanka.
• Young Voices group from Galle met the Hon. Chief Minister of Southern province on 30th of July 2008 after a road march and handed over a memorandum requesting speedy ratification of UN Convention for Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
• LCDRC has started a letter campaign from 1st July to send 4000 letters by the end of October 2008, to Hon. President of Sri Lanka, asking him to speedily ratify the UNCRPD in Sri Lanka. By the end of August 2008, persons with disabilities living in Mt Lavinia Cheshire Home, Galle and Trincomalee have sent 1637 letters to the President. Of this, 617 have received replies from the Presidential Secretariat informing that Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare has taken steps through National Council for Persons with Disabilities to do the needful.