International Day of People with Disabilities 2022: Virtual Event
Video transcript
A very warm welcome to everyone.
Thank you for joining us
for this special event,
ahead of tomorrow’s International Day
of People with Disabilities for 2022.
I’m Jane Edge, the chief
executive of CBM Australia.
And in keeping
with our disability
inclusive meeting practices,
I’ll also describe what I look like.
I’m a white woman,
with blonde hair, glasses,
and I’m wearing a rust
coloured jacket today
with a matching scarf and a dark top.
I’d also like to introduce
you to Jinaya and Kim,
our interpreters,
who’ll identify themselves
with a hello wave,
if that’s all right, Kim?
Great, and Jinaya, you’re there also?
Wonderful.
Welcome to you both,
great to have you join us.
I’d like to also begin by acknowledging
the traditional owners of the
land on which I’m speaking.
The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung
people of the Kulin nation,
and pay my respects to their Elders,
past, present and emerging.
And I extend that respect
to all First Nations people
who may be present today.
I acknowledge the deep care
of Creation, demonstrated
by our First Nation’s
people over 60,000 years
of custodianship.
I’m really so delighted,
so many of you, could join
us today for this event,
Brighter Futures: Children with
Disabilities in the Pacific.
I know we have a mix of
people joining us today,
current CBM supporters,
colleagues from the aid
and development sector,
who are also passionate about inclusion,
and others who actually may
not know anything about CBM
or our work.
So it’s great to have you all with us.
I’ll tell you a little bit
more about CBM in a moment
and speak about our theme
for International Day of People
with Disabilities this year.
Before introducing our main event,
which is a fabulous interview
between three inspiring leaders
in the disability
movement from our region,
Karni Liddell, a Paralympian,
and Australian disability
rights activists,
Maselina Iuta from the
Deaf Association of Samoa
and Beia Temango from the
Kiribati Association of People
who are blind and vision impaired.
And finally, you’ll be the first audience
to view our International Day
of People with Disabilities
campaign video for 2022.
And which I hope you’ll share
widely via social media today,
tomorrow and beyond.
So again, thank you for being
part of this launch event.
In telling you about CBM,
I’d like to share some
personal reflections
on why I find this work so compelling.
I’ve been blessed to work
in International Aid and
Development for more than 25 years,
and I’ve covered territory
from Timor-Leste to Afghanistan.
And tomorrow,
actually, on International Day
of People with Disabilities,
I celebrate a decade of being part
of this “Movement of the Heart”
that I call CBM’s work,
where justice and inclusion are integral
to how we bring about
the change we wanna see
in the world.
I’ve seen so much freight work
on the ground during my career.
It had a real epiphany in joining CBM,
when I realized that
the most marginalized,
those with disabilities
remained invisible,
literally not counted
and excluded to a degree.
It’s almost impossible for us to imagine
if we have not been part
of that kind of experience.
The reality is that one in
seven people in our world,
live with a disability,
and 80% of them live in poverty.
And more than 214 million are
children with disabilities.
Driven by our Christian values
for more than 114 years,
CBM has been enabling
people with disabilities,
living in poverty to
transform their lives.
In this past year alone,
we’ve worked in more than
20 countries integrating
grassroots projects in
authentic partnership
with local communities,
responding when
humanitarian crisis strike,
and also providing
world-class inclusion advice,
which is influencing and
enabling other organisations
to include people with disabilities.
So think the wider Australian
Aid Program and UN agencies,
such as the World Food Programme.
In raising awareness of the situation
of people with disabilities,
we ensure their voices are heard,
and that’s why this year,
we are bringing a focus to the needs
of children with disabilities.
Partners in the region have
told us this is their priority.
These children,
who are already amongst
the most disadvantaged
have been pushed even
further to the edges,
during and since the global pandemic.
I’ve met many inspiring people
in visiting CBM programs over the years,
and one whose story remains with me
is Gerald from the Philippines.
Now there’s a slide on
the screen here of Gerald,
a young man, dark hair,
sitting at a table,
with a lot of electrical
material lying around,
and what looks like a speaker
that he’s very engrossed
in trying to repair.
Now, Gerald, was born with cerebral palsy
and now uses a wheelchair.
His parents were determined
that he’d get an education
so they would actually carry
him to school each day.
And as a parent myself,
I find that a challenging concept.
They took it in turns to sit
with him in the classroom
so he could see the teacher
and actually learn.
When I met Gerald, he described to me
how difficult his early years really were.
Joining a CBM supported Community Based
Inclusive Development
program transformed his life.
That’s his words.
He gained a wheelchair
and was supported to
do vocational training.
He actually now earns more
than anyone in his family
by repairing mobile phones
and he’s a confident and
active member of his community.
Gerald’s mom, Lita,
spoke of the power of
the leadership program
she and other parents
of children with disabilities undertook
as part of this community based program.
And we certainly all had tears in our eyes
as parents shared,
that without Lita’s
leadership and advocacy,
they would never have known
there was hope for their children.
So CBM has supported that local partner
in implementing this work
and it is scaling impact
across the Philippines.
So thousands of children
with disabilities,
now get the start they deserve.
And the discrimination
and stigma attitudes
that can be the most intractable barriers
have been broken down as children
and young people with disabilities
achieve their potential
and contribute so much
in their communities.
Gerald went on to complete his education,
earn a living,
access basic services,
and have a voice in his community.
And that is what this program
is enabling for thousands of young people.
This is a life world lived with dignity,
with meaning, a sense of belonging,
and contribution.
Dimensions that are at
the heart of our humanity.
Gerald has moved from the margins
to taking that central
place in his community.
And while it might not
be my kind of music,
Gerald is literally the life of the party
in his community.
He’s the DJ now,
because of his electronics expertise,
and he provides the music.
And it was that sense of
belonging that he spoke of,
with most emotion,
that was most meaningful to him.
Now this is a wonderful example
of CBM’s twin-track approach to inclusion.
We focus on the creation
of inclusive societies
where people with disabilities
have that access to social
and development benefits
like everyone else.
With that approach,
people with disabilities,
governments and community based
organisations work together,
addressing the barriers to
meaningful participation
and inclusion.
And at the same time,
we’re ensuring specific services
and supports are put in place
for people with disabilities like Gerald
to really participate
and engaged effectively with government
and other stakeholders.
The reality is just to take one example,
only five to 15% of
people with disabilities,
living in developing countries,
get the assistive technology they need.
Gerald and his wheelchair, for example.
We wanna change that.
And in our region alone,
there are over 100 million
children experience the isolation
and exclusion that Gerald described to me.
So education, assistive devices,
and shifting community attitudes,
will all make the world of
difference to their lives.
The situation of children
with disabilities
is underreported and undersupported.
This is among the key findings
in our towards Brighter Futures report
on children with disabilities
in the Asia Pacific region.
And while information is fragmented,
what we do know is not a good news story.
In Tonga, for example,
only 14% of children with
disabilities attend any kind
of early childhood education
and that’s compared to 30% of
those without disabilities.
This kind of data is
brought to light through
the power of personal stories
and hearing from people
who have lived experience of disability
from childhood through to adult life.
So next up, you’re gonna
hear from from Karni Liddell,
about how her experiences
of being excluded
from opportunities enjoyed
by other children her age,
led her to become a disability advocate
with considerable impact in Australia.
You’ll hear Karni in
conversation with Maselina Iuta
from the Deaf Association of Samoa
and an advocate for disability
rights in the Pacific.
Maselina’s passionate about
climate change adaptation,
inclusive education and inclusive
disaster risk management.
She’s working to ensure that
people with disabilities
are supported to take on
leadership roles in these areas.
Karni will also speak with Beia Temango
from the Kiribati Association of People
who are blind or vision impaired.
And, Beia, advocates
strongly to communities,
NGOs, like CBM and others,
churches and the
government about inclusion.
So let’s hear from Karni,
Maselina and Beia now.
– Hi, I’m Karni Liddell.
I’m a former Paralympian.
They always say there’s no such thing
so I should say, I’m a Paralympian.
I’m a mother to a five
year old boy called Kai.
I’m a social worker.
I have sit on the Premier’s Domestic
and Family Violence Council,
and I’m very proud to be an advocate
and activist for my brothers
and sisters with disabilities.
On 3rd of December,
we celebrate International Day
of People with Disabilities.
So International Day of
People with Disabilities.
This year, CBM Australia will mark the day
by focusing on children with disabilities
in developing countries
and making sure that their
start in life helps ’em thrive
and flourish.
There are around 107.5 million
children in disabilities
in the Indo-Pacific region.
They represent 45% of the world’s children
with disabilities.
These children face many challenges,
including access to education,
access to health care and discrimination.
CBM is calling for greater
investment in these children.
These issues are very close to my heart.
I wanna share a story
about my own education,
childhood, and how important it is
to prioritize the needs of
children with disabilities.
I was born with my disability.
I have a muscle wasting disease,
and my darling parents
were told when I was born
that their first born
child would not walk,
would not crawl,
and would not live past her teenage years.
They were also told,
“Whatever you do,
don’t do any form of exercise
or rehabilitation with her.
Make her as comfortable as possible
and put her into a home.”
I’m very fortunate that I believe
that the only reason I’m here today,
happy, walking.
I need this thing for, like, parking,
and healthy and working
is because I had an
amazing family around me.
I guess for myself,
I didn’t really understand
that I had a disability until
I was about 14 years of age,
which is interesting,
because that was when I
broke my first world record
at 50 metres freestyle.
And the reason I discovered
that I was disabled
at the age of 14 when I
came back to Rockhampton
where I was born,
is that all of a sudden,
my school and my
community were all worried
about public liability,
or Occupational Health and Safety
or what I call ‘risk.’
And the most disabling thing for me,
I believe, is this misconception
that I’m the riskiest person
in this room to support,
serve and employ.
So at the age of 14,
I was told I could no
longer play sport at school.
I could no longer walk up the stairs.
I could no longer do
anything physical anymore.
And from there,
that’s really been my
fight until the age of 43.
And most of us people with disabilities
in Australia live on fight mode,
fighting to do the basics,
fighting for funding,
fighting to fly,
fighting to get on a ride at a theme park.
And those things are very easy to fix
’cause that just means,
of course changing attitudes.
I have traveled the world
and I’ve certainly been to
many developing countries
and I sit here in a $35,000 wheelchair.
My car has a $10,000
hoist in the back of it,
which lifts my wheelchair into the car.
If you take that away from me,
you take away my complete independence.
I also have support workers
now through the NDIS.
Before that, five years ago,
I didn’t have that.
I did everything myself,
very difficulty.
My ageing parents had
to pay for everything,
do everything, pay for the wheelchairs,
help me, and it was a really,
really challenging life.
And the only reason
I can actually be a
working single mother today
is because I have
funding for the equipment
and support I need to
get out the front door
of my apartment.
Unfortunately, when I
open that front door,
we need the community
to open up their doors
because we are the most
unemployed group in this country.
But we’re not here to talk
about Australia today,
we’re here to talk to
two very accomplished,
impressive humans,
who are making a name for
themselves in their own countries
by advocating for the needs
of people with disabilities.
And I know that I often say
I can’t wait for the today
that I can retire from being
an advocate or an activist,
which means that we all
have the same rights
as everybody else.
Maselina Iuta is a 25 year
old disability advocate
from Samoa.
She works for the Deaf
Association of Samoa
and is passionate about climate change
and disaster risk education.
Welcome, Maselina.
Beia Temango is a 26 year
old disability advocate
from Kiribati.
I’m actually gonna get
him to say his name.
He works for the Kiribati
Association of People
who are blind or vision impaired
and he’s passionate
about inclusive education
as we all are.
Thank you both for talking with me today
and traveling all the way here.
I’m excited to have this opportunity
to find out more about your work
and of course, what
happens in your country
with people with disabilities.
I’m really interested in your
own childhood experiences,
it’s probably the social worker in me.
We always start with the childhoods.
So tell me, Maselina,
what was it like for you growing up
in Samoa with a disability?
– [Interpreter] Thank you
so much for the opportunity.
I will share my experience today.
I would like to talk about my
experience when I was a child.
When I am four years old,
I started go to school,
and by that time there’s
no accessible for me.
There’s no interpreter.
I only had my friends around me,
and I always ask for
help in sign language,
and they have no idea how to communicate.
So most of the time,
I feel neglected, I feel sad.
And I started become focusing
on school without interpreters,
and my teacher was trying
to teach me verbal,
and it’s really hard.
It’s very difficult for me,
most of the time, I don’t understand,
and I’m trying to ask
them to use sign language,
but they always say, no,
I need to learn how to speak.
So when I go home,
my grandmother, trying
to teach me how to speak,
and how to communicate.
So when I go everywhere
I can able to speak.
My grade in school is not good.
I always fail most of
my childhood education.
And when I started to meet sign language,
deaf in 2012,
that is the first time that I saw
and it’s gimme courage,
that I have found the support for me.
– Beia, I’m gonna get you
to say your entire name,
’cause I am from a place
that you’ve probably never heard of,
just like I hadn’t actually
heard of your country,
which I apologize for.
I’m from a place called Rockhampton,
which is the beef capital of Australia.
So I’ve got a very Australian accent.
So would you mind to
saying your full name?
– My name is Beia,
and my father’s name is Temango.
– Beautiful.
And your story’s a little bit different
because you weren’t born with
your disability, were you?
– In 2014 when I was 12 years old,
and I’ve got blind,
I’m caught a blindness.
I feel a very difference
because when I’m…
I had no more vision
and I can access everywhere.
When I walk once to school,
I can access properly,
when I wants to sport,
can I sport independently.
But when I have a disability in 2014
and everything that I already did.
I have very difference
because when I wants to sport,
I can’t access to sport.
When I wants to…
In school, I can’t access to school
because no equipment that I can use
to in mainstreaming.
– So I talked a little bit before
at the beginning about the label
of being ‘the riskiest
person’ everywhere I go,
disables me more than my own disability.
Let’s talk about the stigma
and the labels that are
attached to you in your country,
in Samoa.
– [Interpreter] That is most,
that is one of the most
challenge that we face
is the discriminate and stigma
of children with disability
and it’s that it’s all
started from families.
Children can’t access to education
and they can’t support them
and encourage them so
they can become confidence
and able to be in school.
So we really want to teach
our people with disability
to become…
Encourage them to become brave,
and be able to go
and be as the same
as other people without disability.
And I also feel like there’s a lot of work
that we need to do with our families
and people that around us,
that people with disability need us there.
So they have the same rights as others.
They need to teach them to be accepted
and I believe that it’s something
that we can do to stop that.
– Here in Australia,
people with disabilities are
the most unemployed group
in the country,
and Australia is one
of the worst countries
in the Western world
for employment of people
with a disability.
Is that the case in your country?
– Yes, yes, it is the same.
There’s a few opportunities
for employment.
Sometimes there’s lack of support.
It is experience for me to
know that is not only us,
and it give us the
courage to keep advocate,
advocate for the support,
support for people with disability
to make sure they have the equal rights
for access in employment.
Some people think that it’s hard
and some people think it is easy.
So it is something that
we have to think about
that we can do it and encourage
and advocate the government
for more employment opportunities.
– Beia, just recently,
I was flooded in Brisbane
and I lost everything in the floods
and I discovered that,
obviously in a flood,
I lost my wheelchair,
my accessible electric bed,
and I found that people with
disabilities were very left out
of the flood recovery services
’cause we couldn’t get
accommodation that was accessible.
I couldn’t get a wheelchair
’cause there was no wheelchairs around,
there was six months wait for wheelchairs.
In regards to where you live,
how are people with disabilities supported
when a disaster like
a cyclone or a tsunami
or in my case, a flood happens?
– In our country,
and there’s a Met office
is looking for the emergency warning.
Yeah, it’s like a strong wind,
rains and every emergency warning.
And in the past,
when they did announcement to the public
to prepare themselves before
the strong wind coming
and they already forgot about
persons with disabilities.
Especially persons,
deaf persons,
because when they did the
announcement through the radio
and all deaf persons can’t
hear that announcement,
only persons that can hear,
can receive that information,
access to information
about emergency warning.
But they forgot about persons
with disabilities that…
This is in the past.
But now, after the…
We advocate and we advocate
to talk to the governments
and they, for now,
when they did the
announcements to the public
to prepare themselves before the big waves
or the strong wind,
and they did in every social media,
because they include the
needs of deaf persons
and especially blind person for a…
They can access to information
about the emergency warning.
And for now, these are very,
we can access to information.
Deaf persons can receive
information from the Met office
to provide, to prepare
themselves before the emergency.
And we have food accessible
and we can access
to information from doing…
After we advocates to the government.
– Maselina, what about in your country
when it comes to subtitles and
interpreters with disasters?
– [Interpreter] Yes, it
is the same experience.
Like before, we don’t have the opportunity
for our preparation for disaster risk.
But at the moment,
we have access
in educating our people with disability
in preparedness of disaster,
because before there’s
no access in information
and sometimes they use subtitle,
but deaf people can’t read,
and they always rely on their families
to give them gestures about
preparedness for any disaster.
So there’s a little
information they get from that.
And one of the biggest
achievements that we have
is opportunity for us to provide
for people with disabilities.
And we’re able to educate them
and ask them and give them
the support that they need,
like the interpreters on TV
and on videos as well.
And also our advocacy
organisation back there
have represent in disaster
risk management chairs.
So there’s a person with disability
who’s able to give
advice to the government
for make sure that they are
include people with disability
in whatever they do,
like, in planning,
and what are they do after the disaster.
This is a great opportunity for us,
as Beia said,
that before it’s the people who are deaf
is the most vulnerable people
because they can’t hear
and they have little
understand in disaster.
And that is one of the reason
that I am happy to sit in this.
I have this opportunity
so I can advocate more
to make sure that information
and all the resources that
they need for the support
of people with disability
have the understand
and have the resources
and make sure the governments are able
to support their needs.
And the most important
thing is have them consulted
because we believe in that mandate:
that nothing about us without us.
We love to see more disability
people sitting on the table,
asking them what they really wants
to get out from that discussion,
what they really needs
to support them with,
when it becomes to this
vulnerable group that we are.
– That’s right.
And also, that’s a great way
to employ people with
disabilities, isn’t it?
By having us at the table.
So it is International Day
of People with a Disability.
If I could give you a magic
wand (laughs) right now,
what’s your biggest wish for your brothers
and sisters with
disabilities in your country?
– [Interpreter] I think my bigger wish
is more collaboration,
more collaboration with the government,
our international partners,
and able to network
with our People with
Disability organisation
so that we can share our ideas
and able to learn
from our small island countries.
And, yeah, that we able to what…
After this meeting,
we able to bring our experience,
our ideas back,
especially in our development countries.
– Beia, what would be your big wish?
Magic wand, you can gimme more than one
for this International Day
of People with Disability
for your country.
– Yes. (coughs)
I want to make more advocacy
to the government
to make sure all public places
are accessible for
persons with disabilities
and also with the terminal.
They…
It provide an accessible places
for persons with disabilities
when they need…
When they access to the airport
and they can fully accessible.
Especially in education, we are…
I want to make my advocacy
to the government to improve
and to be support more,
more support for the,
to the Ministry of Education.
So to all mainstream
that are provided there
and we want to asking for
the government to support,
to provide more equipment for persons
or for students with
disabilities around the country.
– There is so much to be done
to ensure a better future for
children with disabilities
and also, us, adults, in the Pacific.
It’s been wonderful to be
able to talk to you today
and learn about your childhood,
your experiences, and your passion
for making the world a better place.
I wanna thank you,
as a fellow advocate,
and as a person with the disability
because even in this country,
schools aren’t actually fully
inclusive or accessible.
So it’s really important for
Australians to know that.
But it’s also important
to Australians to know
that we can also help other people
in other countries that are
only getting $4,000 wheelchairs
and also unable to access
interpreter services,
just to be able to do the basic,
which is communicate
with others and connect.
Thank you so much for your time today
and everything you’ve done for us.
– Well, what a powerful
conversation to really set the scene
and to challenge and encourage all of us
as we come into International Day
of People with Disabilities.
And what I would reflect on actually
is what we heard in that interview,
which is effectively,
people with disabilities inviting us all
to this conversation for a better world.
And I do hope you’re encouraged,
as I am,
to spend more time listening
to the life stories
and day-to-day challenges
of people like Beia,
Maselina, Gerald, and Karni.
They show us what’s possible
for children with disabilities
when they have a supportive parent
or teacher or assistive devices
as supplied at critical
times in their development,
and when the barriers of stigma
and discrimination are broken down.
We wanna see this happen
for the tens of millions
of children still being left behind.
That’s why our campaign this
year is My Start Counts,
because investing in those early years,
means children with disabilities get
what they need to thrive.
So let’s see some examples
of that transformation
in the lives of some special children
in our 2022 campaign video.
– [Interpreter] Education
is a universal human right.
While many children get the
start in life they deserve,
too many do not.
Children with disabilities
in developing nations
are among the most disadvantaged
people in the world.
With one in three, not
attending primary school.
It’s estimated that even
fewer get the care they need
in the first years of life.
But, we lack reliable
data about these children
and the barriers that hold them back.
They are simply not being counted.
Yet, we know that if children
are given a strong start,
then the cycle of poverty
and disadvantage can be broken.
When barriers to an
education are taken away,
children make their opportunity count.
Pearl Anne’s family,
who are trained to help her,
develop her mobility and motor skills.
Today, she is more independent
and walks to school.
(Pearl Anne speaking in
foreign language) English.
– [Interpreter] For Ian,
school was not a place
he wanted to be until the
toilets he could use were built.
(Ian speaking in foreign language)
Aliah benefited from therapeutic exercises
in her early years
and is now thriving at her local school.
(Aliah speaking in foreign language)
Millions more children
deserve a strong start
in life to be counted,
included and empowered with an education.
– My Start Count now,
because I can learn.
– My Start Counts, because I have friends.
– My Start Count.
(inspiring upbeat music)
– Wow, what a star cast.
Every child matters,
every child deserves the chance
to fulfill their potential.
And every month and every year count
in the stages of child development.
So we are now gonna share a slide
that has our website details,
cbm.org.au/idpd.
Please use that website
or use the barcode with
the camera on your phone.
That’ll pop up shortly.
What’s important though is
to be sharing this video
and you can do so by
accessing those links.
Please post this on social media.
Follow the hashtag of
#MyStartCounts, in particular,
because together, we can
make our voices heard.
We can stand in real
solidarity with those caught
in a cycle of poverty in disability,
and we can make it clear
that children everywhere
deserve to be counted.
Again, you can download
our Brighter Futures research
summary from the website.
We know from our advocacy efforts at CBM
and with our partners
that when we rally to the call
by people with disabilities
for inclusion and for equity,
that our government and
others in our region
will pay more attention.
Significant change is actually happening
and being a good ally,
is about creating this progress.
Allyship is active, not passive,
and it’s about lifting others
and creating platforms for them
so that their voices are heard,
like the interviews and the
video we’ve shared today.
So I wanna say a huge thanks to all of you
for your time today,
for being part of this work.
We value your support
and look forward to continuing
to build a more inclusive world,
a world where every child
with a disability is valued
and supported to achieve
their full potential.
Thank you again for your support.