APIDS NEWS BULLETINS
SEPTEMBER 2007(Word)Click here to download this file
SEPTEMBER 2007(PDF)Click here to download this file
MARCH 2007 (Word) Click here to download this file
MARCH 2007(PDF) Click here to download this file
MAY 2008 (PDF) Click here to download this file
APIDS AGM HISTORY
PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2006/07
The APIDS first year has been marked by an abundance of establishment activities as well as a first funds distribution. Each of the Executive members of APIDS has stepped up to the variety of necessary tasks, providing their skills and time without compunction. As an organisation that seeks to send the maximum amount of money possible to its Pacific-based target groups this voluntary commitment has, and will continue to be, a key to our success.
Funds Distribution to Partner DPO’s
As APIDS raison d’etre is to distribute monies to Pacific disabled people’s organisations (DPO’s), it is moving to do so as quickly as possible. The process has been hampered a little by the necessary procedures and establishment processes. Nevertheless at the end of the 2006-07 year APIDS is preparing to provide small grants to four Pacific based DPO’s.
The amounts may seem small compared with the running costs of Australian DPO’s but for organisations used to receiving little or no monies these funds are a great boost. They may employ a policy officer for many months or fit out a new office with some basic equipment or enable a DPO to run a project. The purpose for the funds was suggested by each DPO and agreed to by APIDS.
The four organisations receiving funds in the first APIDS round are based in Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and. As APIDS funding grows we hope to expand the number of organisations we can support in this way.
Another exciting opportunity for supporting Pacific DPO’s which APIDS began developing this year is a volunteer advocate exchange program. In partnership with Australian Volunteers International (AVI), APIDS is arranging for advocacy workers with disabilities working in Australian DPO’s to work for three months in a Pacific DPO. Members of the APIDS Executive have already worked this way and given/gained enormously in the experience. The two-way transfer of skills, knowledge and cultural understandings can certainly be expected to benefit both countries in the promotion of the rights and entitlements of people with disabilities.
Membership and Profile Building
APIDS finished the year with 58 members which should be counted as a success for its first year. The members are mainly Australian based and tend to have some interest in the issues of disability or development or both.
As a key means of organisational communication the APIDS website has been established and gradually added to throughout the year. Not wishing to create a burden for APIDS volunteers the website is basic, easily navigated and meets the goal of enabling anyone seeking access to APIDS to do so easily. It provides the ability for people to join the organisation, donate money and/or access necessary information about the organisation.
During the year APIDS also wrote to development organisations based in Australia advising of the organisations presence. APIDS is a founding member of the Australian Disability and Development consortium aimed at raising the issues of disability and development. Correspondence from APIDS to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs urging more to be done for people with disabilities in developing countries may have further supported the profile of APIDS and disability in the relevant parts of government.
Fund Raising
During the year most of APIDS’ fund raising was through new memberships. As the membership fee is a one-off payment however the organisation now needs to turn to other methods of sourcing new income. New members will continue to be sought but the primary source of fund raising will be from APIDS members either through donations or other fund raising schemes.
Organisation Management and Tax Status
A large chunk of the year has been taken up with the development of necessary policies and procedures for the ongoing good-practice operation of the organisation. The procedures for distributing funds, accounting for their expenditure and reporting in a transparent, but not burdensome manner for all parties, has been particularly important to the organisation. The relevant procedures and forms are easily accessible on the APIDS website.
Ensuring good organisational practice will help APIDS’ application to the Australian Taxation Office for Gift Deductibility Recipient (GDR) status. GDR status will make all donations to APIDS tax deductible. Unfortunately this presents as a complex, tedious and time consuming process which may take many months of consistent volunteer effort by APIDS’ Executive to surmount. As this will attract other significant sources of funding the difficult process has been embarked upon and should yield some results in the coming year.
The Executive
In 2005 Robyn James motivated Maryanne Diamond, Bill Jolly, Deborah Rhodes and myself to come together to form APIDS. These founding executive members have in common a strong belief that Pacific Islanders with disabilities suffer profoundly disproportionate levels of poverty and general disadvantage within their communities. Further the key to their equality is support for advocacy for and by Pacific Islanders with disabilities. While on one hand people with disabilities are studiously ignored in the development process and on the other remain passive recipients of any assistance afforded to them they will continue as second class citizens.
The Executive have worked hard to promote the objects of this fledgling organisation. Each has made heavy commitments to the extent of his/her time and skills resulting in a strong and growing organisation. There is no doubt however that the champion of APIDS has been the founder Robyn James. On behalf of all of us dedicated to APIDS thank you Robyn.
Daniel Stubbs
President APIDS
July 2007
For a copy of the minutes Click here to download this file
President's report Click here to download this file
Secretaries report Click here to download this file
Treasurers report Click here to download this file
FUNDING TO PARTNERS - FIRST ALLOCATION 2008
At a meeting in April, Directors agreed to provide grants to four DPO’s. These are:
$300 to Disabled Peoples’ Association of Solomon Islands for production and distribution of a newsletter. The $300 Australian converted to $1860 in the Solomons currency.
$300 to Disability Promotion & Advocacy Association (Vanuatu) for sign language classes.
$500 to Fiji Disabled Peoples Association (FDPA) for the costs of operating the office in Suva.
$300 to Te Toa Matoa (Kiribati) for running a workshop on handicrafts, such as the making of doormats and fishing stick nets. The products made will be sold and the funds raised used to assist in building a multi-purpose centre for Te Toa Matoa members.
The extra amount to FDPA is in acknowledgement of the resources that were provided in the initial planning stages of APIDS.
Deborah Rhodes, in her travels with her paid work in August, presented A$300 Australian to Savina Nongebatu in the Solomons, and A$300 to Andy Lynch in Vanuatu.
One of our members visited Fiji in late September and presented $650 (Fijian) to Fiji Disabled Peoples Association.It is hoped that funds will be transferred to Kiribati in the next month.
ADDC INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE (September 2008)
The conference was a great success, with more than 200 people from Pacific Island countries, Asia, New Zealand, Europe, North America and Australia attending. The ADDC website will have information from the Conference by the end of October - www.addc.org.au
The ABC radio Australia Pacific Beat program recorded some interviews. Go to www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/pacificbeat.htm?page=onthemat and listen to the On the mat program for October 6th "Pacific disabled people fight for recognition"
Saowalak Thongkuay from the Asia Pacific Region Disabled Peoples International office in Bangkok attended the conference and has prepared a PowerPoint presentation, with photos of many speakers and participants. If you would like a copy of the Powerpoint sent please email us apids (at) aapt.net.au.The photo below was taken on the first day.
APIDS SUBMISSION TO THE DISABILITY TASK FORCE - Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)- APIDS has provided a submission in response to the Consultation Paper. Our approach is that
"It is imperative that AusAID must resource the Disabled Peoples Organisations to undertake this education and awareness within their own countries. They are the ones with knowledge of how to increase knowledge and understanding within their own culture. Of course this process cannot be undertaken quickly, and as with many other development processes, results cannot be achieved in one or two years"
The full submission is available in Word formatClick here to download this file
or as a PDFClick here to download this file
DPA in Vanuatu have also completed a submission, which you can read here.Click here to download this file
THE AUSTRALIAN DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIUM (ADDC) June Update
On May 24th, the ADDC in partnership with the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and National Disability Services, held very positive meetings in Canberra with three key politicians who were at the ADDC launch earlier in the year:
• Senator Carmen Lawrence who Convenes the Parliamentary Friends of Disability Interest Group
• Senator Gary Humphries, who launched the ADDC and chairs the Senate Community Affairs Committee
• The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
As the attached briefing indicates, all meetings focusing on the need to mainstream disability within Australia’s aid program, in line with the aid programs of other major donors such as the US, UK, Canada and Japan.
In particular, Greg Hunt indicated he was "very interested" in the issue of disability within our aid program, stating it was timely to plan some significant advances and addressing disability was a legitimate evolution for the aid program. It was then suggested to Mr Hunt to embark on a three stage process:
1. Reviewing where disability currently sits in Australia and overseas aid programs
2. Developing a disability policy
3. Implementation of the policy.
Mr Hunt responded positively to this, asking for a paper outlining step one which he will then discuss with Downer and AusAID.
ADDC intends to continue lobbying Government and Opposition on mainstreaming of disability in Australia’s aid program and will welcome input and suggestions on this important aspect of our advocacy.
You can download a copy of the briefing hereClick here to download this file
MOTIVATION
British NGO Motivation has recently registered in Australia as the Motivation Australia Development Organisation (MADO). Motivation is a development agency which works with a range of organisations to create projects that enhance the lives of people with mobility disabilities. Their vision is of a world free of today’s obstacles to disabled people’s full enjoyment of their abilities, rights and ambitions.
Their work is about ensuring that local people have the skills to build and provide appropriate mobility equipment and services for disabled people in their communities who need them.
Their aim is to improve opportunities for people with mobility disabilities, resulting in more integration into the community. We believe mobility is an essential human right that enables people to achieve inclusion in all aspects of life.
MADO is currently developing a programme in Timor Leste in partnership with local NGO ASSERT to establish a national wheelchair service in Dili. Motivation are also working in partnership with VSO and the National Orthotics and Prosthetics service in PNG supporting a newly established wheelchair service network.
For more information about Motivation please visit website: www.motivation.org.uk
For more information about MADO please contact Kylie Mines, Programme Director, via email: kmines@motivation.org.uk
You can download some of their great fact sheets here
Donated wheelchairs in low income countriesClick here to download this file
Methods for improving wheelchair provisionClick here to download this file
NEWS FROM OUR FRIENDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The National Disability Resource & Advocacy Centre (NDRAC) based at the Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea contacted us in April. They have three major objectives:
- to empower persons with disabilities through The Network magazine
- to advocate on the rights of persons with disabilities
- to act as a focal point for information gathering and sharing with other organizations.
The National DRAC was established in 2006. Prior to that, The Network, Papua New Guinea's disability magazine was the only activity. But now, they have taken the role of facilitating information gathering and sharing for all disability organizations and self-help organizations in the country.
The National DRAC is producing The Network on a quarterly basis and is disseminating it to all over the world.
The latest copy of The Network has an article about APIDS.
You can download copies of The Network at www.dwu.ac.pg
APIDS BOARD RAISES THE PROFILE OF DISABILITY IN THE PACIFIC
APIDS president, Daniel Stubbs, had an article published in February 2007 on human rights issues for Pacific Islanders with disabilities in Islands Business (the independent current affairs journal of the Pacific).
You can download the article here.
Word version Click here to download this file
PDF version Click here to download this file
Click here to download this file
MEDIA RELEASE
3 December 2006
Disabled Pacific Islanders forgotten in the rush
“The dominance of economic development, governance and regional security agendas in the Pacific is leading many to forget the situation of people with disabilities and their families, the poorest in the region” said Daniel Stubbs chair of a new agency - Australia Pacific Islands Disability Support (APIDS).
Daniel Stubbs officially launched APIDS on 3 December 2006, International Day for People with Disabilities. He said “Pacific Islanders with disabilities suffer greater and longer term disadvantages, particularly when difficult times hit the Pacific”. Mr Stubbs noted that people with disabilities are becoming even further isolated and disadvantaged in the Pacific, as attention focuses on national political and strategic issues and events.
APIDS will support Pacific Islanders with disabilities to participate more actively in their communities and their own organisations. Greater equality of access can be achieved when there is well supported disability advocacy at local levels. Mr Stubbs said “we believe many Australians will want to support Pacific Islanders with disabilities to be able to get greater access to education, healthcare, employment and general community involvement.” So many Australians travel to the region as tourists and enjoy their holidays and interaction with local people. However few consider the issues affecting people with disabilities in Pacific islands.
It is often not for lack of money that the people with disabilities are marginalised and denied access to the things others take for granted. Sometimes there is simply a lack of recognition of disabled peoples’ abilities and their rights to participate in all aspects of life, including schooling, social interaction, work and participation in community groups.
APIDS provides a way for Australians to contribute to addressing these challenges. The funds raised by APIDS will go directly to those advocating for the basic rights of Pacific Islanders with disabilities. More information about APIDS can be found at www.apids.org. .
Ms Angeline Chand, Advocacy officer for Fiji Disabled Peoples Association, welcomed the launch of APIDS saying “at this particularly difficult time in Fiji, we value the commitment made by Australians and APIDS to work with organisations like us to achieve greater respect for the rights of people with disabilities.”
Released by Daniel Stubbs Chair APIDS
You can donate to APIDS at www.ourcommunity.com.au/apidsArchive
SEPTEMBER 2007(Word)Click here to download this file
SEPTEMBER 2007(PDF)Click here to download this file
MARCH 2007 (Word) Click here to download this file
MARCH 2007(PDF) Click here to download this file
MAY 2008 (PDF) Click here to download this file
APIDS AGM HISTORY
PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2006/07
The APIDS first year has been marked by an abundance of establishment activities as well as a first funds distribution. Each of the Executive members of APIDS has stepped up to the variety of necessary tasks, providing their skills and time without compunction. As an organisation that seeks to send the maximum amount of money possible to its Pacific-based target groups this voluntary commitment has, and will continue to be, a key to our success.
Funds Distribution to Partner DPO’s
As APIDS raison d’etre is to distribute monies to Pacific disabled people’s organisations (DPO’s), it is moving to do so as quickly as possible. The process has been hampered a little by the necessary procedures and establishment processes. Nevertheless at the end of the 2006-07 year APIDS is preparing to provide small grants to four Pacific based DPO’s.
The amounts may seem small compared with the running costs of Australian DPO’s but for organisations used to receiving little or no monies these funds are a great boost. They may employ a policy officer for many months or fit out a new office with some basic equipment or enable a DPO to run a project. The purpose for the funds was suggested by each DPO and agreed to by APIDS.
The four organisations receiving funds in the first APIDS round are based in Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and. As APIDS funding grows we hope to expand the number of organisations we can support in this way.
Another exciting opportunity for supporting Pacific DPO’s which APIDS began developing this year is a volunteer advocate exchange program. In partnership with Australian Volunteers International (AVI), APIDS is arranging for advocacy workers with disabilities working in Australian DPO’s to work for three months in a Pacific DPO. Members of the APIDS Executive have already worked this way and given/gained enormously in the experience. The two-way transfer of skills, knowledge and cultural understandings can certainly be expected to benefit both countries in the promotion of the rights and entitlements of people with disabilities.
Membership and Profile Building
APIDS finished the year with 58 members which should be counted as a success for its first year. The members are mainly Australian based and tend to have some interest in the issues of disability or development or both.
As a key means of organisational communication the APIDS website has been established and gradually added to throughout the year. Not wishing to create a burden for APIDS volunteers the website is basic, easily navigated and meets the goal of enabling anyone seeking access to APIDS to do so easily. It provides the ability for people to join the organisation, donate money and/or access necessary information about the organisation.
During the year APIDS also wrote to development organisations based in Australia advising of the organisations presence. APIDS is a founding member of the Australian Disability and Development consortium aimed at raising the issues of disability and development. Correspondence from APIDS to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs urging more to be done for people with disabilities in developing countries may have further supported the profile of APIDS and disability in the relevant parts of government.
Fund Raising
During the year most of APIDS’ fund raising was through new memberships. As the membership fee is a one-off payment however the organisation now needs to turn to other methods of sourcing new income. New members will continue to be sought but the primary source of fund raising will be from APIDS members either through donations or other fund raising schemes.
Organisation Management and Tax Status
A large chunk of the year has been taken up with the development of necessary policies and procedures for the ongoing good-practice operation of the organisation. The procedures for distributing funds, accounting for their expenditure and reporting in a transparent, but not burdensome manner for all parties, has been particularly important to the organisation. The relevant procedures and forms are easily accessible on the APIDS website.
Ensuring good organisational practice will help APIDS’ application to the Australian Taxation Office for Gift Deductibility Recipient (GDR) status. GDR status will make all donations to APIDS tax deductible. Unfortunately this presents as a complex, tedious and time consuming process which may take many months of consistent volunteer effort by APIDS’ Executive to surmount. As this will attract other significant sources of funding the difficult process has been embarked upon and should yield some results in the coming year.
The Executive
In 2005 Robyn James motivated Maryanne Diamond, Bill Jolly, Deborah Rhodes and myself to come together to form APIDS. These founding executive members have in common a strong belief that Pacific Islanders with disabilities suffer profoundly disproportionate levels of poverty and general disadvantage within their communities. Further the key to their equality is support for advocacy for and by Pacific Islanders with disabilities. While on one hand people with disabilities are studiously ignored in the development process and on the other remain passive recipients of any assistance afforded to them they will continue as second class citizens.
The Executive have worked hard to promote the objects of this fledgling organisation. Each has made heavy commitments to the extent of his/her time and skills resulting in a strong and growing organisation. There is no doubt however that the champion of APIDS has been the founder Robyn James. On behalf of all of us dedicated to APIDS thank you Robyn.
Daniel Stubbs
President APIDS
July 2007
For a copy of the minutes Click here to download this file
President's report Click here to download this file
Secretaries report Click here to download this file
Treasurers report Click here to download this file
FUNDING TO PARTNERS - FIRST ALLOCATION 2008
At a meeting in April, Directors agreed to provide grants to four DPO’s. These are:
$300 to Disabled Peoples’ Association of Solomon Islands for production and distribution of a newsletter. The $300 Australian converted to $1860 in the Solomons currency.
$300 to Disability Promotion & Advocacy Association (Vanuatu) for sign language classes.
$500 to Fiji Disabled Peoples Association (FDPA) for the costs of operating the office in Suva.
$300 to Te Toa Matoa (Kiribati) for running a workshop on handicrafts, such as the making of doormats and fishing stick nets. The products made will be sold and the funds raised used to assist in building a multi-purpose centre for Te Toa Matoa members.
The extra amount to FDPA is in acknowledgement of the resources that were provided in the initial planning stages of APIDS.
Deborah Rhodes, in her travels with her paid work in August, presented A$300 Australian to Savina Nongebatu in the Solomons, and A$300 to Andy Lynch in Vanuatu.
One of our members visited Fiji in late September and presented $650 (Fijian) to Fiji Disabled Peoples Association.It is hoped that funds will be transferred to Kiribati in the next month.
ADDC INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE (September 2008)
The conference was a great success, with more than 200 people from Pacific Island countries, Asia, New Zealand, Europe, North America and Australia attending. The ADDC website will have information from the Conference by the end of October - www.addc.org.au
The ABC radio Australia Pacific Beat program recorded some interviews. Go to www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/pacificbeat.htm?page=onthemat and listen to the On the mat program for October 6th "Pacific disabled people fight for recognition"
Saowalak Thongkuay from the Asia Pacific Region Disabled Peoples International office in Bangkok attended the conference and has prepared a PowerPoint presentation, with photos of many speakers and participants. If you would like a copy of the Powerpoint sent please email us apids (at) aapt.net.au.The photo below was taken on the first day.
APIDS SUBMISSION TO THE DISABILITY TASK FORCE - Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)- APIDS has provided a submission in response to the Consultation Paper. Our approach is that
"It is imperative that AusAID must resource the Disabled Peoples Organisations to undertake this education and awareness within their own countries. They are the ones with knowledge of how to increase knowledge and understanding within their own culture. Of course this process cannot be undertaken quickly, and as with many other development processes, results cannot be achieved in one or two years"
The full submission is available in Word formatClick here to download this file
or as a PDFClick here to download this file
DPA in Vanuatu have also completed a submission, which you can read here.Click here to download this file
THE AUSTRALIAN DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIUM (ADDC) June Update
On May 24th, the ADDC in partnership with the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and National Disability Services, held very positive meetings in Canberra with three key politicians who were at the ADDC launch earlier in the year:
• Senator Carmen Lawrence who Convenes the Parliamentary Friends of Disability Interest Group
• Senator Gary Humphries, who launched the ADDC and chairs the Senate Community Affairs Committee
• The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
As the attached briefing indicates, all meetings focusing on the need to mainstream disability within Australia’s aid program, in line with the aid programs of other major donors such as the US, UK, Canada and Japan.
In particular, Greg Hunt indicated he was "very interested" in the issue of disability within our aid program, stating it was timely to plan some significant advances and addressing disability was a legitimate evolution for the aid program. It was then suggested to Mr Hunt to embark on a three stage process:
1. Reviewing where disability currently sits in Australia and overseas aid programs
2. Developing a disability policy
3. Implementation of the policy.
Mr Hunt responded positively to this, asking for a paper outlining step one which he will then discuss with Downer and AusAID.
ADDC intends to continue lobbying Government and Opposition on mainstreaming of disability in Australia’s aid program and will welcome input and suggestions on this important aspect of our advocacy.
You can download a copy of the briefing hereClick here to download this file
MOTIVATION
British NGO Motivation has recently registered in Australia as the Motivation Australia Development Organisation (MADO). Motivation is a development agency which works with a range of organisations to create projects that enhance the lives of people with mobility disabilities. Their vision is of a world free of today’s obstacles to disabled people’s full enjoyment of their abilities, rights and ambitions.
Their work is about ensuring that local people have the skills to build and provide appropriate mobility equipment and services for disabled people in their communities who need them.
Their aim is to improve opportunities for people with mobility disabilities, resulting in more integration into the community. We believe mobility is an essential human right that enables people to achieve inclusion in all aspects of life.
MADO is currently developing a programme in Timor Leste in partnership with local NGO ASSERT to establish a national wheelchair service in Dili. Motivation are also working in partnership with VSO and the National Orthotics and Prosthetics service in PNG supporting a newly established wheelchair service network.
For more information about Motivation please visit website: www.motivation.org.uk
For more information about MADO please contact Kylie Mines, Programme Director, via email: kmines@motivation.org.uk
You can download some of their great fact sheets here
Donated wheelchairs in low income countriesClick here to download this file
Methods for improving wheelchair provisionClick here to download this file
NEWS FROM OUR FRIENDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The National Disability Resource & Advocacy Centre (NDRAC) based at the Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea contacted us in April. They have three major objectives:
- to empower persons with disabilities through The Network magazine
- to advocate on the rights of persons with disabilities
- to act as a focal point for information gathering and sharing with other organizations.
The National DRAC was established in 2006. Prior to that, The Network, Papua New Guinea's disability magazine was the only activity. But now, they have taken the role of facilitating information gathering and sharing for all disability organizations and self-help organizations in the country.
The National DRAC is producing The Network on a quarterly basis and is disseminating it to all over the world.
The latest copy of The Network has an article about APIDS.
You can download copies of The Network at www.dwu.ac.pg
APIDS BOARD RAISES THE PROFILE OF DISABILITY IN THE PACIFIC
APIDS president, Daniel Stubbs, had an article published in February 2007 on human rights issues for Pacific Islanders with disabilities in Islands Business (the independent current affairs journal of the Pacific).
You can download the article here.
Word version Click here to download this file
PDF version Click here to download this file
Click here to download this file
MEDIA RELEASE
3 December 2006
Disabled Pacific Islanders forgotten in the rush
“The dominance of economic development, governance and regional security agendas in the Pacific is leading many to forget the situation of people with disabilities and their families, the poorest in the region” said Daniel Stubbs chair of a new agency - Australia Pacific Islands Disability Support (APIDS).
Daniel Stubbs officially launched APIDS on 3 December 2006, International Day for People with Disabilities. He said “Pacific Islanders with disabilities suffer greater and longer term disadvantages, particularly when difficult times hit the Pacific”. Mr Stubbs noted that people with disabilities are becoming even further isolated and disadvantaged in the Pacific, as attention focuses on national political and strategic issues and events.
APIDS will support Pacific Islanders with disabilities to participate more actively in their communities and their own organisations. Greater equality of access can be achieved when there is well supported disability advocacy at local levels. Mr Stubbs said “we believe many Australians will want to support Pacific Islanders with disabilities to be able to get greater access to education, healthcare, employment and general community involvement.” So many Australians travel to the region as tourists and enjoy their holidays and interaction with local people. However few consider the issues affecting people with disabilities in Pacific islands.
It is often not for lack of money that the people with disabilities are marginalised and denied access to the things others take for granted. Sometimes there is simply a lack of recognition of disabled peoples’ abilities and their rights to participate in all aspects of life, including schooling, social interaction, work and participation in community groups.
APIDS provides a way for Australians to contribute to addressing these challenges. The funds raised by APIDS will go directly to those advocating for the basic rights of Pacific Islanders with disabilities. More information about APIDS can be found at www.apids.org. .
Ms Angeline Chand, Advocacy officer for Fiji Disabled Peoples Association, welcomed the launch of APIDS saying “at this particularly difficult time in Fiji, we value the commitment made by Australians and APIDS to work with organisations like us to achieve greater respect for the rights of people with disabilities.”
Released by Daniel Stubbs Chair APIDS
You can donate to APIDS at www.ourcommunity.com.au/apidsArchive