Page 24 - Community Living Magazine 32-3

inclusion
Call for inclusion goes global

Sara Pickard reports on her travels to Kenya to train people in self-advocacy
as part of an international campaign. This year, she is promoting the
worldwide Calls to Action for Inclusion, starting with education for all

s part of my work, I represent
Europe as the self-advocate
acouncil member for a worldwide
organisation called Inclusion
International.
One aspect of this involves developing a
global self-advocacy programme called
empower Us, which aims to improve the
lives of those with intellectual disabilities
and their families around the world. To
find out more about this programme, you
can visit www.selfadvocacyportal.com.
Over the past year, empower Us has
provided training for self-advocates in
several parts of the world including Togo,
Nepal and, most recently, Kenya.
I was fortunate to be part of the training Spelling it out at the Nairobi conference: the Calls to Action for Inclusion cover education, work,
team, alongside Jennifer “Jayne” Akinyi family support and more
and Mark Mapemba (see photo) in
Nairobi, which delivered training in These became our “big issues”, which Closer to home
October 2018 to 15 self-advocates from were then developed into our six Calls to As well as my work internationally, I am
across East Africa. Action for Inclusion at our Global Self- the project officer for a mencap Cymru
It was very rewarding to see how well Advocacy Summit in 2018 (see box). These project, funded by Children in Need and
they developed their skills in order to demands have since been shared at our based in Cardiff, called Play Our Way.
deliver training themselves to others in World Congress and now been adopted to We recruit and train young people with
the future. guide our work around the world. and without learning disabilities to take
As we were having to deliver the During 2019, we will be focusing on part in new mainstream activities that
training through translators, using several each of these Calls to Action for Inclusion they would otherwise never encounter.
languages, it was tricky at times, but to for two months at a time, beginning with So far we have introduced our
see how well the participants did by the the demand for inclusive education to ambassadors to indoor climbing,
end of the course was well worth it. start the year. trampolining, table tennis, go-karting and
A major part of Inclusion International’s To follow developments on our Calls to white water rafting, horse riding, surfing,
work over the past few years has been Action for Inclusion or to find out more sailing and sea kayaking, including some
gathering together views from self- about the work of Inclusion International, residential weekends in exciting places.
advocates from across the world about please visit our website at: http:// As well as being the project officer, I
how they felt their lives could be improved. inclusion-international.org. have to do all the activities with our
ambassadors … which can be a bit scary …
but which I love doing!!! n
Calls to Action for Inclusion

Education Jobs
We demand that all boys and girls with We demand real jobs in the community
an intellectual disability go to school with real pay and the support we need
and are included in the same classroom to be successful
as other children
Institutions
Valued equally We demand that all institutions are
We demand to be valued equally and closed and that no new institutional
for the discrimination we face to end type settings are built again

Families Community
We demand that families are supported, We demand to be included and part of
included and valued our communities Training with Jayne Akinyi and Mark empower Us
Mapemba of Empower Us in Nairobi, Kenya
24 Vol 32 No 3 | Spring 2019 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk