Regional Youth Network

DPI NAC Inc. RYN Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator to attend the AIDS-Free World Disability and HIV Leadership Forum

The DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator, Mr. Ganesh Singh and the DPI NAC Inc. RYN Deputy Coordinator, Miss Sharmalee Cardoza will be attending the AIDS-Free World Disability and HIV Leadership Forum between July 21-27, 2012. They will participate in the Disability & HIV Leadership Forum on July 21, 2012 and the XIX International AIDS Conference from July 22-27, 2012 in Washington, DC.  Click here to read more about the event.

Meet Mr. Dion Green from the Commonwealth of Dominica…before he became the Treasurer of the DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network!  Click here and go to page 9 to really MEET Dion!

DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator Appointed as DPI Global Youth Network (GYN) Coordinator

Effective April 1, 2012, Mr. Ganesh Singh, the DPI NAC Inc. RYN Coordinator will begin the work of building a DPI Global Youth Network (GYN).  Mr. Singh has started the process by asking DPI Member National Assemblies (MNAs) to nominate a young man with disabilities and a young woman with disabilities between the ages of 20-30 who will form the GYN Coordinating Committee (CC) that Mr. Singh will  chair.  The GYN CC will be comprised of a representative from each of DPI Regions who will then be tasked with ensuring DPI MNAs set up individual youth networks.

DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator selected to attend the AIDS-Free World Biannual International Conference

The DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator, Mr. Ganesh Singh and Miss Sharmalee Cardoza respectively will participate in the AIDS 2012 Disability & HIV Leadership Forum on July 21, 2012 and the XIX International AIDS Conference from July 22-27, 2012 in Washington, DC.  The event is being organized by AIDS-Free World and will seek to promote inclusion and access.  AIDS-Free World is planning to host a town-hall meeting on AIDS and Disability to further increase the profile of disability rights, with hopes that the issue will finally get the full attention it deserves.

There is a tentative plan to have a one-day pre-conference event for approximately 25 young leaders from the disability community in countries where the AIDS crisis continues to be a significant issue.  This pre-conference will train young people with leadership potential on current issues and advocacy strategies to broaden the discussion around the intersection of AIDS, disabilities, and human rights.  The proposed pre-conference would be a day-long meeting exposing young advocates to current world leaders among AIDS advocates and the global disability rights movements. The purpose would be to pass the torch to a new generation of disability rights advocates, and teach them some of the successful “tricks” of the advocacy trade, including how to form a national or global movement and stay connected with one another; how to get the media’s attention; how to get the attention of political leaders; how to make disability and AIDS an important human rights issue for everyone, not just for people with disabilities.

On completion of the one-day training, the young people would try out their new advocacy skills at AIDS 2012, and then return home to continue their advocacy work.  The young persons who receive this training would be part of a global youth group that would keep in touch and support one another.

The DPI NAC Chair nominated the RWN Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator, Mr. Ganesh Singh of Guyana and Ms. Sharmalee Cardoza of Jamaica respectively to participate in the activity once funding is secured by the organizers of the Conference.  Guyana and Jamaica have received a high level of international attention in the areas of HIV and AIDS..  More information will be published as it comes to hand.

DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN) Coordinator represents  DPI NAC Inc.

Mr. Ganesh Singh, Coordinator of the Disabled Peoples' International North America and the Caribbean Incorporated Regional Youth Network (DPI NAC Inc. RYN) accompanied the DPI NAC Inc. Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Perro Holloway to attend the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Technical Meeting of Government and Civil Society Representatives in Paramaribo, Suriname from November 7-8, 2011 funded by the European Union (EU).  The CARICOM Secretariat extended the invitation to DPI NAC Inc.  Click here to read Mr. Singh's Report.

DPI NAC Inc. launches a Regional Youth Network!

Since being founded in 1981, neither Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) nor any of its then 5 Regions paid serious enough attention to continuously building a cadre of young persons with disabilities to take up leadership roles in DPI and/or its Regions.  The resulting consequences being:

1. The early original leaders had to carry on the work of advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities at the highest level for quite a long time

2. This took a tremendous toll on them

3. They became overwhelmed not out of lack of interest and/or enthusiasm but rather from multiple health challenges and age

4. DPI lost many hard-working and committed leaders

5. No one had been groomed to take over these leadership roles causing DPI and the movement of persons with disabilities worldwide in general to lose momentum and suffer.

During the Civil Society Forum on August 31, 2010 preceding the Third Conference of States Parties from September 1-3, 2010 at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, USA, Mr. Shuaib Chalklen, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability noted, "there is a global fatigue in the global disability movement weakening its capacity".

n recognition of a shortage of persons take up leadership roles, DPI took the major step to focus on and include youth with disabilities by giving them an opportunity to express their views during the DPI World Summit from September 8-10, 2004 in Winnipeg, Canada.  The Summit gave young persons with disabilities from around the world an opportunity to:

• Express their frustration at not being included in the decision-making processes of DPI, its Regions and other organizations of and/or for persons with disabilities

• Highlight the fact that whenever there was a national, regional and/or international event of persons with disabilities, youth with disabilities were usually included in the agenda but youth with disabilities themselves were not intrinsically involved in the planning, decision-making and/or executing of the events that are supposed to impact their lives

• Present their perspectives using abstracts they prepared in workshops specifically earmarked for them during the Summit

Unfortunately, neither DPI nor its Regions followed up on the views of the youth with disabilities expressed during the DPI World Summit June 2004, unfortunate in light of the opinion of the past DPI 2^nd Deputy Chair with responsibility for Underrepresented Groups, Mr. Khalfan H. Khalfan that: "a successful social movement is one that ensures its longevity by nurturing and supporting future leaders" (Disability International, Winter 2003).  Mr. Khalfan passed away on March 28, 2009.

It is with this in mind that the DPI NAC Regional Assembly 2011 began the process of training youth with disabilities in leadership, team building, advocacy, motivation, and self-esteem that will ensure the future of DPI NAC and strengthen the organizational capacity of DPI NAC and its Member Organizations to secure the continued success of the disability movement in the Region. 

At the DPI NAC Regional Assembly 2011, the following youth with disabilities were elected by their peers as the Coordinating Committee (CC) to manage the DPI NAC Inc. Regional Youth Network (RYN):

1. Ganesh Singh, Coordinator, Guyana, ganeshyvg@gmail.com

2. Sharmalee Cardoza, Deputy Coordinator, Jamaica, csharmalee@gmail.com; csharmalee@yahoo.com

3. Lesley Williams, Secretary, Grenada (died on December 17, 2011)

4. Dione Green, Treasurer, Dominica, ondisyn@hotmail.com

5. Michael Benjamin, Ordinary Member, Antigua and Barbuda, hot-church20101111@hotmail.com

6. Swanye Brown, Ordinary Member, Barbados, realbrown24@yahoo.com