International Disability: Mexico, Central, and South America

2004: The Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities: The XII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State in Bolivia on November 14 to 15, 2003, proclaimed 2004 the Ibero-American Year of Persons with Disabilities. This decision was adopted based on a proposal presented by the government of Spain, which in turn was a response to an initiative proposed by the Ibero-American Network of Organizations of persons with, Disabilities and their Families (RIADIS) and the Spanish Committee of the Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI). The purpose of the declaration is to increase awareness and it is a call for action regarding the present and alarming conditions of discrimination and exclusion against persons with disabilities in the Ibero-American region. The initiative has also been strongly supported by the Spanish Committee of the representatives of Persons with Disabilities, on of the founders of the Ibero-American Network. The Ibero-American Network, which is composed of more than 100 organizations of persons with disabilities, will hold its bi-annual Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2004
Discar Foundation in Santiago del Estero, Argentina
Federation of Latin American Sleep Societies (FLASS)
HealthWrights is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the health, basic rights, social equality, and self-determination of disadvantaged persons and groups. We believe that health for all people is only possible in a global society where the guiding principles are sharing, mutual assistance, and respect for cultural and individual differences. [Mexico]
New UN Millennium Goals do not address disability December 03, 2003 report from Choike.org, a portal on Southern civil societies. Choike is a project of the Third World Institute, Montevideo, Uruguay
Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc.
PROJIMO is a community based rehabilitation and education project run by and for disabled people. Its main objective is to increase abilities and opportunities of disabled persons and their families and help raise the consciousness of non-disabled persons and school children to include a disabled person in the life of the community: to look at their strengths, not their weaknesses. The disabled rehab workers provide physical and occupational therapy, counsel families about how to assist (but not overprotect) their disabled child, teach self help skills, and make a wide variety of adaptive equipment. [Mexico]