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Strategy “Georgia 2020” and Place of the People with Disabilities under the Sun

January 26, 2015
 
Manon Bokuchava, Kkpress.ge

“I participated in the sport competitions. We contested well but people paid more attention to my wheelchair than to me,” one of my acquaintances with disabilities wrote on his facebook page.

Before selecting the respondents for this article I definitely knew that people in wheelchair would not be window of it. Regardless that I start writing with this fact and with the idea how difficult it is for us and for the government to correctly deal with people with disabilities and to value them more than their problems.

“You might smile now but I cried for ten years because my neighbor, who I liked very much, did not say good day to me. This fact tortured me all my childhood and I used to tell my family members that he was not greeting me because I was not beautiful,” Lali Baratashvili said.

She is 29; she has a husband and son Gabriel, 18 months. “I am both the richest and poorest person in the world. I am rich because I have my beloved people close; I am a mother and wife but my life is much more difficult than others.

At the age of 3 I was diagnosed cerebral palsy. My mother was carrying me up during 9 years. She did not give me to anybody. She did not want them see that she was bothered with my problem. I took much treatment. I might have been injected thousands times. Today I say that I was a lab rabbit for them. Now I no longer take medical treatment. I said NO to torture. I can move about the room reclined on different furniture. I had many incidents because of that. Two years ago my husband wanted to travel long distance; he stopped minibus and asked the driver to put my wheelchair in the car. The driver refused and they had serious argument. We even called patrol,” Lali said.

Nowadays the biggest problem for Lali’s family is lack of home. The young couple is renting a flat and often applies to Rustavi city council for help. The local officials reply they do not have flat fund.

Lali is one of 123 499 people with disabilities in this country; she enjoys some social packet because of her status. The social allowance of 150 lari cannot cover all her needs; the state could not assist her to get education and now she cannot get employed either.

The needs of the people with disabilities are reflected in the Social Economic Development Strategy Georgia 2020. The document aims to “assist the people with disabilities to participate in social and economic development of the country.” We saw the draft versions of the two action plans of the strategy and they list the following activities:

“To change the public approach to the people with disabilities through their engagement into social-cultural activities; to engage people with special education needs into the vocational colleagues in order to assist them to acquire professional skills; to train teachers of vocational education in order to provide students with disabilities with high-level professional education,” the action plan of the Strategy 2020 reads.

Nino Maruashvili, who has been working on the creation of services for the people with disabilities in Kvemo Kartli region for ten years already, speaks about current challenges in the field. “Regardless the positive steps taken by the state, the people with disabilities still cannot participate in the decision making process; their rights and interests are not considered in programs and different activities. Public awareness and education about the issues of people with disabilities is still very low and people either treat them as “poor and disabled sick people” or completely ignore their interests and rights. People with disabilities are not considered as full members of the society and they are not offered equal rights and opportunities. It is important that in 2014 Georgia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and the 2014-2016 action plan of the government was developed to make the national legislation compliant with the UN Convention,” Maruashvili said.

Although there are problems in the adaptation of the education, healthcare and environment systems for the needs of the people with disabilities, when you speak with them, the biggest problem they mention is the public approach towards their problems. Maybe because of this approach and irrelevant environment today in Rustavi, where 3 136 people with disabilities live in, you will not find at least one wheelchair accessible accommodation. Place under the sun, realization of their capabilities, life full of emotions and positive adventures are still as impossible as it was years ago. That’s why, every strategy as well as “Georgia 2020” among them, which aim to contribute to the solution of this problem is a huge hope for important changes regardless the fact that state institutions are often lost in their action plans.  

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