"RAISING AWARENESS OF THE SOCIETY CONCERNING THE SITUATION OF THE PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS"
International seminar, 16 July, 2002, Sofia, Bulgaria
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On 16 July 2002 Association DIA-SPORT hosted the international seminar "Raising
awareness of the society concerning the people with special needs" within
the framework of the project "REHA-INPROD". The seminar was devoted
to the difficulties that people with disabilities constantly face in their daily
life and different ways of facilitating their access to the labour market and
as a final seminar of the first project year was aimed to be more summarising
one. Besides the project partners from Bulgaria, Romania, Germany and
Italy, the seminar brought together experts and representatives of
different government and non-
government
institutions such as Ministry of Labour and Social Policy,
Fund "Rehabilitation and Social
Integration", National Statistical Institute,
National Academy of Sports,
Daily Rehabilitation Centre, Bulgarian Association for
Neuromuscles
Diseases, Association of the Disabled Students in Bulgaria,
Municipal Daily Centre for Social Integration of the Disabled People, Association
"Movement 12" and many others, including several
media. For full details, click
on Participants.
The
discussions during the seminar focused on the following topics: actual problems
and up-to-date issues regarding the social situation of the people with special
needs; attitudes and treatment of the people with special needs; access to the
labour market; benefits of the employers arising out of the national legislation
and some statistical data.
The first session
started with presentations of the partner countries which outlined the situation
of the disabled people in Romania, Italy and Germany. Mrs. Ileana Hamburg
pointed out that the main objectives of the political and social measures in
Germany are rehabilitation and integration of t
he
disabled who are more than 6.6 million. Rehabilitation is pursued by four groups
of benefits, i.e. medical, work-related, educational and social as well as financial.
For more information see also: Presentation
of Mrs. Ileana Hamburg.
Mrs. Clara Pietrini briefed the participants about the legislative aspects concerning the disabled people in Italy - provisions for work placement (Law No. 68/99 obliges public and private institution to offer job to a percentage of disabled people), paid permissions for job, safety (the architectural structure of the work places has to be built in the way to guarantee safety of the disabled), training for the exact work place and special education. See also: Disabled in the Education system in Italy.
All
the participants agreed with the statement of Mrs. Catalina Nastase
that the interest for the persons with special needs as a target group for social
protection results from the affirmation of the principles of "equal chances"
and solidarity.
The second part
of the discussions was concentrated on the practical issues related to the situation
of 
the disabled
people in Bulgaria and included a series of presentations of technical assistive
devices, rehabilitation devices, sports products (produced by BMB Ltd.). Dr.
Daniela Dancheva, she herself being a disabled people, pointed out
the extremely significant role that auxiliary technical devices play in the
process of social rehabilitation and integration of the people with disabilities.
She also raised the issue of the basic problems that people with disabilities
in Bulgaria have in providing themselves with orthopaedic assistive devices.
All
the participants agreed on and emphasised the need for stimulating the institutions
working in this field to undertake more active measures so as to improve the
situation and help the people with disabilities find their "equal chance"
on the labour market.