Running in Cornfields

Blind Activist to be Released from Prison

2010-09-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Updated on Sep 08, 2010

Yuan Weijing has not been so cheerful and excited for years.

Her husband Chen Guangcheng , a blind political activist who was jailed in 2006 after exposing local government abuse of the mainland's one-child policy, is due to be released tomorrow.

"I'm more euphoric than when I was waiting for the birth of my children," Yuan said.

Chen, 38, a self-taught "barefoot" lawyer, was arrested in March 2006 and sentenced to four years and three months in jail on what supporters called trumped-up charges - organising a crowd to disrupt traffic and damaging public property. The charges came after villagers, protesting against police abuse of Chen, clashed with authorities a month before his arrest.

His supporters say his imprisonment was an act of retaliation against Chen, who in 2005 accused his local Yinan county officials in Shandong province of forcing the sterilisation or late-term abortions of at least 7,000 women.

Despite Yuan's happiness over her husband's imminent release, she worries about how free he will actually be after he comes home. A few prominent activists, such as Shanghai rights lawyer Zheng Enchong , were slapped under house arrest when their prison sentences ended.

"It is possible that this might happen to him," Yuan said.

Last week, authorities began installing surveillance cameras outside her home and at street corners in the vicinity. She heard that police were to step up surveillance on her once her husband was released - her house is already guarded by six security men, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"I am not even sure whether I will be allowed to pick him up from the prison - I need to ask for permission to go out," she said.

Even before his imprisonment, Chen was often put under house arrest and tailed by security men.

During almost the whole of her husband's jail term, Yuan also was monitored around the clock and constantly harassed by guards who stopped her from leaving her house, except to buy food. She had to send her young son to live with her sister because they would not allow her to take him to kindergarten. She was also barred from travelling to Manila in 2007 to collect an award honouring her husband.

Yuan was only allowed to visit her husband three times during his four years in jail, despite the fact that she was legally entitled to visit him as a family member once a month.

The last time she saw her husband was eight months ago. She said he had chronic diarrhoea for two years and had been denied adequate medical treatment. He told her that he had been beaten by other inmates on the orders of prison officials for refusing to shave his head.

Yuan fought hard for a reduction of Chen's jail term on the grounds of his ill health and good behaviour but her pleas were ignored.

"Is the denial of adequate medical attention for the long-term, debilitating diarrhoea that he has experienced in confinement designed to disable him from post-prison activism?" asked prominent US law professor Jerome Cohen in an opinion article in this newspaper this year.

Rights groups say Chen's case is a reflection of the treatment of activists on the mainland.

"It is a reminder that human rights activists in China risk far more than trial and imprisonment," said Nicholas Bequelin of New York-based Human Rights Watch. "The repression that they face is all-encompassing and is really targeted at their livelihood and families to dissuade others from following their examples," he said.

- Verna Yu

Human Rights Watch Report - Uganda: For Women with Disabilities, Barriers and Abuse

2010-08-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch released a report on women with disabilities in Uganda. The press release follows, and a PDF version of the report can be found here:

(Kampala) - Women with disabilities in northern Uganda experience ongoing discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Many are unable to gain access to basic services, including health care and justice, and they have been largely ignored in post-conflict reconstruction efforts.

The 73-page report, "‘As if We Weren't Human': Discrimination and Violence against Women with Disabilities in Northern Uganda," describes frequent abuse and discrimination by strangers, neighbors, and even family members against women and girls with disabilities in the north. Women interviewed for the report said they were not able to get basic provisions such as food, clothing, and shelter in camps for displaced persons or in their own communities. One woman with a physical disability who lived in such a camp told Human Rights Watch that people said to her, "You are useless. You are a waste of food. You should just die so that others can eat the food." The research was conducted in six districts of northern Uganda - a region recently emerging from over two decades of brutal conflict between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the government.

"One of the untold stories of the long war in Northern Uganda and its aftermath is the isolation, neglect, and abuse of women and girls with disabilities," said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. "As Ugandans in the north struggle to reclaim their lives, the government and humanitarian agencies need to make sure that women with disabilities are not left out."

The report is based on interviews with 64 women and girls with a wide range of disabilities, some caused by diseases such as polio and others by landmines or gunshot wounds during the protracted conflict. According to a 2007 national survey, approximately 20 percent of people in Uganda have disabilities. However, northern Uganda is believed to have higher disability rates because of war-related injuries and limited access to treatment or vaccinations for illnesses.

Human Rights Watch's research suggests that women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence. More than one-third of the women interviewed told Human Rights Watch that they had experienced some form of sexual or physical abuse. None had been able to press criminal charges or pursue prosecutions of their attackers.

"Women with disabilities are often not given any information about sexual or reproductive health and HIV," Barriga said. "But they have real sexual health needs, and they also need to be protected from sexual violence and be able to get justice if abused."

Women with disabilities, the report notes, are especially vulnerable to HIV because of poverty, difficulty in negotiating safe sex, lack of accessible information, and susceptibility to violence and rape. Many of the women could not reach health centers or police stations, which are often situated far away or are inaccessible for lack of sign language interpreters, Braille signage or ramps for physical access. Others encountered discriminatory attitudes by staff and could not get assistance even from family members.

"I cannot bathe near others," Candace, a woman with HIV and who has an amputated leg from a landmine, told Human Rights Watch. "My neighbors think that the water that comes off of me has HIV in it. They say I will get the community sick if they touch the water. There has been HIV sensitization in the community but there is no real change in attitudes."

Among the recommendations in the report is that the Ugandan government should adequately address the needs of women with disabilities in post-conflict development plans and programs. The report also calls on the government to ensure access for women with disabilities to mainstream government programs, particularly with regard to sexual and gender-based violence, reproductive health, and HIV.

Human Rights Watch found that the vast majority of humanitarian aid organizations do not have specific programs to meet the needs of people with disabilities. The report recommends that humanitarian aid organizations partner with organizations representing people with disabilities to ensure that information about the resettlement process and available support services reach them.

One of the key problems is the lack of data on the number of women with disabilities in northern Uganda and their access to services, Human Rights Watch said. The government and humanitarian agencies need to collect this information and use it to develop more inclusive programs for women with disabilities.

The government of Uganda has an obligation to respect the rights of persons with disabilities under international and regional laws, the national constitution, and other domestic legislation. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Uganda should ensure that women with disabilities enjoy all human rights on an equal basis with others. In practice, the government of Uganda needs to do more to implement its laws to protect women with disabilities in northern Uganda from violence and to ensure their access to basic services, Human Rights Watch said.

"The war has hidden and compounded the isolation and discrimination against women and girls with disabilities," Barriga said. "But now the government has a special opportunity - and a special responsibility - to meet their needs."

Selected accounts from individuals interviewed for "As If We Weren't Human"

"There were 12 people in the house on the day it was burned down [by the Lord's Resistance Army]. Those of us closer to the door survived. I lay on my stomach and protected my heart. My head got burned, and I lost my sight. I don't hear well."

- Edna, a 29-year-old woman who fled her rural village for Lira town in 2004. Edna is also HIV-positive.

"I was raped three times in this house one week ago. The man came at night, so I was unable to recognize him. I have not told anyone, not even my mother. I was thinking of bringing a panga [machete] to bed with me in case he comes again. I fear that if I report, then I will need to know my HIV status. I want to check my HIV status at a health center but I do not have transport to town. The hospital is far and my [hand-crank] bicycle is broken. Others in the community will say that it's my fault and that I run around with men."

- Angela, a 20-year-old woman born with a physical disability, Amuru district

"If I go back to my original home, I'll be like a child, waiting to be fed."

- Mary, woman with physical disability living in a displaced persons camp, Amuru district

"Delivery beds are extremely high and have wheels. [The nurses] tell you to get on the bed. You try to get on, but the bed is rolling. They say, ‘You get on the bed! How did you get on the bed where you got pregnant?'"

- Hon. Nalule Safia Juuko, member of parliament representing women with disabilities

"The neighbors beat my children. When they played with the neighbors' children, they were told to go away. They said, ‘You'll spread deafness to my family.'"

- Erica, a deaf woman who lost one of her children during childbirth because the nurse did not communicate to her that she was going to have twins, Lira district

Photo: 2010 Martina Bacigalupo for Human Rights Watch
For more information, contact: Shantha Rau Barriga barrigs@hrw.org

Rebranding of MDRI

2010-08-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Founder and Executive Director of Mental Disability Rights International, Eric Rosenthal, officially announced the re-branding of MDRI today. This human rights and advocacy organization has been campaigning against the institutionalization and torture of people with intellectual disabilities around the world (but not yet in Africa, mind you...) for over 16 years.

In conjunction with one of DRI's most recent campaigns, Rosenthal appeared on the ABC news nightline to bring greater attention to aversive shock therapy treatment that is being used in the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts, USA.

I think DRI's decision to take "Mental" from its name is an important one. Officially, Disability Rights International states "our new name reflects the reality that people with any kind of disability—whether mental or physical—are often shut away from society, locked in institutions, and denied basic human dignity and rights." This name reflects a change, from singling out or labeling of specific disabilities to advocating for the rights of all people, regardless of their disability.

But this name change also reflects a shift in the disability community and a change in society, where recently the commonly-used term "mental retardation" has been officially replaced with a more positive and less-stigmatizing term, "intellectual disability".

Congratulations to Disability Rights International on the new name and website. Hopefully next on your to-do list will be expanding your human rights work into Africa!

Note on the New Design

2010-08-03T08:02:00.001-07:00

I know, I know. It's not a cornfield in the background. But blogger didn't give me that image option. And at least it's a field... right?

The Right to Accessibility

2010-08-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Day of General Discussion

on “The Right to Accessibility”

7 October 2010

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 by the UN General Assembly. The Convention and its Optional Protocol entered into force on 3 May 2008. So far, the Convention has acquired 145 signatories and 87 states parties.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the body of independent experts responsible for reviewing progress made by States parties in implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, during its first session, decided to devote its 2010 Day of General Discussion (DGD) on 07 October 2010 to article 9 and other relevant articles of the Convention dealing with the right to accessibility.

The purpose of the Days of General Discussion is to foster a deeper understanding of the contents and implications of the Convention as they relate to specific articles or topics. Representatives of Governments, United Nations human rights mechanisms, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions as well as individual experts and children are welcome to take part.

The 2010 Day of General Discussion is intended to provide States and other actors with more comprehensive guidance as to their obligations to promote and protect the right to Accessibility as outlined in article 9 and other relevant articles of the Convention.

Given the complexity of the concepts and issues involved, and in order to facilitate the exchange of views between participants and Committee members, the discussion will be held in three separate sessions based on the following topics in order to focus the discussions (please refer to the outline for more details on the topics and sub-topics):

Session 1: The right to access on an equal basis with others to the physical environment and transportation;
Session 2: The right to access on an equal basis with others to virtual and material information and communications;
Session 3: Discussion of the best practices on the implementation and promotion of the Right to Accessibility.

The Committee will hold a day of general discussion each year. Please refer to the guidelines for information on registration and participation.

Submission of written contributions

The Committee encourages the submission of written contributions or case studies that reflect the different challenges in implementing the Right to Accessibility. Such contributions can be devoted to one or more of the following subtopics, or any other, provided that the submissions remain within the framework of the issues codified under Article 9

a) The right to access on an equal basis with others to the physical environment and transportation

- New proposals for the elimination of obstacles and barriers to physical accessibility.

- Definition of international indicators of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public.

- Defining the concept of “Universal design”.

- Measures concerning the provision of appropriate means of transportation.

- Reservations to Article 9.

b) The right to access on an equal basis with others to information and communications

- According to Article 30 (3), States Parties shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that laws protecting intellectual property rights do not constitute an unreasonable or discriminatory barrier to access by persons with disabilities to cultural materials; examine the possibility of copyright exceptions for visual impaired people.

- Developing inclusive policies for persons with disabilities to access virtual and material information and knowledge.

- Developing concrete and specific international indicators (standards) concerning virtual and material web accessibility, regarding computers and mobile phones.

- International cooperation and partnerships for the purposes of communication accessibility.

- Raising awareness about existing opportunities for persons with disabilities.

c) Discussion of the best practices on the implementation and promotion of the Right to Accessibility

- Implementation and fulfillment of the Right to Accessibility.

- Scope of the Right to Accessibility and its linkage with other rights.

- The challenges of the effective implementation of the obligations arising under Article 9 and practical measures to provide training for stakeholders on evaluating accessibility.

- The role of independent monitoring bodies.

Please see attached Outline for suggested issues for review under each item.

Authors of written contributions are encouraged to present a maximum of five suggestions on the Right to Accessibility for the recommendations to be adopted by the Committee following the Day of General Discussion. The suggestions, which should be attached to the submission as an annex, must be directly relevant to the topic of the Day of General Discussion as described above. Although the main working language of the Committee is English, written contributions can also be submitted in French, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Russian.

The deadline for the submission of written contributions is 05 September 2010. The Committee requests that written contributions be limited to a maximum of 2500 words. Written contributions will be forwarded and posted on the CRPD website. Previously published materials may also be submitted to the Committee, or distributed during the Day of General Discussion to other participants (with indication of source of first publication). Sufficient copies must be brought along, as the Secretariat does not have resources for reproduction and distribution. Copies of written statements to the Committee may be distributed by participants during the Day of General Discussion.

Send submissions to crpdgeneraldiscussion@ohchr.org

The Disabled Kings of Commerce

2010-01-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

"Some are blind; all are disabled. But on the banks of the river Congo, between Kinshasa and Brazzaville, they are the kings of commerce. Because they can travel at reduced prices and pay no customs duty, their handicap is a gold mine. Our reporters met the tradesmen who use their disability to escape a life of begging."

Watch the report by Arnaud Zajtman and Marlene Rabaud here.

Personhood, Disability, and the Congo

2009-11-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

Today the Kansas African Studies Center gave me the opportunity to introduce my research interests and to lead a brown bag discussion on understanding disability in Africa.

I spoke for a short while about how difficult it is to assign a universal definition of disability: disability is a socially-constructed phenomenon and a person's understanding or conception of disability will be very much based on their cultural background and social understanding of the world. Anthropologist Benedicte Ingstad believes that rather than design a universal definition of disability, we should define disability based upon a concept of "personhood", which is a measure of the extent and on which conditions persons with disabilities are included as full members of a society.

I also introduced some important disability issues in the Congo, as identified by Zamenga Batukezanga - namely I discussed spirituality, "total medicine" as opposed to Western/modern medicine, assistive technology and the difficulty of importing technologies from the developed world, the importance of family life and childbearing, education, and employment. Batukezanga was a very wise man who wrote many important reflections on disability in Congo and I hope to discuss his work more extensively on this blog in the future.

The discussion that followed my introduction to the brown bag session was fascinating and the Africanists in attendance asked some very hard and very thought-provoking questions. They helped me understand some initial questions that I need to research before even starting to work on understanding Family Quality of Life in the Congo, such as "What Is Disability in the Congo?" "What is Family?" "What changes occur in social life and family functioning when moving from village to city? Or from peace to conflict?"

I left the brown bag discussion feeling very inspired... but also quite overwhelmed with all the unanswered questions and all the necessary areas for further study. Thankfully, I've got a lifetime to work on it!

"Best Handicapped Band in Africa" - Staff Benda Bilili

2009-11-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

Theo (with the black beret), Coco (at the wheel of his bike) and Ricky (on crutches) of Staff Benda Bilili, Ndjili, Kinshasa, Congo (DRC), 14 september 2009. Photograph: Andy Hall

My apologies for going so long between postings: my last week has been devoted to Zamenga Batukezanga and an Independent Study I'm completing. But thankfully, Caspar Llewellyn Smith just published a very intriguing article about a talented band making the rounds in Kinshasa and Europe. Hopefully Mr. Smith's capable writings can satiate your thirst for Congo/Africa/Disability writings for a few more days.

Does anyone know when and where we can watch the documentary?

Oh how I would love to be in N'Djili right now...

DRC: Child Disability, the Forgotten Crisis

2009-10-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share an article published by OCHA's Humanitarian News Network that addresses disability in Goma, Eastern DRC.

DRC: Child disability, the forgotten crisis

Photo: Aubrey Graham/IRIN

Helena reacts joyfully to her therapist, Innocent, while being helped to maintain her balance by Laura Keyser at the Hanicap International IDP field clinic near Goma

GOMA, 23 October 2009 (IRIN) - Looking at herself in the mirror, nine-year-old Helena squealed with delight at her reflection, standing upright with just the slightest support of her therapist. A year before, Helena was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and identified for therapy in Mugunga II IDP camp in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Helena, able only to crawl, had been confined to very specific spaces due to the lava in the IDP camp.

Helena was one of the lucky few to have received regular treatment. Robert Golden, a doctor, states in the 2008 UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) report, Monitoring Child Disability in Developing Countries, that it is an “important but largely unaddressed issue”. This is especially true in DRC where child disability receives little attention among the myriad crises befalling the country.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), two million people are displaced in the eastern DRC. Combine this figure with World Health Organization (WHO) data that 10 percent of the world’s population suffer some form of disability, and that would mean 200,000 disabled people among the displaced, many of them children.

“Attention and funding for programmes addressing disability are largely under-funded worldwide, and particularly in Congo,” says Heal Africa’s Laura Keyser.

“The international community might not see disability as an emergency worth focusing on now, but it will become a full emergency if nothing is done,” said Loran Hollander of Heal Africa’s hospital in Goma.

Increasing Risk Factors

While funding for treatment remains minimal for agencies specializing in treating disabilities, the number of disabled children and those at risk continues to grow due to the increased risk factors brought on by the breakdown of the health infrastructure, ongoing violence and displacement in the eastern DRC.

Minimal access to healthcare, clean water, and overall poor nutrition during pregnancy lead to common congenital disabilities in children such as spina-bifida and limb deformities, and young children predisposed to early childhood diseases such as meningitis and polio, explained Keyser.

Access routes to health centres are often blocked for patients and medical teams. This lack of access leads frequently to birthing complications, child developmental delays and maternal mortality.

Furthermore, the prevalence of rape in the DRC is also linked to a probable increase in child disability. “Frequently women pregnant from rape do not seek pre- or peri-natal care, which can lead to the problems aforementioned, as well as birth trauma - either to the baby (ie lack of oxygen leading to cerebral palsy or some type of developmental delay) or to the woman (ie a fistula, which may or may not leave them incontinent),” said Keyser.

Photo: Aubrey Graham/IRIN

Laura Keyser helps Jusbeen to walk in the Heal Africa Clinic in Goma

Vulnerability

“Unfortunately, disabled children are more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, neglect and discrimination. They face reduced social participation and have less access to education and other social services than children without disabilities,” states Golden.

In addition, according to Handicap International and Heal Africa, inside the camps as well as outside, children with a disability struggle daily with social stigma and discrimination.

Proper treatment, according to UNICEF, Handicap International and Heal Africa, provides the children with the physical ability to function more fully in society while also educating the community to break down stigma and social restrictions.

UNICEF notes that “early detection and intervention might confer benefits to children at risk for disability and prevent long-term functional limitations”.

Jusbeen, 4, came to the Heal Africa’s clinic with a serious infection, a noma, which had “scarred down” his mouth, making it difficult to eat or drink. Therapists discovered that Jusbeen also suffered from developmental delays. However, since his disability was caught early, he has undergone a significant transformation. With ongoing therapy and constant encouragement from his mother, Keyser notes, “he is now able to walk with hand-held assistance, smiles, laughs and engages in play activities which were impossible before”.

Due to minimal international attention to child disability amid the numerous crises afflicting the DRC, children like Jusbeen and Helena, who received treatment, remain among the minority. “These children need all the help they can get,” says UNICEF. At present, that help is limited.

Including Samuel

2009-10-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

Samuel and Isaiah in the Hospital (Credit: Dan Habib includingsamuel.com)

Last night I finally was able to watch a documentary that others in my department rave about: Including Samuel. This film was created by Dan Habib, a photojournalist and father of Samuel - a child with cerebral palsy. In addition to documenting his family's experience, Habib also speaks with other people with disabilities about their experience with being accepted and included (or excluded) in society.

This film offers the chance to hear disability activists speak about their experience and to witness all of the different ways that Samuel teaches and influences the people around him. But perhaps most memorable aspect of the film for me was the beautiful relationship between Samuel and his brother, Isaiah. The two brothers play together and interact just as they would if Samuel did not have a disability. It is very clear that each boy thrives off of the love and attention of the other. Including Samuel highlights the importance of thinking of disability in a family or communiy-focused context and it confronts our prejeduces against things that are "different" in our world. I can't even begin to imagine how each of Samuel's classmates' perspectives will be forever changed as a result of having exposure to and interaction with a person with a disability at a young age.
Samuel in the classroom (credit: Dan Habib, includingsamuel.com)

If you ever get the chance, I would highly recommend watching this film!

BBC's "Hungry to Learn Across the World" features Inclusion in Tanzania Primary Schools!

2009-10-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? Unfortunately, midterms and the usual grad school stuff have made it so that there is not a lot of spare time for running in cornfields going on at the moment, much to the detriment of my waistline.

In any case, I saw this story on BBC today and thought that it was just delightful. This is a model of what inclusion should be: students with disabilities learning in the general education classroom, with adaptive support and personal encouragement from both their teachers AND their peers. What's more, Sospeter helps his peers when they need it too, so everyone seems to benefit!

The blind and the sighted students help each other
(Photo: BBC)

I'm preparing to write a final exam/paper in my SPED law class about special education models/law/policy in Tanzania, so it is great to hear real-life stories where the Tanzania government's policy of improved inclusion of students disability in primary school is actually put into practice.

Enjoy!

BBC's "Hungry to Learn Across the World"

Autism Africa 2010

2009-10-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

Autism Africa, in partnership with International Special Education Coalition and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development is proud to be sponsoring the 1st Inaugural Autism Africa Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 3-5 August 2010.

With its theme of Autism: The Science, Diagnosis and Beyond, AAC 2010 will bring together educators, researchers, service providers and practitioners, people with autism spectrum disorder, and families from across Africa and the World.

Throughout the three day conference, delegates will pursue four conference streams in
research papers, personal narratives, Poster Sessions, and symposiums:
* Epidemiology, Causes and Diagnosis
* Medical issues, Treatment and Intervention
* Family Life, Family Functioning and Family Resilience
* Autism across Africa
PLEASE E-MAIL PROPOSALS/ABSTRACTS TO
abstracts@autismafricaconference.com

Log on to www.autismafricaconference.com to register and for more
information.
For more information, please send an email to:
info@autismafricaconference.com

Chris Waddell on Kilimanjaro

2009-09-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this post is not about African experience with disability, but it is an inspirational story about one person with a disability and his journey in Tanzania, so I thought I'd share!

You can read Chris Waddell's Blog here.
It would be interesting to hear about the communities that will receive Chris' donations. Currently, his website focuses primarily on his personal journey, but I would love to learn about the journey of some of the Tanzanians who require the same types of assistive technology that he uses.

Good luck with the summit tomorrow, Chris!

Killers get death sentence in step against targeted murder of persons with albinism

2009-09-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, three men were found guilty in a Tanzanian court for the murder of an albino boy in the north-western Shinyanga district of the country. Over the years, many individuals with Albinism have been victims of brutal attacks, often because witch doctors believe that their skin and body parts have special healing properties or add potency to traditional medicine.

The Tanzanian Albino Society (TAS) had been warning for years of the growing threat to their community but found initially that there was little official interest in the killings. The UK-based agency, Action on Disability and Development (ADD), which supports TAS, said it "applauds the efforts of the Tanzanian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice" but called on the courts to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment on appeal.*

For more information see the BBC's recent story on the court case.

*Quote from Daniel Howden's coverage of the story in The Independent

Schools for Africa Campaign

2009-09-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

This week UNICEF published a press release, stating that it has raised more than $50 million to help children in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe with its "Schools for Africa" campaign. For 2010 and beyond, this project's fundraising focus will be for schools in other countries across the continent: including Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

UNICEF has a unique opportunity to offer improved services for children with disabilities through the Schools for Africa initiative. Currently, the Schools for Africa program does not have a specific focus on disability, rather, it is focused on "orphans, children living in extreme poverty, and girls". Without children with disabilities being specifically mentioned, will their needs really be met?

How many of Schools for Africa's 1000 new or refurbished schools will be built with appropriate accommodations for physically disabled students in mind? Will specific training on how to effectively integrate children with disabilities into the general classroom be offered as a component of Schools for Africa's teacher training that is to touch 80,000 teachers Africa-wide? Or will children with disabilities and their families be left out of what is an otherwise positive development for the continent?

Bilanga ya mboto

2009-09-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! You may have previously read my field blog while I was working with at-risk youth in Kinshasa, or you might have read my postings from when I blogged for the Living Oceans Society on the Coastal Voices Blog.

Now, I've decided to open up "Running in Cornfields" as I have recently taken up residence in Lawrence, Kansas as a Masters/PhD student extraordinaire. My Masters is tied to the University of Kansas' Department of Special Education and my PhD work (also at KU - but department-less in a sense) is tied to the Beach Center on Family and Disability.

I hope that this blog will serve as an outlet for organizing my thoughts over the next five years (and beyond?) as I try to understand and explore family, disability, and the Congo.

A note on my blog address and title: I was jogging on my favorite path in Lawrence (it winds along a river and flanks various cornfields) when I thought of the name. There are many meanings that it could take:
1. Every time I visit a new place, I find the best way to get to know it is to go jogging and get lost along the way. I've been getting lost in or near cornfields in various countries around the world for the past 6 years.
2. A lot of my blog posts will likely be born while I am jogging through cornfields in Kansas. It's the only time in the day that I'm really able to zone out, reflect, or allow my mind to constructively wander.
3. Choose a nice, cliched, metaphorical statement about life and finding your way through cornfields, and insert it here.

The blogger address: bilangayamboto.blogspot.com is, quite simply, "cornfields" in Lingala: bilanga ya mboto.