Inclusion for People with Disabilities in Colombia

We had a great year. 2014 not only gave us the opportunity to train and give new opportunities to more than 700 beneficiaries, but also brought us a great allies and wonderful donors to continue helping people with disabilities in Colombia to build a better future.  

Thanks to your generosity and along with one of our greatest allies, the Medellin Library Network, we conducted three training sessions aimed to improve access to information and inclusion for people with disabilities in rural libraries in the region of Antioquia. The three small municipalities of Concordia, Carmen de Viboral and Tamesis, were chosen to receive an awareness and methodology training sessions, accessible hardware and multimedia designed to help people with disabilities use ICT tools.  

Around 15 people attended the workshops in each municipality -42 total-. People, who were motivated by the training session, workshops and the new tools available so they can help people with disabilities in their community to gain better access information, communicate more effectively and improve their social and economic opportunities.

The training session was directed to the librarians, community leaders, workers and volunteers from social organizations that work directly with people with disabilities, enriching their knowledge of technological tools and low cost inclusion solutions to foster development and growth in their community.

Sara, our trainer said about the three training sessions “This experience has allow me to witness how with the right motivation the community begins to place more importance on the inclusion of people with disabilities, specially libraries play an important role in this transformation because they become special places of inclusion for everyone to join in” She also heighted how every single one of the attendees finished the training session with a renewed energy to help more people with disabilities in their community and to use technology to change their lives.

She was specially moved by the experience of one women in the Concordia Municipal Library, during one of the disability awareness exercises, where all the attendees were asked to place a blindfold in their eyes and then eat a snack, the woman was visibly moved and crying. When our trainer Sara approached her she told her she did a lot of work with people with visual disabilities and she was also going blind herself and if was a very intense emotional experience to have a true glimpse into the reality of the people she cared for and her own future. The women also expressed how thankful she was to have the aid an opportunities for people with disabilities in the library not only for the people she helped but for her in the future.

Thanks to your generous support and the support of the Medellin Library Network we will continue working with each library individually giving them training in creative and innovative methodologies they can replicate with their community, and also helping them create and action plan for inclusion in the library with the tools and knowledge they receive.