3 December 2015: According to a global estimate of year 2010, about 15 per cent of the world’s population suffers from disability of one form or the other. Despite the fact that there is no country in the world where rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are not violated, the level of awareness about the lives of such persons and the challenges they face is very low.
The qualitative evidence suggests that persons with disabilities are significantly poor in developing countries as compared to their non-disabled counterparts. Many persons with disabilities are denied education, jobs, entertainment, sports and health facilities. The disorder may require chronic healthcare and this in turn drains the scarce household resources. This situation turns this human resource that can become useful citizens of the society into a burden for the families and the country overall.
3 December 2015: A Talk show on the rights of Women with Disabilities was held on 3rd December, 2015 on International Day of Persons with Disabilities on “World this Morning – PTV World” Anchors Shahzad Khan and Maha Makhdum. To make a comparison how things were earlier and how they are today. The Guest Speakers were Mr. Atif Sheikh – Executive Director Special Talent Exchange Program, Ms. Abia Akram – Project Manager Special Talent Exchange Program/ Chief Executive National Forum of Women with Disabilities, Mr. Zulqarnain Asghar – President Potohar Mental Health Association, Mr. Fazal ur Rehman – Country Director Helping Hands. The theme of the show was “Inclusion Matters – Access and Empowerment” How things have developed and have things improved and as a society have we opened up our mind towards disability or we are still intolerant.
8th -10th December 2015: In this TOT, they covered to understand Disability as per Inclusive Development, Gender and how does it affect Women with Disabilities, link between Gender and Disability, link between leadership and advocacy. The methodology of TOT was based on interactive sessions, practice sessions and simulations. Day first was started with the recitation of Holy Quran followed by the introductory session, which covers name of participants’ home trainers and introduction of the whole project. In this day facilitators also covered, our ‘Identity’, link between ‘Identity’ and ‘Culture’, Familiarization with Disability and Impairment, and disability Framework in Pakistan. Second day was started with the recap and followed by sessions on link between ‘Gender’ and ‘Disability’, understanding issues specific to ‘Gender’ and ‘Sex’, identifying barriers faced by Women with Disabilities, models of disability, overcoming resistance to Gender Equality and peer counselling.
21 – 23 December 2015: STEP has to train 60 master trainers from 30 DPO’S across Pakistan in order to cascade awareness sessions in the community. One of the planned 3 TOT’s was conducted in Karachi. In this TOT, 22 participants were trained and ready to cascade awareness sessions in the community. These Master trainers were trained on 3-day on specific training manual
27 – 29 January 2016: STEP has to train 60 master trainers from 30 DPO’S across Pakistan in order to cascade awareness sessions in the community. Two of the planned 3 TOT’s have already been conducted; one training in Islamabad covering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu & Kashmir and the second training in Karachi covering different areasof Sindh. In this TOT, 17 participants were trained and ready to cascade awareness sessions in the community. These Master trainers were trained on 3-day on specific training manual.
23 February 2016: STEP has to conduct two awareness raising workshops; one in North (Islamabad) with about 30 journalists and one in South catering for journalists in Sindh province. This was the first workshop of the project in the capital city.
