"The Ability to Overcome Disabilities"

Contact: Rose Marie Harris

Friday, August 31, 2001 - The National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this month.  In an address to mark the occasion, Patron of the Council, Governor General Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy called on the general public to be more sensitized to the situation of the disabled throughout the country.

According to the Governor General, the nation should to take time and think of the daily struggles of the disabled and commend them for their courage, their tenacity and their forbearance.

“We hear accounts of parental insensitivity, neglect and indifference; of acts of vandalism of the very facilities that provide the more able ones with opportunities for economic self sufficiency and for overcoming their disabilities.  We hear of the reservations on the part of employers to take even the physically handicapped on their staff; of the problems of integrating them into the mainstream education system.  We see for ourselves the scant regard that the public displays even towards those who try to make a decent honest living for themselves.   A white cane means so little to some of us, a guide dog is prey to some; disabled parking spots are not always respected; severely disabled people are sometimes objects of curiosity to some, even the butt of some our cruelest jokes.   We do not appreciate the fact that some of the things that the able bodied, the sighted among us take for granted are often insurmountable for the disabled,” Her Excellency explained.

The theme for this month’s celebration is “The Ability to Overcome Disabilities”.  As part of the month long celebration, the Council will stage a number of exhibitions which will be mounted at the Castries and Vieux Fort Town Halls.

Established in 1981 to commemorate the United Nations International year of the Disabled, the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities has adopted as its mission the promotion of policies, programmes, practices and procedures for persons with disabilities and the empowerment of the disabled community to achieve equality, independence and economic self sufficiency.

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The full address may be read here.

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