For International Day of People with Disability

Today’s session of the GABFEST speaking club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was dedicated to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities which is celebrated globally on December, 3.  This year’s theme is: “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all”. A major focus of the Day is practical and concrete action to include disability in all aspects of development, as well as to further the participation of persons with disabilities in social life and development on the basis of equality.
At the WOA premises a collection of relevant posters was showcased. The posters tell about the life of disabled people in the USA.
 
The session started with the demonstration of a Ukrainian weekly TV program for disabled people. The club members practiced their interpreting skills - they rendered the program’s content into English for our American visitor- Mr. Andrew from PCV.
Mr. Andrew presented a slideshow about arrangements for disabled people in the USA. The club members were able to compare the arrangements for disabled people in Ukraine and USA.
The next challenging task was to tell their own stories about communicating with and helping disabled people. Some stories were very dramatic and impressed the audience.
Today’s session helped to promote Ukrainian public awareness about obstacles in implementing disability-sensitive policies. Certain progress in this matter in Ukraine was also highlighted.
Number of participants – 25 persons.