A newsletter for
people interested in issues relevant to people from a
NESB with disability and their families and carers.
Produced by the Multicultural Disability Advocacy
Association of NSW (MDAA).
If you have any queries,
questions, comments or any other contributions please
contact us by email (mdaa@mdaa.org.au)
or phone (02) 9891 6400.
NEW at
MDAA
2008
begins
Now that you've had time to digest the bumper December
newsletter which detailed changes in the MDAA Committee,
new projects and training, the Supported Living Forum,
etc, and outlined the new Commonwealth Government and the
ALP's Disability and Carer Policy, we have more news.
MDAA farewells...
In March we said farewell to our Executive Director,
Barbel Winter, who has led and inspired the MDAA team for
the past 10 years. Barbel has worked long and hard to
transform MDAA from a small, relatively unknown,
community based organisation to a respected leader in the
move towards a culturally competent disability sector
which welcomes diversity and responds well to the diverse
community of NSW. We thank her heaps for all she has
done for MDAA. We will miss her unique style and amazing
drive and we wish her well for the future.
We also said adios to our amazing Assistant Director
for 6 years, Maureen Kingshott, who retired from
full-time work in February, after 30 years of advocating
for social justice in areas including criminology, family
law, child protection, administrative law and disability.
She's off for a well deserved rest and we will miss her
humour, clear thinking and exceptional writing
skills.
...and hello
MDAA welcomes Diana Qian as our new Executive Director
from 13 March and we look forward to working with her in
her new role. Diana has been an Assistant Director at
MDAA since April 2007 and led the development of our
strategic plan for 2008-2010 (see details below). Diana
has been involved with MDAA since we started in 1996 and
was our Chairperson from 1998 to 2003. She has been a
strong advocate for people from NESB with disability for
the past 10 years, through her leadership roles at MDAA
and as an individual advocate at PWD, information officer
at NSW CID, member of the NSW Disability Council, and
Executive Officer for the National Ethnic Disability
Alliance (NEDA).
Community Links
As a part of our Community Links Project MDAA wants to
work with the Bangladeshi community this year. We will
have our first consultation with Bangladeshi community
workers on Wednesday 30 April, 10am - 12noon, at MDAA
Office.
MDAA's Community Links Project aims to increase our
links with communities from Africa, the Indian
Subcontinent and Spanish speaking Latin America. Through
this project we aim to:
- raise awareness and increase knowledge about
disability among members of those communities living
in NSW
- help reduce stigma about disability and disability
related issues among those communities
- work in partnership and consultation with
community workers, services and the communities
- raise awareness about disability services and
resources available to people in NSW
- inform community members about their rights and
how they can achieve them
- connect those communities to MDAA advocacy
services which can assist people to know their rights
and to make informed decisions and choices about
matters such as education, jobs, disability services,
accommodation and immigration
We would like to invite all Bangladeshi community
workers to join us to discuss how we can support your
community. For more information please call Gordana or
Ather on 02 9891 6400.
Strategic plan
2008-2011
We launched our new strategic plan at MDAA's annual
general meeting in November 2007. The plan is for
'Making it happen: a community where everyone, regardless
of background or disability, is welcome, included and
supported.'
In developing the new plan we looked at the past plan
to see what we had done well and what we still have to
do. We asked MDAA members, Committee, workers, consumers
and colleagues outside MDAA for feedback on our work and
their ideas for the future. People were very open and
helpful in giving us ideas about what we should do and
how we can do things better.
The plan sets out MDAA's direction for the next three
years in our four main areas of work. In each work area
we set out what we want, how we will get it and how we
will know we've got it.
We believe the most important things for MDAA in the
next three years are:
- to give the best support possible to people from
NESB with disability and their families, wherever they
live in NSW
- to support people from NESB with disability and
their families to know and stand up for their
rights
- to make strong links with different communities,
including communities in regional and rural areas
- to make MDAA stronger, to be a stronger voice for
people from NESB with disability and their
families
We thank everyone who helped us to make the plan and
hope you will continue to support MDAA in building a
community we all want to live in.
For details of the plan go to the MDAA website at:
http://www.mdaa.org.au/about/index.html
Put Friday 13th June 2008 in
your diaries now!
MDAA will be running a one day forum on Friday 13th
June 08 at the Northcott Conference and Function Centre
in North Parramatta.
The forum, an outcome of work with disability service
providers in Cumberland Prospect, will focus on practical
approaches to working with people from diverse
backgrounds.
It will provide a great opportunity to meet and talk
with people who are actively working through the issues
of building cultural competency in their work
environments. It is an excellent opportunity to explore
ways of responding to community diversity and competing
service development needs in a safe and stimulating
environment.
The forum will be open to all community, for profit
and government agencies working in the human services
sector. However the forum is limited to 100
registrations.
For more information or to register, please check our
website in the coming weeks or email Theresa at
theresa.clark@mdaa.org.au
Don't miss what promises to be a stimulating,
practical and innovative day.
Commonwealth
News
Commonwealth
Parliament's Apology to the Stolen Generations
13 February 2008 was a great day in Australia's
history with Prime Minister Rudd moving the following
motion in Parliament:
That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this
land, the oldest continuing cultures in human
history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of
those who were Stolen Generations-this blemished chapter
in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new
page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the
past and so moving forward with confidence to the
future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of
successive Parliaments and governments that have
inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our
fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their
families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen
Generations, their descendants and for their families
left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and
the sisters, for the breaking up of families and
communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus
inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say
sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request
that this apology be received in the spirit in which it
is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this
new page in the history of our great continent can now be
written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the
past and laying claim to a future that embraces all
Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the
injustices of the past must never, never happen
again.
A future where we harness the determination of all
Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the
gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational
achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new
solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have
failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve
and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their
origins, are truly equal partners, with equal
opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next
chapter in the history of this great country,
Australia.
MDAA welcomes the Prime Minister's leadership in
taking this first step towards reconciliation by
apologising to the stolen generations and their families.
MDAA is discussing what we can do to support
reconciliation and how we can work better with Indigenous
communities across NSW.
Negotiations for
a new Commonwealth State/Territories Disability Agreement
(CSTDA)
In February we received a letter from the NSW Minister
for Disability Services informing us of the outcome of a
meeting in Melbourne between Commonwealth, State and
Territory Ministers for Disability about the negotiations
for the 4th CSTDA, known as CSTDA 4. The letter stated,
'A new era of cooperation on disability services was
welcomed at the meeting, with Ministers formally agreeing
to the key priority areas which will guide the
development of the Agreement…The Australian
Government is looking forward to working with the States
and Territories, all disability stakeholders and the
community to get a better deal for people with a
disability…Also on the agenda was the development of
the Australian Government's National Disability Strategy
during 2008, which will draw on the experiences of States
and Territories.'
The 8 key priority areas agreed are those committed to
by the ALP in the lead up to the 2007 federal
election:
- better measurement of current and future need for
disability services
- examining national population benchmarks for key
disability services types
- making older carers a priority for disability
services
- quality improvement systems based on the National
Disability Services Standards for all CSTDA
services
- improved service planning and strategies to
simplify access to services under the CSTDA
- a focus on early intervention, lifelong planning
and increasing the independence and social
participation of people with a disability
- improved workforce capacities
- access to services by Indigenous people with a
disability
The letter also says, 'Ministers also agreed on the
importance of enhancing autism related services and on
continuing to progress the Young People with a Disability
in Residential Aged Care initiative…All Ministers
have committed to working together to ensure the momentum
for change and improvement continues, including by
linking to opportunities such as the Australian
Government's social inclusion agenda to improve the
quality of life of people with a disability…The
Disability Ministers have agreed to meet again in March
to continue to work on the new Agreement.'
MDAA had a meeting in February with Bill Shorten, the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and
Children's Services. We told him we are disappointed
that there is no recognition in the 8 key priority areas
of the unequal access to services by people from NESB
with disability and the need to improve the cultural
competence of services funded under the CSTDA. We intend
to write to the NSW Minister asking her to rectify this
omission. We will also work closely with the National
Ethnic Disability Alliance to ensure that people from
non-English speaking backgrounds with disability benefit
fairly in the key priority areas agreed to date.
News from across the
World: International
The
Africa Campaign on Disability and HIV & AIDS
Welcome to the knowledge
exchange website for the Africa Campaign on Disability
and HIV & AIDS. The website aims to serve as a
communications platform and resource for Campaign
partners.
Few weeks, until the 2nd
General Meeting of the the Africa Campaign ! Registration
is now closed
The meeting theme is
"Making 'Access for All' a Reality" and will be held in
Uganda March 11-13, 2008 hosted by the National Union for
Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU).
We have an exiting
programme planned. In particular, we are seeking to share
achievements and lessons learned between different
disability groups in order to achieve African campaign
goals. Discussion will be around two participatory
workshops.
Persons with disabilities
across Africa have been feeling the impact of HIV &
AIDS in their families and communities since the
beginning of the pandemic. Many of these individuals and
groups have responded to mitigate this impact on a local
level, thus becoming valuable actors in their entourage.
However, as the response to HIV becomes more organized,
as decisions and resources are concentrated increasingly
at the national level, persons with disabilities have
found themselves at the fringes of the civil society
rights-based movement and excluded from initiatives that
aspire to achieve "Access for All."
Why a
campaign
Eighty million people in
Africa are disabled. They make up a large proportion of
people in the poorest communities, which are also
severely affected by HIV & AIDS.
Persons with
disabilities, who make up around 10% of a country's
population, are still excluded from the response to the
AIDS pandemic.
Persons with disabilities
in Africa face the same, and in some cases higher, risks
to HIV infection, compared to their non-disabled peers.
The rights of persons
with disabilities to access HIV information and services
as a citizen of their country are being violated.
Campaign
Objectives
The Africa Campaign is a
unifying umbrella under which disabled people's
organizations, organizations of people living with HIV
& AIDS, non-governmental organizations, AIDS services
organizations, researchers, activists, and other citizens
work collectively to achieve two main objectives:
- A coordinated response
involving persons with disabilities in African countries
to achieve inclusive national HIV & AIDS policies and
programmes
- Equal access for
persons with disabilities in Africa to information and
services on HIV & AIDS.
The Africa Campaign
strategic objectives cover a five year period from 2007 -
2011. A minimum of 12 countries are expected to achieve
both objectives given policy makers' willingness to
collaborate, Campaign partners' operational presence
in-country as well as the strength of the Disability and
HIV & AIDS movements. The successes and challenges
faced in at least 12 countries during the next five years
will serve as models for extension or duplication
throughout Africa after 2011.
Extracts from:
www.africacampaign.info
_______________________________________
Diana Qian
Executive Director
Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association of NSW
Ph: (02) 9891 6400 Fax: (02) 9635 5355
PO Box 9381, Harris Park NSW 2150
www.mdaa.org.au
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