Two of our Empower Us team from the Americas, Jaime from Peru and Tia from USA recently led Empower Us training for self-advocates who work with Inclusion International member Keystone Human services.

In June members of the Empower Us team were at the Conference of State Parties (COSP) at the United Nations in New York.

The Conference of State Parties (COSP) is a conference where governments and organisations come together to talk about the Convention on the Rights if People with Disabilities (CRPD).

This year members of our Empower Us team spoke at the main conference sessions and at side sessions.

In June Empower Us team member and Inclusion International council representative for Africa Mark from Malwai led training for self-advocates in Namibia. Read Mark’s report from the training here.

Between the 19th and 21st March in Anafora Egypt Empower Us led training for self-advocates from across the MENA region. The training was led by our team members Salma from Egypt and Mia from Lebanon.

15 self-advocates from 6 MENA countries took part. These were Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.

In the beginning of March members of our Empower Us team were in Bolivia taking part in a consultation on how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are working for people with disabilities in Latin America.

My name is Oswald Föllerer. I am 63 years old, I live in Vienna and I have two children. I like to do judo and play darts. I am part of the Inclusion International Empower Us team.

For the last 9 years I have worked in the field of self-advocacy for people with learning difficulties. I do political work, networking and public relations.

In December two members of our Empower Us Action Team, Salma and Mia took part in the International Disability Alliance (IDA) Bridge training.

The Bridge training is a detailed training for advocates from disabled people’s organisations all about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

We are very pleased to share that Empower Us has a new self-advocate fellow. This year our fellow is Jaime from Peru. Jaime is a self-advocate and works with Inclusion International member SPSD from Peru. Jaime follows in the footsteps of our fellow from last year, Jayne from the organisation KAIH in Kenya.

I am Shashi Babu Paudel. I am 39, and I live in Kathmandu, Nepal. I got an opportunity to take part in the Empower Us self-advocacy training on 26 and 27th of March 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The training was organised by PFPID Nepal and Inclusion International. The Empower Us training was led by self-advocates from New Zealand, Kenya and Malawi and was for self-advocates.

Recently members of our Empower Us Action Team have been working with Inclusion International members in different regions across the world on self-advocacy and inclusion.

David from New Zealand, Luis Gabriel from Colombia and Mark from Malawi explain more!