Preparing for the Zambian Team

Representatives from Arc GTC, Fraser, Opportunity Partners, St. David's Children's Program, and the Institute on Community Integration met today to discuss and plan for the upcoming training of the Zambian Team. Dates that the team will be in the United States are March 28 to April 11. the training schedule is coming together for the formal training they will receive. Topics will include (but are not limited to): history of disability in the U.S. and Minnesota, core values of services in the U.S (valued social roles, social justice, empowerment, inclusion), overview of management and fundraising in non-profit organizations, employment and residential service, special education and early intervention, faith based initiatives and the role of church in service development and delivery, disability and arts, children with special health care needs, and autism.

The basic training methodology will include a combination of lecture, discussion and on-line training each morning that is focused on a specific topic. Each afternoon the group will then complete site visits that assist then in applying the information they learned each morning with the real world application in the afternoon. In the evenings participants will spend time at disability cultural events, civic events, organizational and parent events as well as learning about what typical American families do in the evenings.

Each partnering organization is now seeking volunteers to serve as host families for one or two members of the Zambian team.

More to come. Amy

Reflections on Zambian Trip

I have been home now and in the hustle and bustle of life here in the U.S. for nearly two weeks now. Not yet fully unpacked nor organized and caught up from having been gone. Yet, definitely back into the swing of work, home and American politics!

It is sometimes hard to reconcile the need I saw from every aspect of life in Zambia with the privilege we all have in the U.S. We talk about poverty and we talk about need but it nearly trivial when compared to a country like Zambia.

This weekend I had an opportunity (thanks Sandy!) to attend the Arc GTC Arcacdemy gala. It was a lot of fun and a huge success. Many people at that event were asking me about Zambia and I thought to myself that just with the money I spent on my outfit and my husbands suit we could have rented a building for the Hidden Voices School for nearly 12 months. If you took all of the money spent and raised at that event it is nearly unimaginable how far it would go in the right hands in Zambia. I am not at all saying we should stop having galas or that we should stop spending money - I am merely pointing out that there is much human perspective to consider when you think about the resources we have at our fingertips in this country.

I have also been thinking a lot about the intellectual capital we have. We take this for granted I think in the U.S. The number of people in the U.S. with and without disabilities who have become experts on this topic is amazing. This knowledge is so needed and so valued in Zambia. To give you perspective, I spent a lot of time with young men who were studying to become priests. They were working on degrees in philosophy, accounting many areas. They had no access to an on line library system. Imagine your children, yourself or your grandchildren going to college today and not having access to a complete on-line library system. For us, this is unimaginable. For most Zambians in college having limited access to library resources is the norm.

The children in the picture above go to school in a freight container that has had some windows cut into it. You can only imagine how hot it was. But, each of these children were pleased to have a school to attend. They walked for distances of over miles to get to and from school each day. Teachers had chalk boards and chalk. Children had small notebooks on which they wrote on every square inch of paper. Children with physical disabilities more often then not used adult wheelchairs and/or adult crutches that had been cut off. Custom fit - not on the radar of experiences for nearly all of the children I met.

We are a rich nation. We are have so much at our finger tips. Do we all really know, appreciate and understand this? - Amy

An Excellent Adventure in Zambia

Wow! What a wonderful trip traveling with Amy Hewitt and with Beth Metzler. I cannot imagine accomplishing all that was accomplished without the enormous help and technical assistance from both.

I have traveled to Zambia a few times during the past 3 years. Each time I learn so much. Each time something never changes and that is the heart of the Zambian people. This has not changed. It amazes me the capacity of the Zambian people to welcome strangers, to be hospitable, and to genuinely want to get to know us. In this picture Amy is learning how to eat Nshima (national food) with one of the seminary students at a friary we were welcomed at.

One of our most promising visits was to Bouleni, a residential and day school which has classrooms for both special needs and children without disabilities. This is a classroom with autistic children. In just a few minutes, Beth worked with one of the boys with jumping up and down and helping the child to focus more on the tasks at hand. In this school, there were many more toys and therapeutic equipment than anywhere we saw previously.

As Amy and I work our way back to the freezing temperatures of Minnesota and Colorado, I can hardly wait to move forward with our new friends. We have so much to learn from each other and to discover different approaches and how cultures impact our learning.

Sandy Beddor

Zambian Team Forms

The Zambian team came together yesterday in Lusaka for an initial meeting regarding the Disability Partnership. Sisters, Priests, Family Advocates and Disability Professionals were all in attendance. It was the first time that many of them had ever been together in the same room and the first time they had learned of the important work one another did. There were 12 people in attendance from all over the country.

Each team member shared their story about how they got into disability services and about their work and personal experiences in working with people with disabilities. many shared that they had family members with disabilities.

The team includes individuals who provide in home family support, parent-to-parent networking and support, special education, skill training and also government officials involved in disability policy work and special education.

Sandy did a few team building exercises with the Zambian team and they began to meld as a team. They will meet a few times together in person before they arrive in the United States. We gathered names adn contact information and one of the members agreed to facilitate this meeting and do the logistical coordination.

This initial meeting was very helpful to me as I think about pulling together proposals for funding and the training program for the Zambian team. I was able to get ideas about priorities and more importantly have greater understanding about many aspects of supports to Zambians with disabilities that I want them to share with the U.S. team. I have also been able to visit and interact with staff from most of the programs they represent.

Once we have returned to the states we can share photos with you and profiles of each of the Zambian team members and the services they provide to people with disabilities.

I leave tomorrow morning and return on Sunday to Minnesota. I am not sure where the time has gone and there is so much more to see and do in this country. I have had a life changing experience.

See you all very soon. More later. Amy

EDPA 5356 Students

EDPA 5356 Students

Hello from Zambia. I am so sorry to miss our first class of the semester but you are in excellent hands with Marijo and Maggie.

Have any of you traveled to Zambia before? I will be curious to talk with you about your African experiences when I am in class next week.

If you read this “blog” you will begin to hear about some of my experiences and travels over here. I have been unable to put into words much of what I have been thinking about as I observe and experience what this trip has offered me. I have now had a chance to see and observe many programs for people with disabilities. I am struck at what best practice means here and what it means in the US and how these compare. More importantly thinking about why these differences exist and what the similarities are is critical.

I am invigorated by the opportunity to host a group of disability professionals from Zambia in April in the US. I am hoping they will all be able to join one of our Thursday evening classes as a part of their training. Enjoy your first class and I will see you next week.

Amy

Arc GTC Board Meeting

Hi Everyone,

I tried to post this yesterday before the Board meeting. I had it all written and when I was ready to hit "send" the power went out. for the last 4 evenings the power has been out in the entire country. Anyhow, after the fact, here are some comments intended for the Board meeting:

Hello from Africa

Sorry to miss the Board meeting but Kim has me on assignment in Zambia. I truly wish that you were all here too because the only way you can understand the need and the relevance to our work is to be here and see and feel what I have had the opportunity to experience over the past many days.

I had hoped to upload a lot more photos and perhaps video but the internet connection here is fragmented at best and extremely slow – though high speed for Zambians. I promise to prepare a short slide show for you to watch at an upcoming BOD meeting.

I can tell you that the hard work of the Arc and its leadership over the years has truly paid off for persons with disabilities in our country. We have made remarkable progress over the years. Yet, the reality of services in the US and the many frustrations we all feel over them and discuss at Board meetings is simply irrelevant in the Zambian context. These children and adults merely want an opportunity to exist, to be fed, to have a place to call home and to be seen as a person. Any child in Zambia is thrilled by the opportunity to be educated and only a few children with disabilities have these opportunities. The schools and services I have seen are institutions, mostly residential schools. The children receive some education (but they only have teachers if the government recognizes the school and assigns teachers).

We certainly worry about the many things in the US that are simply not issues here in Zambia – liability, litigation, regulations, supervision, qualifications. Yet we both seem to worry about funding……. This is ironic to me and I am having a hard time reconciling it in my mind and heart. The enormous wealth of the US and we still never feel we have enough money.

I am recognizing each day that there are many lessons we can learn from the Zambians. The church as the “community” for Zambian people is essential. Church communities and extended families take care of the needs of their family members. The Zambian missionaries and lay people that are serving others seem to recognize the risk of entitlements and how often entitlements can create unnecessary dependency. Interdependence among families, extended families and among the children with and without disabilities has been ever-present in every situation I have observed and experienced.

Amy

Copperbelt Services

We drove up to the Copperbelt area on Monday and will spend Monday and Tuesday here touring and visiting with the few disability programs in this area. Yesterday while Sandy was at Mission Press I went to visit three programs. One was what they call a "hostel" for about 6 women with disabilities who are able to "support themselves" by making goods and selling them. Another program was a residential school for young adults ages 15 - 30 and then the third was a program for children, again a residential school.

One woman I met, Helen, who was selling chips and sweets at a stand outside her house asked me, "How do people with disabilities live in America?" I was stumbling to answer that. Because, if I were in the US I would answer it differently then in the context of how this woman was living in Africa. She has challenged me to think about the cultural relevance of services and the context. As we think about the training for the Zambian team it will be important to challenge the way we think about disability services in the US.

I have been heartstruck by the way in which children and adults with disabilities live in Zambia. You have to think about the worst of possible services in the US 30 years ago and that is best practice here now. There is hope but there is little money and no empowerment of people with disabilities.

Our work together is hope for the future. More later.

Amy