The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon includes persons with disabilities at the workshop on “Community means everyone”
The EFC LEED (Local Empowerment through Economic Development) team conducted a workshop on “Community means everyone”, at Mardap (Mannar District Differently Abled People Organisation) in Mannar district in August 2015. The main objective of this workshop was to make the community be aware of rights of persons with disabilities. 20 participants with non-disabilities were selected from different sectors of the community. These participants were from public sector as well as from the private sector.
The workshop was conducted in English with Tamil translations by Mr. A. Kirushanthan. The welcome and the “introduction to EFC network on disability” was done by Ms. Sonali De Silva. “Disability etiquettes” was done by Ms. ManiqueGunaratne. This session had a very good impact on the community because most of the participants did not know the do’s and don’ts of when interacting with a person with a disability. “Barriers faced by persons with disabilities and what they expect from the society” was done by a person with a physical disability. A Social Service Officer did a presentation on the services available for persons with disabilities. “Changing mindset was done by Ms. Sonali De Silva.
Workshops are a learning flat form for everyone. But this workshop had a difference. All participants had to commit themselves by signing a pledge. The pledge had seven areas each person could commit themselves to work on. Each person committed to do one or more thing in the pledge.
It was a happy end of a workshop with smiling faces where all took a photograph holding the pledge.
Picture descriptions:
Group photograph of the participants of the community workshop.
Participants of the community workshop.
Manique making a presentation on disability etiquettes.
Sonali making a presentation on EFC network on disability.
By:
ManiqueGunaratne
Founder Members Team – South Asian Women with Disabilities Network
