In Mostar, the promotion of local initiatives that will work on improving opportunities for education and employment of people with disabilities was held.
On Monday, the Mostar Cultural Center hosted a promotion of local initiatives that will work on improving intersectoral cooperation and opportunities for education and employment of people with disabilities in the next period.
Six development projects
The director of the LINK Entrepreneurial Center from Mostar, Mostar, Alisa Gekić, said that it is about the “Strength of Herzegovina” project, that is, a project of intersectoral cooperation for the most vulnerable categories of society.
“Today we are promoting six development projects aimed at improving the position of people with disabilities. One of the key problems is the generally discriminatory position of people with disabilities, as well as all other vulnerable categories, and with this project we want to influence the improvement of life for these people, especially in the education sector,” said Gekić.
She stated that before the war there were 26 professions, and now they only have two, which is “very discriminatory”.
“We have a situation and positive examples where people with disabilities can contribute to the development of society, and it is through local initiatives that we want to help introduce at least two new professions into the education system in the next school year. Projects are implemented in the area of Mostar, Stolac, Jablanica and Prozor-Rama, where six local organizations will implement pilot projects, for 20 years, and we are interested in the professions of souvenir shops and herbalists,” said Gekić.
“We are working on something that has been a problem for 20 years”
The president of the “Ružičnjak – Los Rosales” youth association, Jasminka Rebac, said that thanks to the support of LINK, “we are working on something that has been a problem for 20 years”.
“If you want a person with disabilities to live and prosper in the local community, then their education is very important. In order to improve the education of people with disabilities, one of the projects is being launched, which is the offer of multiple occupations, therefore, not high school education, for male and female students who graduate from elementary school with children with disabilities. Now they are in a situation where, according to the ‘take it or leave it’ principle, they have to enroll in one of the two possible occupations of chef/confectioner or tailor,” said Rebac, adding that no one takes into account their individual abilities, wishes and wills.
As he says, the basic human right is the right to choose, especially in education.
“The UN convention says that every country is obliged to offer the highest quality education to people with disabilities in the nearest school. Unfortunately, this only applies to primary school education. This project brings progress in that we will make sure that some of the possible new occupations are offered in secondary schools, regardless of the fact that they are not required by law, in the next school year. We are already having discussions with several schools, and some of them have already expressed a great readiness for such cooperation, and we have no doubts about the results,” she said.
Schools that want and will
She said that in this project, schools that “want and will” are needed.
“In order to introduce a new interest for students with disabilities, schools then create new programs, as a draft they agree with the Pedagogical Institute, and when the draft becomes a final proposal, it is agreed in the Ministry of Education and then we go to the final result. If there is only one new profession next year, then one or two in each subsequent year, in just a few floors we will have ten new professions for people with disabilities,” Rebac emphasized.
The president of the association LINK Mostar, Tomislav Majić, states that this project is one of the six approved projects
“Through today’s awarding of certificates to six organizations from the area of Mostar, Konica, Jablanica and Prozor-Rama, we are in a situation to distribute 60,000 KM as grants for their projects, and we received 180,000 KM from USAID for that purpose. The program does not end with today’s awarding of certificates, but continues further. These projects have come in extremely handy for people with disabilities, because we think they will improve society’s attitude towards them” – believes Majić.
The project grant manager of the Peace Building Network, Alija Hamzić, explained that it is a project that has been running since October 2020 and is sponsored by USAID.
“On this component of the project, the Peace Building Network is implementing an activity from which we are allocating 950,000 dollars for grants, and the goal of the project is to strengthen the role of non-governmental organizations through their mutual networking and raising their capacities,” Hamzić said.
“The power of the local” aims to empower local communities while encouraging sustainable development and civic engagement, as well as mobilizing local resources. LINK Entrepreneurial Center, as a local departmental organization, will focus on strengthening sectoral capacities in the areas of entrepreneurship, education and support for people with disabilities, as well as on the implementation of local development initiatives and measures. Special attention will be paid to solving the problem of the high level of unemployment among people with disabilities and the lack of educational opportunities for their preparation for the labor market.
Source: blesak.info
