| Summary Reports from James Meadours, Tammy Mills Janet Hunt-Hawkins:
International Self-Advocacy Leadership Meeting, England-December 6-9, 2001
James Meadours' Report About the International Self-Advocacy Leadership Meeting:
I am glad we have a strong national group because in England they are divided
in half because they want to have a national group, but they are territorial
and they do not trust one another-in order to get to the point of having
a national organization.
It is neat to meet people from Africa and Austria, especially Africa, because
most of the places in Africa are third world countries. We really take for
granted what we have in the United States: the so-called services that we
have for people with disabilities.
It is neat to meet other self-advocates from around the world. I am so glad
we have a national organization...to trust one another to do what we want
to do at the national level, and meet our goals. I want to spend time to
talk about the International Movement at our next SABE meeting in California
next month. Some of the self-advocates came up to me to talk about how we
could get an international group started. In order for us to be a part of
an international movement, the decision must be all of ours, not just mine.
It is interesting how the advisors support the self-advocates. They are called
helpers, or support workers. The self-advocates take most of the lead of
everything.
Even the use of language is different. "Learning difficulty" is the term
used by self-advocates instead of "cognitive disabilities", the "MR" word,
or the "H" word.
It is so good that we are united together. It is very important because in
other countries they are not united together. They don't have a national
organization to support one another because they are divided in half.
What I found important to me is to talk to people one on one-casual
talking-because I think its important if you attend workshops all the time,
we never really find out as much information . We received a video-tape from
the Highlands and a CD of a song from England.
- James Meadours -
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Tammy Mills' Report About the International Self-Advocacy Leadership Meeting:
Dear People First members,
The following is a report on what we learned at the International Self-Advocacy
Leadership Conference. I hope you find it as informative as it possibly can
get.
I represented People First of New Hampshire in the USA along with James Meadours.
The following countries represented are: Austria, England, Sri Lanka, Africa,
Ireland, Scotland, and USA.
We have learned that in order to work together, internationally, we need
to come up with plans and action, create an international People First
organization, create a training pack, spread the word to would-be members
about the organization and put all the actions into effect.
The other day, I did a session on writing a song to solidify a stand on an
issue. The session was great fun but on the other hand, it was also hard
work. Everyone who participated worked together to come up with an issue
in order to write a song. They voted on three issues at first and then narrowed
them down to one: Getting confidence. And so now I'm going to be putting
the ideas to lyrics.
Alimansi, a man from Africa wished for a copy of the CD RESPECT. Janet &
I brought some with us and James and I presented one to him at the banquet.
Alimansi wants to make the People First song their National Anthem!
My favorite two workshops were, The Way Forward and Working Together
Internationally. The Way Forward workshop focused on preparing for the future
with self-advocacy groups as well as International Self-advocacy organization.
There was a lot of talk from England about White Papers and government for
which we self-advocates from the US are not involved in. The people of England
taught me a lot about the self-advocacy activities in England.
We will be coming home to NH on Monday and when we do, we're bringing back
great memories.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope to hear from you soon.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Greetings from Janet Hunt-Hawkins:
I type this while we're on the plane flying back from England, while it is
still so fresh on my mind. I have had the wonderful fortune to accompany
James Meadours, Chair of SABE and Tammy Mills, a self-advocate leader in
NH. Our experience with other self-advocates from around the world is one
that I, personally, cannot find any comparison to. The updates which James
and Tammy have sent to you were really "right on" as we lived it, but I cannot
help but send along my perspective...our experience here has just been so
thrilling.
If you don't already know, this particular International meeting was not
just an ordinary conference...it purposely brought together self-advocate
leaders from across the world to think, talk about and plan for an International
Self-Advocacy Movement.
We learned from Austria that they have just begun their movement only this
past April. They have six self-advocacy groups so far. The three self-advocates
were supported by two support workers (what we commonly refer to as advisors).
The support workers were able to translate the dialogue for the three
self-advocates. Their growth seems rapid as they already have officers for
a more global group in Austria, though I am uncertain if this is considered
their national organization of People First. In speaking further with the
Austrian support workers, it is not that they are actually using Michael
Long's book, If Your Dreams Are Big Enough, The Facts Don't Count, but instead,
Austria invited Michael to come present to self-advocates in their country.
We did, however, provide them with information about Michael's book for follow-up
and they were excited to learn further about this book.
We listened to many stories from self-advocates from throughout England and
Ireland. Most self-advocates are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations
of their local self-advocacy groups. In NH, this is a bit foreign as most
of our activities with self-advocates happen out of the office on nearly
every evening and on weekends. This is because our self-advocates are gainfully
employed and this is their only time they can meet. In England, however,
self-advocates lose their benefits if they make more than 20 pounds per week,
so therefore, they do not work. Instead, many volunteer their time to their
local self-advocacy activities, once they reach the 20 pound weekly limit.
("Pounds" is the term used instead of "dollars")
We also learned that we seem to be the only country that was present that
has a "national" self-advocacy organization. (England has differences of
opinions between groups that they are working out-in hopes someday to become
united.) This fact, in itself, is something that Tammy and James come away
with feeling very proud of our work in America, as I do.
I want to mention, too, that I have a great deal to learn-as I always will-in
being a better "support person". As James mentioned, this is the term they
use instead of "advisor". I was particularly fascinated with the roles between
self-advocates and support people of England and Ireland. It seems to me,
that in the United States, we frequently are challenged by "keeping to ourselves"
during meetings. In England, self-advocates "require" support people to keep
their distance- this is their universal rule. Support people do not speak
or involve themselves in the "process" unless specifically asked. They may
ask questions of the self-advocates about the process, but they DO NOT give
their opinion or interrupt the process with their own ideas. Ahhh! It was
refreshing to watch and learn.
James had the opportunity to share with the group the work that we are doing
with SABE. He talked about how our country is divided into nine regions and
how our board is formed, how often we meet and the various activities of
SABE, including Project Leadership, Everyone Can Serve, the work of closing
our institutions, our legislative and grassroots work, and, of course, our
website and other resources and materials.
Tammy provided a very entertaining, uplifting and moving workshop in order
for the group to write a song for the movement. Tammy began her workshop
by sharing two songs from the CD RESPECT: SONGS OF THE SELF-ADVOCACY MOVEMENT
by SABE and Karl Williams. The two songs were People First and Stand Together,
as James mentioned in an earlier report. Lyric sheets were also shared for
the group to take back to their home countries. The group then worked and
planned together by choosing the theme of "gaining confidence", which Tammy
will shape into lyrics. She is hoping to work with Karl in putting the lyrics
to music, and then we'll reproduce the song to send to all of the participants
from all of the countries represented. It was suggested by many people that
the song, Stand Together, be written again for the purpose of including all
of the countries of the world.
Following her presentation, a man by the name of Alimansi Waisswa from Uganda
spoke about his work in his country. His speech was difficult to fully
understand, but some strands came through loud and clear. He works with children
in schools who have little in the way of support or "special education".
Imagine, as he spoke that there is no money for wheelchairs or crutches,
as he personally used. Children or parents must cut down a tree to make a
crutch that would only last a few weeks because of its simplicity. He was
deeply inspired by the People First song, as James & Tammy have already
written to you about (but it was so touching that it is inconceivable for
me not to repeat it), and he wants to make this song the "national anthem"
for the children. He wished that he could somehow get a copy of the
CD. Later that evening during the banquet, Tammy and James formally presented
the CD to Alimansi. I had the pleasure of interviewing Alimansi following
the banquet and he talked further about his work. As much as I can understand,
Alimansi has a similar job to what we might think of as a Principal of schools.
He called himself the Director of schools. He also referred to himself as
a "mobilizer": to make teachers, children, parents and the community more
aware of disability issues. He said that by him taking back the songs to
Africa, it will help to alert his country that there is a self-advocacy movement
in which we work to make the lives of people with disabilities equal to anyone
else. People are unaware that anything should be done to make the lives with
people with disabilities fulfilling and happy. I asked him what it would
take to have the People First song become the national anthem as he mentioned.
He told me that the song will become a part of the children's everyday repertoire
of -that he envisions they will sing it at every function, and, after morning
prayer.
Imagine, too, what James and I have talked about since meeting Alimansi.
Wouldn't it be something to visit Uganda?....not just to visit, but to spend
time there, to learn..to experience...to help, if we could...if it would
even be possible..in our lives, as complex as they seem to be back in the
states.
But perhaps James and I are not the only ones thinking this way.
As the meeting carried on, and there was talk about next steps for the
International group, no definite plans were made, but it was suggested by
one of the participants that we meet in Uganda. James and I discussed the
significance of doing something much more than "meeting", of course..
While there is so much to be done in the United States, as we all see it,
there is so much more to be done across everyone else's country. While we
can learn a great deal from others, we still seem to be so much further along,
and ,we truly are a model for other countries. To you, self-advocates in
the United States, and to all of you who have supported the movement, we
are strong. We are together-with the thanks to all of the great self-advocacy
leaders we have had all along the way.
Thank you for reading along.
Janet Hunt-Hawkins
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