Oct 27,1999 International symposium
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION: PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES AND THE AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE
William Jolley Executive Officer, Blind Citizens Australia
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the Australian Perspective on International Co-operation for Persons with Disabilities. It gives an overview of the situation generally, and then concentrates on discussion of a Development Assistance Program in Viet Nam.
BACKGROUND
THE BLINDNESS PERSPECTIVE
BRAILLE LITERACY IN VIET NAM
1.General Background
2.Project Overview
3.Evaluation
4.Conclusion
Australia is a developed nation of eighteen million people, located in the great Southern Ocean away from the poverty and violence of other regions. Australia has a very good record of immigration; welcoming people from other countries who have been oppressed or displaced, or who have wanted to move to an inviting country to make a new life for themselves. Australia usually contributes humanitarian aid - in the face of disasters, wars and famine - but the inclusion of marginalised groups has not been so good.
Australia has many non-government overseas aid organisations, some of which are very large and are associated with worldwide organisations. For the most part they do not support assistance programs for people with disabilities. When they are involved, they are mostly concerned with primary health care and prevention of the causes of disability; indeed to a much greater extent than involvement in programs to support education, rehabilitation or training of people with disabilities. This causes some resentment among people with disabilities: the comparative ease to raise funds and have projects supported for prevention, whereas people with disabilities are left to fend or themselves. Against this trend however there have been quite a few aid projects targeted to people with disabilities in the context of recovery from war, such as rehabilitation for the victims of landmines.
For the many years that ACROD received government subsidy for overseas projects, Australia was able to assist disability projects, mainly in the Pacific and South East Asia region. Some of these have been very small, others large. These have included a regional special education program in the Pacific, orthotics and prosthetics training in the Pacific, early intervention and special education projects in Tuvalu, Kiribati, Western Samoa, Fiji, physiotherapy training in Indonesia, and training for sheltered workshop managers in the South East Asia region. Due for completion at the end of 1999 are the last of the AusAID subsidised projects through ACROD - a training program in Papua New Guinea, an income generation project with United Blind Persons in Fiji, and the Braille Literacy Training project in Vietnam about which I will speak later
Most of the overseas aid funding from AusAID, the Australian Government's international co-operation agency, is for bilateral aid between Governments. There are several NGO programs sponsored by AusAID, but none of them have a focus on people with disabilities. They are sometimes on the shopping list of marginalised groups: women, children, etc.
In 1998 the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that almost 19% of the Australian population identified themselves as having a disability, and that more than 15% of the population was handicapped by that disability - meaning that they needed assistance in one or more tasks like mobility, communication or personal care. Australia exhibits incidence rates for impairment, disability and handicap that are comparable with most developed countries, with disability increasing with age. The ageing of the population means that disability is increasing over time.。
A good network of non-government organisations providing services for people with disabilities has evolved in Australia. Their co-ordinating organisation is ACROD. ACROD is a contributing member of Rehabilitation International (RI), and ACROD nominees have been prominent in the leadership of RI commissions and working parties. ACROD has assisted some of its member organisations to carry out development projects in the Asia Pacific Region.
Comparatively few members of ACROD are involved in any international co-operation programs; indeed, even fewer have done so through ACROD. It was saddening indeed, in 1998, when ACROD lost its accreditation with AusAID as an NGO carrying out overseas aid. This was no reflection on the administration, philosophy or commitment of ACROD, but rather a result of the fact that ACROD and its members contributed less than $20,000 (U.S.) per year. This change of policy by the Australian Government appears to have heralded the demise of quite a few small development agencies; and the marginalised groups, like people with disabilities requiring specialist programs, have been further disadvantaged.。
Whereas ACROD represents agencies providing disability services, there are ten peak disability organisations in Australia representing people with disabilities and their carers. Together they make up the National Caucus of Disability Consumer Organisations. Most of these organisations are comprised of separate State associations and only have one or two people in their national office. Australia is currently not a member of Disabled Peoples International. Blind Citizens Australia is the national peak body of people who are blind or vision impaired. Only Blind Citizens Australia has any involvement in programs of international co-operation.
There are many blindness agencies in Australia, but their involvement in programs of international co-operation to help blind people has been spasmodic and unco-ordinated. The most substantial involvement has been by Blind Citizens Australia, following from its active participation in World Blind Union (WBU).
Blind Citizens Australia is the united voice of blind and vision impaired Australians. Our mission is to achieve equity and equality by our empowerment, by promoting positive community attitudes, and by striving for high quality and accessible services which meet our needs. Our core activities are individual and systemic advocacy, information dissemination, peer support, and advice or consultancy to Governments, Corporations and Community Organisations.
Blind Citizens Australia co-operates with other disability organisations and with blindness agencies, but maintains its separateness and authority as the national peak body speaking on behalf of people in Australia who are blind or vision impaired. It is a member of ACROD and of the National Caucus of Disability Consumer Organisations.
Blind Citizens Australia currently has a staff of eight permanent employees and a further five project staff, one of whom is located in Viet Nam. The cornerstone of our activity, for which we receive a Government grant of $100,000 per year, is the National Advocacy Service, funded by the Australian Government.
Blind Citizens Australia is an active member of the WBU. Our Inaugural President, David Blyth, was for eight years the President of the WBU East Asia Pacific Region, and during 1992-96 was President of WBU. He visited Viet Nam in 1992, after which Blind Citizens Australia successfully applied to AusAID's Women in Development Fund to carry out a Braille Literacy Teacher-Training Project in partnership with Viet Nam Blind Association.
In November 2000 Australia will host the Fifth General Assembly of WBU and the Second World Blind Women's Forum. There will also be an international symposium for managers of blindness agencies and a comprehensive display of aids for daily living and assistive technology. Blind Citizens Australia is leading the Australian Consortium of Blindness Agencies which is hosting the event.
Meanwhile, Blind Citizens Australia has a core budget of only $200,000. Income is supplemented by time-limited specific-purpose project funding. Accordingly, there is no budget for international co-operation. Nonetheless, we maintain a strong commitment to supporting our blind brothers and sisters in developing countries, where our intervention can make a positive difference. With ACROD as our intermediary, we have obtained funds from AusAID to carry out projects in Fiji and Viet Nam.
The Fiji project has been with United Blind Persons of Fiji (UBP) as our partner. UBP is a fledgeling self-help organisation of blind and vision-impaired people. It was started in the early 1990s and received support from an international organisation. However, when the organisation changed its policy and withdrew from programs in the South Pacific UBP was left to fend for itself.
UBP could not raise enough funds to employ an administrator, and certainly there was insufficient money left for developing the organisation. Its purposes are to provide advocacy support for blind people, peer support for members, raise awareness in the community and promote the prevention of blindness.
Our intervention over three years has made a difference to UBP. With an Australian contribution of $10,000 UBP has been able to employ a part-time fundraiser, publicise the organisation and hold forums around Fiji for blind people. UBP is not yet self-sufficient, but is much closer to that goal than three years ago.
３．BRAILLE LITERACY IN VIET NAM
Viet Nam is a very poor country in South East Asia, home to 75 million people. It suffered widespread poverty, environmental damage and deprivation following the war with the United States that finished more than 25 years ago, which the Vietnamese people bravely refused to lose. But the costs of national pride, autonomy and tenacity have been great: young men killed from most families; women also killed, assaulted and scarred for life; trade boycotts; poverty; chemical damage to soil, foliage and people; and, of course, widespread disability including blindness. I am constantly moved by the national pride and impressed by the organisational skills of the Vietnamese people. Literacy rates are quite good, with the health and education systems well organised but very much under-resourced.
The Viet Nam Blind Association was formed in 1969, as a self-help support network for blinded soldiers. VBA now has 30,000 members, among the 750,000 blind people estimated to live in Viet Nam, and the organisation is growing rapidly. It aims to have a branch in each province; but the Government keeps sub-dividing provinces and making new ones - faster than VBA can establish new branches. VBA'S growth is aided by the support received from the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (NABP), which carries out international programs in Asia and Africa to build and strengthen national associations of the blind. Viet Nam has the classical socialist structure of governance: national, provincial, district and commune administrative units. VBA'S structure replicates this structure.
There are five schools for the blind in Viet Nam, run by the Government and named after Nguyen Dinh Chiu (a famous blind man of the early twentieth century), but they barely scratch the surface. Many blind children in Viet Nam do not receive an education, but the VBA is making a difference with pre-integration classes for children in some of its provincial branch offices. VBA operates classes where there is no school for the blind or where there are orphan or poor children whose carers or parents cannot afford the fees at the Government schools.
The pre-integration classes emphasise reading and writing of Braille to give the children basic literacy and numeracy. The children also learn to sing and to play musical instruments. I remember walking into some children's classes and hearing them writing Braille - thirty pupils aged six to fifteen using their slates and styluses to make Braille, and some of them using their two hands to punch out the dots because the paper is too thick for their tiny fingers to penetrate with the stylus. Of course such experiences are emotional for me, as I recall the importance in my own life of Braille reading and writing. Some of the blind children I meet in Viet Nam are tiny: small of physique to start with, they are blinded by malnutrition. Vitamin A deficiency is common in Viet Nam, along with childhood diseases, accidents, chemical damage or explosions from the war and various other things as causes of blindness.
The Braille Literacy Training Program in Viet Nam started late in 1993 with a training course for 25 women in Thai Binh province, through funding from the Australian Government and with advice and monitoring by Blind Citizens Australia. Braille literacy is the top priority for the Viet Nam Blind Association (VBA), followed by rehabilitation and income generation through vocational training and job creation. The original project supported a 15-month training course for blind and sighted women. Using residual funds we supported a satellite blind women's literacy training course in Long An. Thai Binh is about 150 km south-east of Ha Noi in the North. Long An is about 100 km west of Ho Chi Minh City in the South. It is a very poor province still suffering in the aftermath of the war. All projects are carried out in partnership with VBA and its provincial branches.
In January 1996 we successfully applied, having missed out the year before, to AusAID for funding for a three-year project to support teacher-training courses in four separate provinces. The purpose was to train women as teachers of Braille, daily living skills, mobility and vocational skills. Literacy and vocational training are the two priorities for VBA, along with the establishment of provincial branches and district offices. The application was made through ACROD which had the necessary accreditation with AusAID.
Miss Tran Dan Phuong, our representative in Viet Nam, has provided assistance as interpreter and guide during all visits. At other times she translates documents, makes visits to the provinces and ensures clear communication between Blind Citizens Australia and Vietnamese bodies such as VBA and the People's Aid Co-ordinating Committee. She makes arrangements for accommodation and travel prior to visits, and carries out liaison during the visit. She does a great job, providing help with the project and forging strong links with blind leaders in Viet Nam and Australia.
The current project was structured as a three-year project, for calendar years 1997 to 1999. The contract requires two monitoring visits to Viet Nam each year. I have made these visits on behalf of Blind Citizens Australia. All direct costs for the project have been met from the AusAID budget, but it has not covered my time spent in Viet Nam. The budget of $115,000 over three years was roughly allocated as $70,000 for training costs in Viet Nam, $30,000 for travel & accommodation and $10,000 for Australian administration costs. The budget was written in Australian dollars (U.S. figures quoted in this paper) and payments were made in both United States Dollars and Vietnamese Dong. Currency fluctuations complicated planning and required conservative estimates to be given to our Vietnamese partners.
The project provided for four nine-month train-the-trainer courses with a six-month period of follow-up during which district classes are commenced. A typical district class lasts for three months and has fifteen students. Under the project we are supporting the training of 20-25 blind and sighted women in each province as teachers, and then assisting them to set up classes for blind women and men at district level. The schedule was:
- April 1997: Ha Tay just north of Ha Noi
- September 1997: Quang Nam central Viet Nam
- April 1998: Thanh Hoa south east of Ha Noi
- September 1998: Thua Thien Hue central Viet Nam
Aggregating the results from the two projects we are pleased to report very positive outcomes. 125 women (three quarters of them blind or vision impaired) have now been trained as teachers in six provinces, and they have conducted district classes for more than 1000 blind people (60 percent of them women). The teacher-training course usually lasts for nine months, is residential, and is carried out by the Provincial Branch of VBA. The first course in Thai Binh was funded under a "Women in Development" program. We have kept to training women as Braille teachers, to maintain a focus for the program and as a means of affirmative action for blind women.
After teacher-training finishes, district classes are opened throughout the province. There may be ten districts in a province. Each class is typically for fifteen blind people, is residential and lasts for two or three months. The blind people are taught Braille, basic mobility, daily living skills and vocational skills. They learn to read and write Braille. They are taught to read correctly, using two hands. They learn to make tooth picks, sleeping mats, fishing nets or brooms. Some of them have reported that, with a knowledge of Braille and basic mobility, they now feel safe and confident to take their products to the market and sell them, finding the way themselves and keeping notes of their sales in Braille.
When I visit Viet Nam, generally twice a year for a week at a time, I start with a meeting with VBA President Mr Soat and end with the Project Co-ordinating Committee meeting which I arrange and for which I take minutes. We discuss arrangements for teacher-training courses and for district classes. I usually visit two or three provinces outside of Ha Noi, and where possible I meet with the Vice-Chairman of the Local People's Committee. Funding for the teacher-training courses has mainly been from the Australian Government through AusAID. Funding for the district classes is largely the responsibility of the VBA Provincial Branches with subsidies from the People's Committees at District level.
During 1998 VBA carried out an evaluation of the project. The objective of the project has been reached in so far as people have been trained to teach blind people skills of literacy, rehabilitation, mobility, working and music. Teachers, particularly the blind ones, are more skilled and self-confident. They are better integrated into the society, some are married, and they can assist with training of staff in VBA branches.
The office refurbishments and provision of materials for the courses have benefited the Branches by upgrading their facilities. This has assisted the development of the Branches themselves, and made it easier for them to get support from local authorities and other organisations.
The course in Thai Binh was longer than the other courses, fifteen months rather than nine months. This has meant that the teachers were better trained. Some of them have been able to do some teaching of sighted children in regular high schools.
There have been some problems however, which VBA hopes can be overcome in the future through support from partner organisations. and other organisations. Long An has problems because of the poverty of this area and lack of premises to host classes. The allocation of funds from AusAID for district classes has been insufficient. Moreover, these classes should be extended to four or six months. The local authorities usually only provide premises and in-kind support, not funds for teachers' salaries or for food and medicine for students.
VBA has asked that in the future each teacher-training course should have fifteen students and last for at least fifteen months. More priority should be given to non-sighted trainees, because their retention rate is higher and they can act as role models and inspire their blind students.
The Braille Literacy Teacher-Training program has been very successful, meeting most of its objectives very well. Its long-term sustainability will depend on how successful VBA is in generating local community support from the People's Committees and other funding sources. Blind Citizens Australia recently applied to AusAID for another three-year project in Viet Nam, emphasising Braille Literacy and Vocational Training. Unfortunately, in the competitive environment, the application was unsuccessful. It was acknowledged in the assessment that blind people in Viet Nam are a poverty stricken and marginalised group in society, and that VBA does excellent work on their behalf.
I hear that the marriage rate among the blind teachers in Thai Binh is increased, reflecting their greater acceptance into the community. I hear that blind trainee teachers are preferred, because they stay around longer after graduation, and because they have a better relationship with their students. I hear that although the need is great, our humble project is sowing seeds and making a real difference.
Support for blind people in Viet Nam is an important part of the overall mix of services provided by Blind Citizens Australia. It is especially enjoyable to see that the Braille Literacy Teacher-Training Program is making a beneficial contribution: 125 teachers trained and more than 1000 blind people receiving the gift of literacy through Braille.
But there is so much more to be done in Viet Nam for blind people. Assessment programs are needed to determine who, among those people with low vision, can be cured by surgery, aided by glasses or helped by learning the skills of blindness. There is an urgent need for more vocational training and sustainable employment programs for blind people. All VBA branches should one day be equipped with a computer system for producing Braille - sooner rather than later - and have a couple of staff each with the skills to produce Braille. We should forget cassettes as the basis for talking-books in Viet Nam, and go straight to a national network of talking-book services using the latest digital technology and techniques. This can be co-ordinated by the National Public Library System in Viet Nam or by VBA itself. Our humble intervention in Viet Nam has enabled 1,000 blind people to learn Braille, but there are thousands more blind children and adults in Viet Nam just waiting for their chance to feel those dots moving under their fingers, and to know more about the majesty of the world around them. Braille is our key to literacy and literacy is our pathway to education, enlightenment and fulfillment.