Our roundtable is about the vocational educations for the disabled, our guest for this roundtable are: Munirudin Burhani the administrative manager in ABRAR organization, Hajji Ahmad Shah Azami the in charge of programs of social center of disabled, Sameaulhaq Samae the technical advisor for Just and Awareness in HANDICAP International and Mohammad Qasem Ahmadi director of Assessment and Supervision in HANDICAP In ternational.
Question: Mr. Azami how many people with disability do we have in our country and how is their life condition?
Answer: In the name of God, the survey conducted by HANDICAP In ternational and a number of governmental sectors in 2004 and 2005 there are more than 800000 disabled in the country.
Question: Do the disabled have any institution for the their affairs as well as the governmental and nun governmental institutions?
Answer: As far as I know the people with disability themselves don’t have any center but recently some self-moving movements who do work in scattered shape but there are some organizations that works for disabled.
Question: Mr. Burhani what is the view point of our community regarding disabled?
Answer: Before the activities of institutions who working for the development of the disabled and awareness about them, the view of the people was negative but in course of time and due to the activity of the mentioned institutions the view of the people is changing.
Question: What works has been done regarding the awareness and is the activity of the media is effective in this regard?
Answer: The organizations which are working about the disabled they themselves have printing publications and they accomplish their awareness through the mentioned publications but private media has not had any effective work in this regard.
Question: What activities have done the organizations which are working for disabled in the field of vocational educations?
Answer: First I should say that the statistics of the disabled is so high, in all countries the disabled are faced with problems; the disabled in our country did not have good situation but recently the disabled find their place position, the governmental and nun governmental organizations have done some works as well. The courses have been opened in the tailoring, mobile repairing, bicycle repairing through which hundreds of the disabled have learned skills through the mentioned programs but it is mentionable that elementary vocational educations should also be provided for disabled as fortunately a law for the rights of disabled has been compiled in which good instances have been mentioned.
Question: What criteria are considered for the selection of the disabled for the vocational educations courses or their limitations are considered?
Answer: First I should say that there is no limitation for the disabled namely they can work considering the facilities provided for them, the other issue that I would like to hint to is this that in other countries facilities are provided in all fields for the disabled such as during constructing the buildings but in our country attention has not been paid to this issue so we want to ask the government and other individuals to pay attention in this issue when they construct the buildings.
Question: Mr. Ahmadi, by your view of point what works has done the government for the improvement of situation of disabled within last ten years?
Answer: As we all know no tangible work has been done for the disabled, though the government has established some vocational center for disabled which are not capable considering the present situation of the disabled, and I believe that if the government has a coordination in this regard with other organizations will be more effective.
Question: The government claims that it is paying the monthly salary for the disabled is this salary enough for the disabled?
Answer: The government pays 710 Afghanis incentive salary for the disabled which is a small amount and this amount is not paid on time and the money is spent on the transportation going to that governmental department. .
Question: What works the government should do fo the disabled which has not been done yet?
Answer: The government should help the organization who working in this field because they have more capacity, the government should encourage the governmental and nun governmental companies to employ the disabled in their companies to this culture be propagated in the community.
Question: Mr.Azami, What work should the government do for the improvement of the disabled situation and how do you assess the laws established for the disabled have they been implemented by this time?
Answer: First I would like to point to the problems that the disabled have, the disabled have three problems, first the social problems, second problems with the government, and third the individual problems of the disabled. The individual problems mean that the disabled themselves don’t trust on them and on their works. There different social problems but the most important is construction of buildings without any standard facility for the disabled. The nonexistence of the programs for the life improvement of disabled is the problem of the disabled with the government. Regarding the implementation of the law of disabled specifically about the salary I should say that the government has not paid the salary which has been set in the law approved by the president that this situation has put the disabled in anxiety.
Question: Mr.Azami, based on your survey, which works are busy the disabled on?
Answer: First I should say that the joblessness is the only problem in our community especially for the disabled. Our community is still not ready to accept that the disabled can do all the works considering their capacity and skill but unfortunately the bright minded people also are obedient to past customary views about the disabled for example I am an educated disabled I went to ministry of education to get job but it was told to me that you cannot work here as I was hand disabled so what we should expect the community in this regard.
Question: As it was said that vocational trainings workshops have been held for the disabled though which a number of the disabled learned some skills so how is the work groundwork for the disabled because there is need for budget to start a work how this problem can be solved?
Answer: when The civil society give vocational training to the disabled the issue of finding the job also is considered by the time the disabled graduate from the training for example our organization has given training on bee raising to some of the disabled and after the vocational training we facilitate the market for the honey that they get.
Question: Mr. Samae, do the disabled have ability of the work after learning the vocations?
Answer: The government or the institutions who hold the training for the disabled should find out that is there any market for this skill or not, but the works done by government or other institutions are good though they are not enough considering to the bulk of the disability. Fortunately the approved for the disabled insists on the 3 percent employment share to disabled which is a good idea.
Question: The law has been approved three years ago is there any sign of the implementation of this law?
Answer: As I know the law was approved only a few months back and some works also have been done in this regard but those works are not enough.
Question: The disabled conducted the demonstrations that the government should employ a disabled on the post of ministry but as I see there are not many disabled in the positions that works in disabled filed so how how do you assess this issue?
Answer: In my opinion we should not keep away the disabled from the community not only in ministry of disabled rather in all ministries work opportunity should be provided for disabled. The disabled has capacities in different fields so the work opportunity is required in different fields specifically in the fields that have direct links with disabled.
Question: Are there programs for disabled who live in the remote provinces or in the provinces’ centers?
Answer: As I know by this time no programs have been implemented for disabled in the remote areas and the centers of the provinces, I hope this happen in future.
I would like to mention some of the issues first the law compiled for disabled should be implemented practically by the authorities and secondly Afghanistan should join international treaty of disabled and try to put in practice all laws recommended by the treaty.
Question: Mr. Ahmadi what works have been done yet in education and exercise for the disabled?
Answer: Considering the work capacity of the institutions, we have done works in educations as well as in exercise fields as we enrolled annually a number of 50 disabled to the this field but due to problems and abundance of the disabled the activities the mentioned activities in a vast level but the efforts in this regard are going on.
Question: Are your activities covering the center or you also have activities in the provinces as well?
Answer: At present our programs are only in Kabul and its districts.
Question: Is this a problem due to security concerns or economic problems?
Answer: Both factors are there as economic and economic factors have caused that has made us no to work in the provinces but we are strongly interested to expand activities to the provinces as well.
Question: Mr.Azami, are the artificial legs or hands made by some of the institutions according to the international standards and are they enough for all the disabled.
Answer: I would like to say no, now the strengthening services are available in a few provinces, the disabled who are living in the remote provinces have not benefitted from the services
Question: How many disabled approximately have access to the mentioned services?
Answer: As I mentioned the survey shows that the 70 percent of disabled has access to the services but as I know 90 percent of the disabled are deprived from the services, regarding the quality I should say that whatever is made here or imported from has very low quality.
Question: Mr. Burhani, are there means for better life of the disabled in the world that have not come to Afghanistan.
Answer: There is no doubt that the world is like a small hamlet but I should say that there are so many things in the world which are not available in Afghanistan for instance there are computers in other countries that the blinds use, the wheelchairs of other countries are very different than in our country, considering the current trend in our country we will not be able to access to that technology within a few years.
Thanks you and guest for joining us by this time.
