Announcing a GDRL Teleconference Next Week, and Other October News

USICD News

October 2010

USICD Announces Open Calls to Discuss Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL)

GDRL Logo

On Wednesday October 20 at 9:00am EST and Thursday October 21 at 4:00pm EST, USICD will be hosting a pair of teleconference calls for the Disability Community introducing an opportunity to get involved in the dissemination of information about disability rights around the world. The calls will both cover the same content but are timed differently to accommodate time zone differences.

You know that the disability rights movement is made stronger when disability rights leaders, policy makers, and allies have access to the knowledge they need to learn how to transform their society. But too many advocates in developing countries are excluded from the information age. In some countries, less than 5 percent of the population has Internet access.

The Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL) project is working to close the information gap for people with disabilities and their supporters who cannot access the Internet.

These calls are the first of a number of opportunities for the community to engage with this project. We anticipate offering more calls in the coming weeks, including a Skype call targeted to our international colleagues.

Read more about the October 20th and 21st Here.

Click Here to learn more about the GDRL

USICD Launches Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Resource Page

USICD is pleased to announce the addition of a new resource page to its website dedicated to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDGs are a series of eight international development goals that set targets for all 192 state-members of the United Nations to achieve by the year 2015. Created during the Millennium Summit in September, 2000, the Goals address issues such as extreme poverty, hunger, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, and environmental sustainability. They also call for fundamental rights to health, education, work, and security.

Now, as the target date draws near, it is becoming increasingly clear that to achieve the purpose the Millennium Development Goals, disability needs to play a more central role in all stages of the process. It is vital for the United Nations, national governments, and civil society to bring disability into the mainstream of the MDGs discussion.

USICD's MDG Resource page is meant to give an overview of the important news, reports, documents, and public statements that bring you up to date on U.S. foreign and domestic policy and the movement toward realization of the Millennium Development Goals worldwide. We at USICD hope that our MDG page can be a resource to you.

Explore the USICD Millennium Development Goals Resource Page at:

http://usicd.org/index.cfm/MDGs

USICD Welcomes Mary Dakim as GDRL Intern

Photo of Mary Dakim Mary Dakim joins USICD as part of an International Development Practicum for her graduate studies at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC. She was born and raised in Plateau State, Nigeria, and brings experience and energy for facilitating the empowerment of women with disabilities in developing countries.

Mary will be working with USICD's team of librarians and disability experts to gather useful and quality resources for the Global Disability Rights Library (GDRL). Apart from her work with USICD, Mary is teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at the English Language Institute (ELI), a sub-unit of the Center for International Programs and Services (CIPS) at Gallaudet University. Most recently, Mary joined the Department of Business at Gallaudet as an Adjunct faculty member teaching economics to undergraduate and graduate students. USICD is very excited to bring Mary on to the GDRL team.

Click Here to read Mary Dakim's full bio.

A Message from the Executive Director

Dear Friends,

These past few weeks have been a dynamic time for the global movement toward empowering the disability community, promoting human rights, and alleviating poverty. Recently, the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD met in New York. Just this week, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities completed its meeting in Geneva. Late in September, the annual Millennium Development Goals Summit brought nations together around poverty reduction. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a series of eight international development goals that set targets for all 192 state-members of the United Nations to achieve by the year 2015. The international disability advocacy community has worked hard to inject disability perspectives within the MDGs framework. As a result the UN passed a resolution calling to "keep the promise" of realizing the Millennium Development Goals for people with disabilities. While some progress has been made, USICD and our international allies remain concerned that disability has not yet been fully integrated into the MDGs framework. In response to the apparent need for continuing awareness building on disability and the MDGs, USICD has launched an MDGs Resources page on our website.

As a resource to our global family in developing nations, USICD is collaborating with the University of Iowa and USAID on the Global Disability Rights Library. Now in full development and nearing test dissemination in the field, USICD is offering a series of open teleconferences this month to inform and engage you, our colleagues and disability allies, in this important effort. You know that knowledge is power: the GDRL can be a transformative tool for connecting your electronic resources to communities where there is no Internet.

USICD members know that people with disabilities must be included in development, education, and health programs through strategies of inclusion and access. This is the time when we must embrace new opportunities for collaboration to support inclusive development policies and the leadership capacity of the international disability community.

Sincerely,

David Morrissey

Executive Director