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3 December: International Day of Persons with Disabilities




Annually 3 December is celebrated as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The United Nations established the day in 1992. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s call for action is to ‘leave no one behind.’

The 2016 theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is ‘Achieving 17 Goals for the Future we want.’ This theme is aligned to the 17 United Nations 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly the goals related to building a more inclusive and equitable world for persons with disabiities.

This year’s objective includes assessing the status of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabiities (CRPD) because it is the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the convention.

Activities and events occur around the world on 3 December to celebrate the day. For example, the McLain Association for Children (MAC) in Georgia will hold a ‘Let’s Play Together’ (LPT) activity, which involves able-bodied youth spending an active day with youth of lesser abiity, including mentally challenged and wheelchair-bound children. The day includes sporting events and art and craft activities undertaken in a one-on-one or team basis.

The able-bodied youth are usually selected by Peace Corps volunteers who are regularly in touch with youth through the English language teaching programs throughout Georgia. They receive training on how to interrelate with disabled children – such as being open-minded and eager to help out. The activities will take place in schools or community halls in regional towns. The aim is to provide access to fun and games for those whose daily lives may be limited by their disabilities or surroundings.

MAC conducted the LPT program in November 2016, and will offer it again on 3 December to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities. MAC CEO and former United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia, Jeremy Gaskill said to the Georgia Today newspaper that the Georgian government has recently introduced a program aimed at integrating disabled children into state kindergartens and schools. However, a challenge is the training of teachers and the provision of school equipment and materials to accommodate persons with disabiities.

The LPT event involves about 60-80 disabled children and will be held inTerjola in western Georgia.

MAC, established in 2008, aims to provide access to services for children with disabiities in rural Georgia, to support parents of children with disabilties (macgeorgia.org)



http://www.un.org/en/events/disabilitiesday/


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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