AGAPASM
We propose to the United Nations - UN
Dear colleagues and friends
Civil Society and Outreach Unit (CSOU)
Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD)
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)
United Nations (UN)
I attended the High Level Meeting on Disability and Development (#HLMDD) which took place on 23 September at UN Headquarters in New York and prepared a list of proposals that I have sent to Ms. MarÃa-Soledad Cisternas , the President of the Committee of Expert s for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and would also like to share with you.
I would be inmensely grateful if you could also share them with all the participants of the High Level Meeting on Disability and Development (#HLMDD).
Should you need more information or any aclaration, I am at your complete disposition. With all my thanks and best wishes for the good of all mankind.
Alex Garcia
Deafblind Brazilian
Profile and reflections
www.agapasm.com.br/english.asp
AGAPASM
Gaucha Association of Parents and Friends of Deafblind people and people with Multiple Disabilities
We propose to the United Nations - UN
Brothers and Sisters of the World
We need everyone's support
Deafblind people don't want to be extinct
"Deafblindness is the disability which "affects" most the essence of the society because it takes to a distance imposed by the visual and auditory losses as well the impatience which is generated by the difficulties in communication. So, refers to Deafblind persons, the most feared condition by human beings: "being alone" as a synonymous of abandon, which is different from "loneliness", because this one you can choose and enjoy it when you are not afraid of yourself."
- To Establish and request the Member countries that Deafblindness is considered an unique disability.
- To establish and every year celebrate the International Day of Deafblind Persons, on the 27th of June, to try to break the invisibility of Deafblind Persons all over the world. The date of the 27th of June is the date of birth of Hellen Keller.
- To develop continuous and permanent educational campaigns that will have as a goal take Deafblind Persons out of the social invisibility and ask the countries which are members to develop campaigns in their territories.
- Request the member countries to organize working groups on education in order to establish efficient Public Policies on education for Deafblind Persons with the participation of Deafblind Persons, to achieve authonomy and citzenship.
- To request the member countries to elaborate actions for humanitarian support to all Deafblind Persons, especially including the most vulnerable ones such as children, women, elderly people and those with rare diseases who had historically their right to develop denied and who are in risk and or in abandonment.
Author of the proposal:
Alex Garcia
The gaucho Alex Garcia is one of the most famous persons with Rare Disease and Deafblind Persons in the world. He is the coordinator of the Rio Grande do Sul regional for the Baresi institute. Specialist in Special Education by the UFSM/RS and he was the first Deafblind Brazilian who attended a university. He is the founder of the Gaucha Association of Parents and Friends of Deafblin people and people with Multiple Disabilities - AGAPASM. He is the pioneer in Brazil who developed the first research to find Deafblind people all over the state of Rio Grande do Sul. And he had as one of the most important supporters the Swedish Federation of Deafblind persons and the World Federation of Deafblind. He is considered "the father" of Deafblindness in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Since 2004, as a volunteer, he structured for the first time in Brazil a programme of Home Care with families of Deafblind people to help them with information and educational orientation and also medical and social referrals, training of professionals to attend Deafblind people in their original places, adapting theses places and special programmes in schools.Writer: he is the first Deafblind person to write a book about education in Latin America. His book "Deafblindness: empirical and scientific" was published in 2008. In 2010, he has published a book for children: "The big revolution". He has never given up of his sovereignty, and so he is registered at the National Library as individual editor - Editorial Prefix 908690. In 2009 he won the "Sentidos" Award, a national award, because of his overcoming story of life chosen as the biggest of the year in Brazil. He is a Honorary Rotarian - Rotary Club of São Luiz Gonzaga in the state of RS. He was the first Deafblind Person to be alumni at the Mobility International Programme in the USA in 27 years of history of this organization. He was the first Deafblind Person in Brazil and Latin America to participate of a training programme for teachers with total liberty and it was held in the city of Cuiabá, in the state of MT. He was also the first Deafblind Person in Brazil and Latin America to work in a training programme for teachers with total liberty and where he had as students two people with disabilities (a young blind educator and a young deaf educator). This was held in the city of Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Alex also writes for the Magazine Reação and for the website Planeta Educação. He is a consultant of the Educational network Redem and the Institute Inclusion Brazil
"Inclusion for me is breaking the presupposition and shame, these powerful social controlling tools, and the so get and keep the continuity, the movement. Obtain and keep the wish for the truth and happiness based on justice of the free man. Inclusion is denying the static. Denying the interest which produces stamps. The intolerance which makes borders. Denying subtract the freedom and autonomy of man". Alex Garcia