We really want people with disabilities to know about their rights and be able to defend them on their own.
In 2018, our organization initiated the Summer School of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The reason for the project was the lack of awareness of people with disabilities about their rights and the need for new leaders among motivated people with disabilities.
Every year, on a competitive basis, we select 35 participants who, under the guidance of well-known lawyers in the global movement for the rights of people with disabilities, gain new knowledge in the area of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. School participants get acquainted with the leaders of other NGOs, learn tools, monitoring techniques and innovative aspects of KPI implementation, and also increase their potential in advocacy.
Among the graduates, leaders were known throughout Kazakhstan: Irina Bobkova, Zhaslan Suleimenov, Niyaz Sundetaliev, Zhanibek Baitokov and Galiya Tabataeva who began to work based on the knowledge gained in the Summer School. Graduates of the Summer School, and now there are already 70 of them, successfully interact with each other to form a partnership for the joint implementation of projects and advocacy tasks. As a result, participants share their experience on the network of contacts at the school from among active citizens with disabilities from different regions.