She is an Administrative Officer at the APCD -Asia/Pacific Development Centre on Disability – in Thailand. This center is facilitating networking, cooperation and capacity building among disability related organizations in the region, by establishing focal points for cooperation and information sharing. Saowalak Thonkguay’s duties in APCD are to organize seminars and to plan the budget for these seminars/workshops, to coordinate with disability related organizations and individuals, and to handle incoming mails for the mission team. She is also in charge of secretarial work. Saowalak Thongkuay is also a member of a number of organizations working for and with PWDs, for example RVSD (The Redemptorist Vocational School for the Disabled), Pattaya orphanage trust, and Wheelchair Global Club. In these associations she is responsible for fund raising activities and for advocating accessibility issues.

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.

Reference: http://agentsaowalakt.blogspot.com/2006/07/fantastic-lady-ajk-bagh-pakistan.html