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The Consortium of Disability Organisations (CODO) will be holding a mass sensitisation session on May 25 as part of Phase II of its Parent Advocacy Training Programme. The programme will begin in October, giving parents training in how to advocate for their children with disabilities.

CODO is the umbrella organisation for disability in T&T. Its primary activities concern Advocacy and Awareness of disability issues. The current membership includes 43 disability organisations, 20 of which are schools, all recognised by the government of T&T. Members are comprised of both Disabled Persons Organisations and Disability Service Providers, including schools.

At the launch of the programme, CODO President Jacqueline Leotaud said the biggest challenge in having parents go above and beyond for educating the public has been raising awareness of persons with disabilities as people and not as charity cases. “In our quest to create a shift from the charity-based approach to a rights-based model, we hold leadership training sessions for persons with disabilities, persons working with persons with disabilities and parents of persons with disabilities and at the same time we work with other organisations and persons in State agencies to get buy-in for this international movement. Realistically our culture is not a rights-based culture, so this is a new concept for us all, not only in the disability community. CODO is all about creating a world whereby its members are empowered not only to join with us to ensure rights are legislated but to join with each other to fight for those rights. This is what our parent advocacy training is all about, giving parents the skills of advocacy, with a vision to creating a large group of parents fighting for an inclusive society for their children.”

Treasurer Sudhir Ramesar said parents go way beyond when it comes to dealing with their children with disabilities. “They are the only ones who truly understand what it is, what it takes, and what it will always take to treat, care for and help a child with a disability to have a purpose in life. Programmes like this will only assist them in further understanding their roles and assist not only parents, but we should welcome people who want to understand these issues, because they don’t know if they will one day become a parent of a child with a disability. We want to expand the programme to Tobago, with the help of the JB Fernandes Memorial Trust, who helped us with Phase I.”

Technical Officer Mary Bastien said Phase I of the Programme ran from October 2017 to June 2018, with 25 parents being certified as trainers who will train other parents to become advocates for children with disabilities. “We recognised that while as parents and persons with disabilities, we are able to advocate because we know the needs of our children, advocacy also calls for technical skills, and this CODO parent advocacy training programme would give us those skills.”

Bastien said there were several lessons learned during the first phase of the Programme. “We learned we had to go into communities to talk to parents and caregivers of children with disabilities because of the nuances that exist with getting care for children and getting access to transport to come to one centralized venue. Therefore this Phase II project will take a community-based approach. On May 25, we will be going into Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, Chaguanas and Arima to launch simultaneous sensitisation sessions, to be run by the parents from Phase I. We will hopefully attract approximately 400 people. Parents can then join Phase II of the programme, which will launch on October 5 and run over five consecutive Saturdays until November 2. Some of the topics to be covered will include advocacy and leadership, understanding the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, governance, how we can use State tools for advocacy, and how we can use technology for advocacy. A major outcome for the Phase II project is to launch a vibrant parent advocacy group at the end of the last session.”

For more information, visit http://www.codott.org, email codocrpd@gmail.com and call 621- 1874.