Saowalak Thongkuay

World Toilet Forum : Toilet for all

2006-11-21T07:39:00.000+01:00

The forum included accessibility toilet, public toilet for all and universal design toilet e.g.

Please kindly see this website to get more details

http://www.worldtoiletexpo.com/

Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality (SSTH), Chur, Switzerland

2006-10-27T06:44:00.000+02:00

Here is my lessons learned form taking a course at SSTH, Switzerland with Ramkhamhaeng University.

I have found that EU is very kean to change the quality of PWDs life from charity based to rights based such everywhere has accessibilities and designed by UD ( Universal design for all).

Approaches to Empowering the Workforce which we can apply to disabled people
According to the historical Theorists especially Socrates, empowering the worker is very important. The management should be democratic because it role lends voice to all and empowering force of continuous self-improvement

The new ways to empowering environment in the workforce
1. To believe in human value.
2. To have participation approach
3. To take away indicator
4. To break down barriers between staff area.
5. To remove a gap between staff and manager
6. To create a sense of owner.
7. To create a long term security and satisfaction

Thai Social forum

2006-10-27T06:01:00.000+02:00

The march marked the end of the three-day Thai Social Forum (TSF) where NGOs and villagers from across the country met to discuss means for achieving greater social justice. The 200 marchers, much less than the 3,000 figure previously expected, were led by a disabled group and followed by labour groups. They didn't shout any anti-coup slogans but did chant their own: "Another World is Possible".

Our awareness of the reality of disability is limited because we live in a society geared towards people whose bodies and minds are fully functioning. This may seem strange when one considers that disability or illness can happen to anyone at any moment of their lives - it is an inevitable part of the human experience. Nevertheless, society is
organised in such a way as to treat disability as an exceptional circumstance that
requires special and, in the main, separate provision which is often inadequate and
Serves only to maintain the divisions and lack of understanding between able-bodied
and disabled people. In recent years, however, many public and private sector bodies have gradually realized that their work practices and policies fall far short of fulfilling the needs, rights and aspirations of disabled people who are their clients, customers and coworkers and that, in order to change this situation, they need to turn to disabled people
for education and guidance. From this realization aims to help people understand the meaning of disability, identify changes in work practice, and plan strategies to implement change.

Fantastic lady: AJK Bagh, Pakistan

2006-07-20T08:54:00.000+02:00

Ms Naszeen Aziz on left handside,
fantastic lady in AJK Bagh

The ruins of Naszeen 's school

The temporary class room

The broken & bumpy mountain road to Bagh

Earthquake affected area in Pakistan

Bagh AJK, Pakisatan, the village where located in the Himalaya mountain and partially area of Jammu & Kashmir, Ms. Nasreen Aziz, a woman with physically disabled, is living in Sesar Village in Bagh. She is a teacher for regular girls’ high school. She is also a former APCD Participants. After the disaster occurred, she was quickly to contact the others persons with disabilities who are the leader to assist her to run the project called a barrier-free environment to support many people who became disabled due the great earthquake. Moreover, she has a plane to find a fund to reconstruct the school that was partially crack down and broken. In the meantime, the students have to learn in a tent. She hopes to utilize one room of the school to be Independent Living Centre (ILC) sine she has got training for ILC management and peer-counseling from APCD. The other site of Bagh, Many villagers are living in the shelter and the broken buildings are still waiting to move away and re construct. The Pakistan Government does set up ERRA or Earthquake reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority to take this matter in to account.

Education is power : experience sharing

2006-06-02T06:28:00.000+02:00

Saowalak meets Cherie Booth QC

Saowalak, Cherie Booth QC
and Dame Tanni listening to Andrew 's speech

Whether someone is born disabled, or someone’s life is changed as the result of sickness or accident, someone moves into a different, restricted world. The tendency of someone’s family, someone’s parents, is to protect, to save people with disabilities from harm, to keep them away from the world. This desire to protect is probably stronger for the families of girls than of boys, but it affects all disabled people. The result can be isolation and loss of confidence in someone’s own social and work abilities besides a positive attitude toward their life can be disappeared.

When I first went to the Redemptorist Vocational School for the Disabled I had never met another disabled person. I had no real confidence that I would ever work, support myself, have friends have a proper life. The school changed all of those things. Immediately I arrived I met other girls and boys with the same or even severe problems than my own. I realised that I was not the only girl in Thailand with disabilities! The school taught me so much besides the curriculum subjects. It taught me to be positive about my life, to focus on what I can do, on what I can achieve. It taught me to think about the rights of disabled people to be considered when new buildings and transport systems are designed and also about the responsibilities that go with those rights. The responsibility for me, as a disabled person, to show that I can do a useful job, that I can support myself, that I can live independently, without the financial or physical support of my family. Our teachers are themselves people with disabilities. Their message is not ‘do what I say’ but ‘do what I do’ - they set a real example for each of students. I never forget my teacher’s word “you do not let anyone to take advantage of you because you are disabled you should hold your head up high, you have a necessary potential to do everything.”

The ethos of the Vocational School is positive, affirming, empowering. We learn that we can not just compete in sport, we can win – we can even represent Thailand abroad. We can get good jobs – almost all our graduates find real work. We can help other disabled people by going out into society and showing that people with disabilities can make the same contribution as other people; maybe we just have to try a little harder sometimes. We are very proud that forty of our fellow graduates are teachers, eight of them in government vocational schools for the disabled.

Because disabled girls tend to be more protected than boys, we have a special need of access to the very important source of encouragement, education and confidence building which is the Vocational School in Pattaya. It is very unique in Thailand, probably in the whole of South East Asia. We are taught at the school that there are three important ‘e’s’ education plus employment is equal empowerment. Empowerment is not something a beautiful policy but something we can touch, something is real, and something is tangible. For persons with disabilities, it is an education. Furthermore, Empowerment restores our self confidence, self respect, and self esteem e.g. But for girls there is an all-important fourth ‘e’ – equality, especially equality of opportunity to access to education. At present time only 37 out of 200 students can be girls because there is no proper accommodation for more. The new building will make room for 100 girls – nearly three times as many. Over twenty or thirty years of use the building will change the lives of more than 1,000 young women with disabilities. I do believe education is a door of opportunities for persons with disabilities to seek a more fulfilling life in an able body’s world and seek a better quality of life in the future. If persons with disabilities are empowered, they can empower others. Disability is only personnel description. It is not a description of capability. They all deserve the same chance that I have had from the school, and I promise that they will make just as good use of that opportunity. Thank you for your help in making that possible.

See more details in Engliah please go to http://www.fr-ray.org/dynamic/view.php?src=30/300000&lang=en

http://www.pattayaorphanage.org.uk/news/news_pattaya.cfm?entryPoint=default

and http://www.rvsd.ac.th/index_thai.php in Thai version

If you are interested in suppoerting the new grils' building, Please contact
Pattaya Orphanage Trust
124 North End Shouse
Fitziames Avenue
London W 14 ORZ UK

Tel 020 7602 6203
Or
Suporntum@rvsd.ac.th

Useful website

2006-05-15T22:06:00.000+02:00

Purpose

The following bookmarks/links are useful

http://www.dpi.org/

when I need to : Get updated news
/ information on persons with disabilities and disability movement around the world

How often:
Everyday to get update info.

Rating (Content and accessibility):
Relevant information, easy to fine the topic

Personal comments:
The website is about PWDs movement and there are many relevant links.Besides, it is available to print out and select the topic by region or to get to the other links or go to IDA
web .http://www.worldbank.org/
http://portal.unesco.org/

Purpose

I need to:Learn more The following
bookmarks/links are useful when

http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/

How often:
Only for a reason.Rating (Content and accessibility):Excellent source both categories

Personal comments:
Excellent links to the big six web for PWDs research and development disability.
http://www.inclusion-international.org/
http://www.ifhoh.org/http:/
http://www.worldblindunion.org/
http://www.wfdeaf.org/
http://www.wnusp.org/

Purpose

The following bookmarks/links are useful when I need to
:Communicate and/or interact with others Disabilitynet.net

http://www.disabilitynet.net/

How often:
Whenever I have a moment

Rating (Content and accessibility):Relevant informationPersonal
comments:I can utilize web blog. http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=27760613&postID=114744793449164841

Advocating Activities

2006-05-15T21:56:00.000+02:00

These are advocating activities in Bangkok, Thailand which you can get the detail at http://www.dpiap.org/