ONE STEP CLOSER SUMMIT
Under the title (One Step Closer) and the participation of 14 self-advocates accompanied by their supporters and 9 mothers, Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (SCHS) and Inclusion International for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are organizing Self-Advocates Summit from September 27 to October 1, 2019.
Her Highness Sheikha Jameela bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Director General of SCHS and Regional Representative of Inclusion International, has confirmed that one of the most important goals of the summit is to build a strong generation of self-advocates in United Arab Emirates and the Arab world. The summit will contribute to this through empowerment, training, and building a network of connections of self-advocates throughout social events as well as supporting self-advocates to gain new skills and support their families.
She said, “Self-advocates are persons with intellectual disabilities. They have enough independency and are capable of demanding their rights and the rights of their peers. The society must respect these rights throughout a deep understanding of persons with intellectual disabilities’ independency and their capability to integrate into society”.
She pinned out the profound effect of social responsibility concept in motivating individuals and organizations to support persons with disabilities and empower them according to the best practices worldwide and making sure of their wellbeing when helping them to make decisions.
Her Highness Sheikha Jameela talked about SCHS leadership in establishing the concept of self-advocacy. SCHS has chosen the theme (Nothing about us… Without us) for Al Amal Camp, which SCHS organized in 2010. At that time, this theme represented a loud call from persons with disabilities to end the ignorance and custody imposed by others on persons with disabilities. It was a call to express their right to discuss their own matters and get involved in planning of policies and strategies of decision-making that relates to their lives without custody or enforcement.
She considers the real representation of persons with disabilities should not be limited to a certain disability; it should include all types of disabilities in the light of experiences that prove their capability to run their own lives and discuss the matters that relates to them.
She said, “It is only fair, right, and logical that no one should stand in the way of establishing these principals and concepts. Everyone should allow persons with disabilities to take the lead in every area of life because they are best to understand their needs and evaluate their reality.
Self-Advocates Summit taking place at Sharjah is going to include a training program to prepare self-advocates becoming leaders. It targets persons with intellectual disability, who have the will to work as self-advocates. It includes training workshops aiming at teaching self-advocates the necessary skills to become leaders, empower them to strengthen the networking of self-advocacy in their societies. The self-advocate Sheikha Al Qasimi, Representative of Inclusion International for Middle East and North Africa, as well as self-advocate Salma Kanan are going to conduct the training.
In addition, the summit will include a training program for supporters and mothers that contains a group of necessary skills required for supporters to act efficiently. It aims at increasing their knowledge and culture, which contributes to raising the ability of a self-advocate to make the right decisions and therefore activate their role as self-advocates and enabling them to work within their societies.
Notably, the recreational program SCHS is going to present to families aims at providing psychological and moral support for the mothers of self-advocates, increase their ability to continue presenting support for their children, share experiences and consolidate the relationships of cooperation and friendship among each other.