The recognizable image of the Republic Center for Support of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities – PORAKA as a leader in the field of rights for persons with intellectual disability in the Republic of Macedonia continuously results with new partnerships and joint activities with organizations and institutions whose programs activities are related to those of the Republic Center – PORAKA both nationally and internationally.
“Towards European values – persons with disabilities as equal citizens” is the title of the new project in which the Republic Center – PORAKA shall participate, and is being implemented on international level. The leading partner is the Serbian Association for Promoting Inclusion (SAPI), which together with organizations from 7 countries, among which the Republic Center – PORAKA, shall realize the activities in a period of one year.
The aim of the project is to contribute to full integration and civic participation of persons with disabilities in the society with regards to EU democratic values and principles. The specific objective is to develop the model of comprehensive empowerment of persons with disabilities, with specific focus on persons with intellectual disabilities, to be able to take active role in creating inclusive democratic society and to influence policy making processes at national and EU levels which affect their well-being. The project will use the experiences and knowledge from the field of inclusion and civic empowerment of persons with disability across the EU member states and EU accession countries in order to enhance democratic participation of all citizens including those who are on the margins of the society. The project will open the space for deliberation on key services and tools for equalization of opportunities for the most marginalized layers of society to participate in processes of public policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, on an equal basis with other citizens. Moreover, the project is focused on organizing educational workshops, debates and dialogs for and among persons with disability from 7 countries (Serbia, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), including service providers and self-representative associations, on the issue related to self-advocacy, volunteering, work integration services and social entrepreneurship. All thematic areas will be tackled through exchanging the good practice examples from all partner countries, exploring the needed prerequisites and possible pathways to emulate good practices in partnering countries.
The initial project activity i.e. the first coordinative meeting of the project partners, which marked the official start of the project implementation was held in Trieste, Italy in the period 4 – 6 September 2015. The leading partner SAPI presented the project in details i.e. its goals, activities and foreseen results, and the other project partners took part in negotiating for the practical implementation of the envisaged modules within the project.
The self-advocacy is important tool for articulating the interest and opinions of persons empowering them to speak on their behalf and represents a key precondition for democratic participation of persons with intellectual disability. This goes beyond the daily needs and successfully spreads on self-advocacy in the complex process such as public policy creation is.
In order for persons with intellectual disability to become equal parties in the policy dialogue, it is necessary to provide training and education for service providers and their beneficiaries, which shall be covered within this project through methodologies for self-advocacy. The first session for self-advocacy was held in the period of 18 – 20 September in Sisevac, Serbia where two representatives from each project partners took part, amongst which representatives from the Republic Center – PORAKA. The workshop covered topics of human rights with special reference of human rights for persons with disability, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, the main emphasis was given to self-determination and self-advocacy for persons with disability, especially for persons with intellectual disability.
