Mission to Myanmar
An APCD Mission visited Yangon, Myanmar from 5-8 June 2005 in order to further develop a cooperative relationship with the Government Focal Point, the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), and to monitor and follow-up on the former training participants. APCD primarily conducted post-training monitoring interviews with the participants from 2004 in the following fields:
- Capacity Building of Self-help Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (CBSHOD)
- Initiating Self-help Groups (SHG) of People with Disabilities (PWD)
- Social and Comprehensive Approach to Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR)
As a target country, APCD has encouraged Myanmar to strengthen the community and rights-based approaches to support people with disabilities and accommodated more than 20 persons in relevant APCD training courses. The Mission appreciated the following progress in Myanmar.
Cooperative Relationship with the APCD Government Focal Point and JICA Office
DSW, as the Government Focal Point, has been cooperating with APCD in the recruitment and follow-up of participants. Through a meeting with the Mission, the Director-General of DSW and other Executives further deepened their understanding of the significance of cooperation between the Government and NGO including disabled people's organizations for the empowerment of PWD.
The Mission organized a half-day follow-up seminar in cooperation with DSW and the JICA Myanmar Office. The JICA Office modified the building entrance to make it accessible for participants using wheelchairs, offered the seminar venue and encouraged post-training activities by introducing its NGO Center (e.g., meeting space, computer) for their usage.
In the follow-up seminar, 14 former participants shared their achievements and issues that they encountered after returning from their training. The seminar culminated in having comments and suggestions by APCD Resource Persons, who included a deaf Thai person and person with a physical disability with rich self-help experiences, leading the Asia-Pacific regional movement on disability.
Self-help Groups/Organizations (SHG/SHO) Initiated/Strengthened by Former Participants
APCD invited 6 participants with 2 interpreters for the SHG Training in Thailand and 1 participant for the CBSHOD Training organized in Hanoi, Viet Nam in 2004. The SHG Training was for initiators of SHG of PWD at the grass-root level for sustainable community development to deepen their understanding of poverty, development and disability; the CBSHOD Training targeted national leaders with disabilities and helped develop/strengthen a national cross-disability federation for effective policy advocacy.
The Mission was successful in monitoring 7 participants for the SHG and SHO Training and found that the following SHG and SHO had been initiated or further strengthened by former APCD training participants:
- Myanmar Disabled People's Organization
- Myanmar Physically Handicapped Association
- Yangon Association of the Deaf
- Raise-up Persons with Disability Groups (Yangon)
- Deaf Youth Development Center (Mandalay)
- Pyin Oo Lwin Self-help Group (Mandalay)
Former participants with disabilities who had been empowered through the APCD training courses have been empowering other people with disabilities at the national as well as grass-root community level.
Mainstreaming Disability Issues in Area Development Programs: CBR and SHG of PWD
Three Myanmar staff of World Vision, their Health Advisor and Community Development Facilitators, participated in the APCD CBR Training in 2004. Despite their partial participation as self-sponsored participants, they were active and leading participants.
Through the post-training interviews, the Mission appreciated that they had applied their learning in their field practice and shared relevant knowledge with their colleagues and community people. A participant from Mandalay, for example, has become a more effective supporter for income generation and developing SHG of PWD, utilizing her learning from the APCD Training.
APCD visited one of the "Area Development Programs" in a township near Yangon, where CBR has been implemented as part of the Program and one of the former participants is responsible for it. Although the CBR has not yet fully matured, the Mission was pleased to observe that many community people were motivated to join CBR and enjoyed their community work thanks to excellent facilitation by the former APCD participant.
Since World Vision recently started long-term "Area Development Programs" throughout Myanmar, with comprehensive community development being pursued by people in their respective communities in phases of a 15-year project and disability issues will be mainstreamed through CBR. The former APCD training participants have been and will be greatly contributing to the disability-related community development.
