National office for empowerment of disabled people (NEP)

Website of the National office for empowerment of disabled people, NEP. Information only available in Thai.

Since April 2011 disabled people in Thailand can receive a small pension of 500 Baht per month. Which conditions apply I don't know, you have to read this on the website. Please pass on this information and make sure people with disabilities get a life too in Thailand.

What is disability to me?

June 17, 2012

Source: WHO

On June 9, 2012 the WHO has released a World Report about disability. They are promoting this report by disabled people telling about themselves and what disability means to them. Here you can read more.

Now what means my handicap to me? It means fighting against the system like government and officials who always think they know better. Coping with day to day life. Convincing people I am sane and able to go to school and work for my income. Hoping public transport will be accessible. Trusting my care takers. Relying on medical equipment. Showing the world that I'm strong as a tiger although I have the strenght of a baby.

Accessibility and disabled in Thailand

January 2011
Hua Hin

Are you interested in disabled and accessibility in Thailand. Here is a thesis written by A. Sawadsri who finished her study in the UK.

You can download this thesis.

http://www.slideshare.net/srains/accessibility-and-disability-a-study-of-thailand-by-a-sawadsri

After you have read this thesis please leave a comment here on this Blog.

Rotary Club Bangkapi

Source: http://www.rotaryclubofbangkok.org/

Rotary Club is a worldwide charity organization who helps the less fortunate in the world. With 1.2 million volunteers in 33.000 clubs spreaded over the world they work in local areas. They try to combat hunger, improve health and sanatation, provide education and job training, promote peace and eradicate polio.

And here is an example of what they do. I came accross pictures of a facebook friend in Thailand. Her name is Amy and her FB is Anantarak Hua Hin. She is the director of Anantarak Health Training School in Hua Hin, Thailand. In one of these pictures she and a banner of Rotary Club Bangkapi were captured. I looked through all the pictures and loved what I saw. The volunteers helping disabled children and the children, some in a wheelchairs, smiling of joy and happiness made my heart week. So I wrote her a message that next time I want to help out. Being in a wheelchair myself since childhood I can be an example of how important good health care and education is to handicapped children.

The only thing I hope what Rotary and the local volunteerd will do is try to make the local schools accessible for disabled children. Then they can grow up with their friends, living at home with their parents and getting help from class mates and try to cope with everyday life.
Sometimes this is easier than expected. A ramp to access the school and one wheelchair accessible toilet. The only thing the need is a wheelchair. But there are several projects running in Thailand where Thai volunteers import second hand wheelchairs from Europe like the Father Ray Foundation.

Braille for the Blind, Books on the Road.

Source: http://alwaysreadingcaravan.org/

This organisation took the effort to follow us on twitter. The Bio next to their twitter name gave me information about their good cause. So I looked up their website and came accross a great initiative.

The people involved like to travel, like to read and some of them are blind themselves. They are trying to put together a library on the road with all kind of books for the blind in Thailand.

Here is an overview from what they are looking for:

• Normal print books (books for children and adults in Thai or English)
• Braille books (Thai or English)
• Large print books (Thai or English)
• Tactile Picture Books (any language)
• Tactile maps
• Tactile pictures and images of famous artworks, buildings, photos around the world
• Three-dimensional miniatures (animals, fruits and vegetables, vehicles, tools, houses of different styles, etc.)
• Educational games and toys that all the children can play together

So in case you have books left on your shelve and want to donate them to this good cause look up their website and get in touch.

Wheelchair project looking for volunteers.

Source: http://www.ricd.go.th/jvalun/index.htm

The disability problem in Thailand is so big that the government cannot tackle it alone – we play a fundamental role in helping people who would not otherwise get any help.
The number of people waiting for wheelchairs and other mobility aids is put at more than 200,000 by Dr Samai Sirithongthaworn, the RICD Director. And their conditions are often desperate.
Poverty is a major cause of disabilities - and often the result of disabilities resulting from accidents. This means people living in environments where they can do no more than survive. This in turn causes depression and apathy, a cycle of despair that can be broken with help from RICD and its Wheelchair Project.
“What we come across in home visits can make a strong person cry,” said Luke, the volunteer leader of the project. “I have cried when I have seen how some people have been suffering. But we can help them. We try to change their lives.
“We see children, maybe six or seven years old, lying in a dark room. They have never seen daylight. Their parents have no knowledge of what to do for them. They just lie there, all the time, and they have never been out because there are no mobility aids for them, no one to show their parents how to help them. No one realizes the children can be helped, could one day go to school, some even to university.”
Their carers, too, desperately need help but they have no one to turn to – even if they live in the same city street as other disabled people, they probably do not know each other and have no network to share information and support.
Adults, as well as children, are often condemned to hopeless, inactive lives after being disabled in accidents, through illness or by birth. With mobility aids and training, they can get work, provide for their families and contribute to their communities.
The problem is just as acute for the elderly. During a home visit, volunteers met one woman in her 90s. She had not been out for 20 years because she could not walk. "We gave her a wheelchair and the first thing she wanted to do was to go to church … we got there and found there was no access for wheelchairs, so we built one there and then," said Luke.
"Getting a mobility aid is a life-changing experience: it gives the person feet. It means they can live a normal life instead of being trapped by their bodies.
"Many children, who without a wheelchair would be confined in their homes, can go to mainstream schools. Others can go to special education centers for children with disabilities. When they are adults, they can reach amazing levels … some are graduates, managers and writers, others find their places in trades or businesses. And all because, at a critical time in their lives, we were able to give them feet and enable them to work for their futures."
An enormous area of work is education: parents’ love is often reduced to a day-to-day battle to cope because of the lack of knowledge about what can be done for, and by, people with disabilities. The Wheelchair Project’s parent organization, RICD, also tackles this problem

If you give a person feet, you can turn despair into hope and happiness and has a major commitment to telling everyone about the help and treatment available for children with disabling conditions.
This lack of knowledge is found everywhere among carers. It is also a big problem in health, community and education professionals, although the Wheelchair Project volunteers see the situation improving with government and RICD efforts.
Ten years ago, a healthcare professional told the RICD Wheelchair Project volunteers not to waste effort on a group of “hopeless” disabled children: the volunteers did put in the effort and now those children live constructive and happy lives. Some even go to   university. Today, that experience is a guiding light for the RICD Wheelchair Project.
RICD and its Wheelchair Project are beginning to consider ways of supporting neighboring countries which have far fewer, if any, facilities to help people with disabilities. Links have already been forged with Laos and education is being offered to health professionals from Myanmar and Cambodia.
Visitors to Thailand may conclude disability is not a problem because it is rare to see disabled people on the streets.
But the reality is the nightmare of being trapped by disability in a society where there are too few mobility aids and the streets are too difficult to negotiate by any but the able bodied.

Disabled and disabilities, Legislation and Laws

Legislative and policy framework

Mention on disability in constitution
“Unjust discrimination against a person on the grounds of…disability…shall not be
permitted” (Thailand 2007a, chap. III, part 2, sect. 30)
“…the…disabled… have the right to be accorded protection with regard to appropriate
trials and have the right to receive proper treatment in cases related to sexual violence”
(Thailand 2007a, chap. III, part 4, sect. 40(6))
“The State shall pursue directive principles of State policies in relation to Social Affairs,
Public Health, Education and Cultural Affairs…to… provide aids and welfare to…the
disabled…” (Thailand 2007a, chap. V, part 4, sect. 80(1))
“A person shall enjoy an equal right to receive education for the duration of not less than
twelve years which shall be provided by the State thoroughly, up to the quality, and
without charge. The … disabled … shall be accorded the right under paragraph one and
entitled to such support from the State as to enable them to receive education comparable
to that received by other persons …” (Thailand 2007a, chap. III, part 8, sect. 49)
“The disabled … shall have the right to have access to and use public welfare and
conveniences as well as appropriate aids to be provided by the State. Persons of
unsound mind shall be appropriately assisted by the State.” (Thailand 2007a, chap. III,
part 9, sect. 54)
“In considering a bill the substance of which is decided by the President of the House of
Representatives to be concerned with … the disabled or persons of infirmity, if the House
of Representatives does not consider it by its full committee, the House of Representatives
shall appoint an ad hoc committee consisting of representatives, from private
organisations concerned with the respective types of persons, of not less than one-third of
the total number of members of the committee, provided that it shall be represented by a
close number of men and women.” (Thailand 2007a, chap. VI, part 7, sect. 152)

Comprehensive disability law Persons with Disabilities Empowerment Act B.E. 2550 (Thailand 2007b)
Disability-specific anti-discrimination law No (ESCAP 2006, Q 10)
Sectoral disability laws Cover: education; employment; rehabilitation; health; information and technology;
building code; transportation; poverty alleviation; and social security/social welfare
(ESCAP 2006, Q 8(i))
National plan of action on disability National Plan on Quality of Life Development of Persons with Disabilities 2007-2011
(Thailand 2007c)

National efforts to promote an Inclusive Society

Employment quota scheme 2.0 per cent (ESCAP 2004c, Q 30-a)
National accessibility standard Ministerial Regulations on Accessibility B.E. 2548 (2005) (ESCAP 2006, Q 13.1)
Standardized sign language Yes (National Association of the Deaf in Thailand 2004)
ICT accessibility guideline
No response provided (ESCAP 2006, Qs 17.1, 18.1)

Financial commitment
Proportion of disability (social) spending to GDP or entire national budgetNot available
Annual budget allocated to the national coordination mechanism$1.4 million (ESCAP 2006, Q 1(ii))

Commitment to regional and international instruments on disability
Signatory to the Proclamation of the Decade
1993 (ESCAP 2004b)
Ratification of ILO Convention 159 11 October 2007 (ILO 2009)
Ratification or signatory of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and its Optional ProtocolSigned the Convention on 30 March 2007,
Ratified the Convention on 29 July 2008 (United Nations 2009)

a National or UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimate;
b Based on 2002 National Statistics Survey.;
c Currently being revised