Very much enjoyed, and agreed, with Howard's comments. Here in England, but less so perhaps in the rest of the UK, we are still at the stage where we are failing to work with people. As opposed to for people not just with various degrees of learning disability but a range of other disadvantages as well. This is especially true with poverty, prison issues, welfare, income support and many others which are still based on top down approaches. I'm now retired and potter around thinking from home about these issues and I'd be very pleased to correspond with others around social and community enterprise, community development and social policy issues. In the middle category, for example, central government published at the end of last year a first class document on The Community Development Challenge, which was written by practitioners on www.communtiies.gov.uk. But it has sunk without trace even although, arguably, it provides the building blocks to unlock many social and economic problems.

One of my former collegues on the state rehabilitation council has done substantial research in conjunction with Boston University on homelessness, poverty and the systemic connection to disabilities.

In my experience, the issue often revolves around low wage underemployment in high cost of living areas that are experiencing job losses due to outsourcing and weakened economic conditions. As I see it, these issues can be molded into commercial opportunities for creative entrepreneurship that solve problems for the un-employed, the property owners, the government and consumers alike. We need to look beyond government solutions that are time consuming, overly restrictive and engender managerial incompetence where highly competent leadership is essential to a successful turn of events.

Best regards, Owen

OWEN P.DOONAN III, Chairman of the Board THE-Group [The Handi-CAPABLE Executive Group]

Virtual management, IT & mentor consultants to Entrepreneurs, Professionals and Executives with disabilities. Advocates for virtual access to public meetings and home based employment for the homebound and people with severe limiting disabilities.

Statutory Member, Massachusetts State Rehabilitation Council. Chairman,Massachusetts State Rehabilitation Council's Consumer Satisfaction Committee Chairman, Massachusetts Statewide Task force on Home Based and Self Employment for people with disabilities Member, AT [Assistive Technology] Act Advisory Council Founding member Massachusetts Statewide Task force on Acquired Brain Injury [ABI] & Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI]. Member Easter Seals - MRC Assistive Technology Loan Review Committee

1. O.BOX 2169 DUXBURY, MA 02331 E-mail: mentor-one@usa.net

Hi, Howard, Congratulations on the work! Living in Brazil and working with people with communication disabilities I would like to ask : after having worked with people with different disabilities, which characteristics, in your opinion and experience, impose more limitations to their autonomy and sense of identity? In other words, which personal and community benefits should we focus on when starting a sustainable social project working with people with disabilities?

Dear Ms. Andrade. Thank so much for your excellent question. Dealing with people with communication disorders the principle opportunity for the employer, is to help the employee discover their internal language and develop an external one. Wittegstein once said, “My language is the limits of my world.” Broadening their life experience, through the ability to communicate, will help bring them the confidence they deeply crave.” In terms of working with people with other disabilities, I feel the first challenge is to overcome our own mental handicap in working with people who have a disability. One of my favorite quotes is from Victor Hugo who wrote. “What matters deafness of the ears when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.”

Hi Howard,

As to your questions: 1. Why hire someone with a disability? This is an easy one. Look to the experience of other employers who took a risk and you will find that people with disabilities [PWD] are loyal diligent hard working employees who deliver superior value for payroll. 2.How do you interact with people with disabilities? As a person with disabilities, I interact with an eye towards sensitivity with respect the other persons disability. By understanding their comfort zone, I can experience a richer, more responsive and long lasting relationship. 3. What kind of work ethics do you expect from them? I expect people to compete effectively within their limitations as enhanced by reasonable accommodations and assistive technology. 4. Why is it important that the organization become sustainable? Logic dictates that there is little or no reason to waste time and resources without planned for sustainability as a foundational element. Non sustainable organizations are time and resource wasters that do not consider the needs of the target audience but are simply ego lollipops for the uninitiated.

I have taught a course in entrepreneurship for over ten years that focuses in on educating entrepreneurs with disabilities and Vocational Rehabilitation professionals to the real world possibilities of self employment, enterprise sustainability and the opportunity/logic for synergistically employing other people with disabilities. Many of my graduates become clients of my consultng/mentoring firm and continue to evolve into successful venturers. Yes there is a need for continued support in order to deliver a sustainable result. In other words we not only need how to teach them how to fish, but how to compete against trawlers and fishing ships as they evolve;-)

I have worked mainly in the U.S. but have also assisted with the development of Vocational Rehabilitation entrepreneurial programs for high disability low VR infrastructure areas of the world.

Peace, Owen

OWEN P.DOONAN III, Chairman of the Board THE-Group [The Handi-CAPABLE Executive Group]

Virtual management, IT & mentor consultants to Entrepreneurs, Professionals and Executives with disabilities. Advocates for virtual access to public meetings and home based employment for the homebound and people with severe limiting disabilities.

Statutory Member, Massachusetts State Rehabilitation Council. Chairman,Massachusetts State Rehabilitation Council's Consumer Satisfaction Committee Chairman, Massachusetts Statewide Task force on Home Based and Self Employment for people with disabilities Member, AT [Assistive Technology] Act Advisory Council Founding member Massachusetts Statewide Task force on Acquired Brain Injury [ABI] & Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI]. Member Easter Seals - MRC Assistive Technology Loan Review Committee

1. O.BOX 2169 DUXBURY, MA 02331 E-mail: mentor-one@usa.net

Dear Owen,

I agree with everything you say. The only point I would like to add is that with certain people it is important that they know YOUR or corporate comfort zone. I have worked with many people who have a physical disability, but who tried to take advantage of the situation and act as a victim. Boundaries must set if success at all levels is the goal.

Next time I am in USA, I would love to visit your organization. Warmest regards and thank you. Howard

Hi again Howard,

We have long worked virtually [before the Internet existed] and have helped other VR based projects from the idea stages through launch to the reaching the sustainability level or rescuing same from failure. We have found that PWD function best in government and big business nurturing environments as well as in disability owned ventures. The culture in many middle marketemployer [$20mm USD - $500mm] is too stressful and growth at all cost oriented for PWD to survive/thrive. Corporate cultures that espouse diversity and low stress in the office work well. Also we develop telecommuting alternatives that can work out effectively in otherwise stressful environments.

For the past twelve years, we have provided consultive VR support service to the disability community throughout Bosnia. In that regard, we have assisted with the development of disability friendly work / entrepreneurial environments to rebuild this war torn country. Further to that point we have encouraged international synergy between the US as a consumer market and our associated disability ventures in producer economies. The relationship is always disability based to add reason for consumers to buy disabled rather than to simply buy imported goods and services. I wonder if there is any interest in exploring other country to country marketing support synergies? If so, I would be interested in helping to develop such programs based on my experiences in Bosnia and other areas.

Incidently, we have a vibrant and growing Brazillian community in nearby Plymouth Mass. So if you get up this way, by all means lets get together.

Besr regards, Owen

One of the key elements in question here is the way we THINK about disability and, in turn, disabled people. I invite you to read my recently published paper on Constructive Functional Diversity, available at:

http://www.diversityworks.co.nz/projects/functional-diversity/

Hi Mr. Weinstein. It´s very good to know about these successfull projects! As a professor at Speech-Language Pathology, I have been including such themes at my classes, since I consider very important and even urgent to form our students as citizens and professionals with social responsability. Here in Brazil, an important change in health professionals started with WHO ICF, but university courses in medical sciences still lack experienced professionals with a social formation. How could this exchange occur?

Dear Dra. Noemi

Thank you for your email and thought provoking question. I have found that the sustainable projects I have been involved with have included many stakeholders. Being a social entrepreneur and knowing few theories, I have found including fine educators like yourself as a stakeholder at the formation of the business plan very beneficial to the success of any project. Many projects, or should I say all projects, I work on have education component either as part of original activity or as an outcome from the income generating activity, to the benefit of the employee.

As an aside, I now live in Brazil and have been invited to speak on social entrepreneurship at a variety of universities here and as well as at International Congresses. I have found the exchange of ideas extremely rewarding and have used many of the student’s ideas in my projects, as well as some students as volunteers. Any successful entrepreneur will gladly tell you what they don’t know. Professionals like yourself are vital in the capacity building of those involved. Thank you for your question.

Howard & Commenters,

As a person with a disability I have been holding off responding because public forums like this so often deep end into lowest common denominator generalities. With the multiple references to ICF and quite a "turma" congregating with connections to Brazil I am encouraged.

A group of us associated with the Instituto Interamericano sobre Deficiência e Desenvolvimento Inclusivo – IIDI (Inter-American Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development) are working in the tourism sector on Inclusive Tourism as sustainable development empowering PwD. Rather than take up too much space here I'll go into more detail with a post on my blog tomorrow and post a link back here.

Briefly, however one of the catalyzing events in this sector was a day-long pre-conference workshop I gave in Rio de Janeiro at Adaptive Environment's Designing for the 21st Century III in 2004. Currently we are organizing an IIDI project launch conference for May 2008. We have quite a network developed between the US, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina along the cruise line corridor. I encourage those who are interested to contacted me off-line at the email address that can be found at my blog (Sorry, posting it here invites more spam than I am prepared for!)

Scott Rains The Rolling Rains Report on Travel, Disability, & Universal Design http://www.RollingRains.com

Thank you for putting aside your skepticism and sharing your thoughts, experiences and programs. Being a Canadian but having worked in Africa and now in Brazil I am impressed with many of the programs going on this is country. Parabens. The government has a great tax incentive program for companies to hire people with a disability, but unfortunately corporate Brazil has not taken up the challenge. I understand all of the difficulties and do not have a simple answer. There are also many impressive NGO’s in Brazil like, Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa da Pessoa Portadora de Deficiência who are giving people with disabilities training, education, and skills so that they are more marketable. A job coaching program is needed.

We are trying another road by starting a solar powered hearing aid project with workers who are deaf. The principle skill of micro-soldering is in great demand and transferable to other industries. The deaf in Brazil will be taught by deaf workers from Botswana. What a great deaf to deaf and or south to south training and empowerment program. This is so so exciting.

In addition, we are hoping to start an ecological brick manufacturing program with young adults who are physically and mentally challenged.They will be able to learn new skills as well as help rebuild their communities, at many levels. All projects will generate income for all employees and well as educational programs, which will be an outcome of the activity funded by the revenue from the products sold.

I would like to ask the Social Edge readers for other successful programs they are aware of or involved in

Howard,

You asked for examples of other successful projects. Ralf Hotchkiss has had success over the years with Whirlwind Wheelchairs:

http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/

You mentioned about the hand -eye cordination of your deaf workers. Did you find any special or unique skills of the children with Down Syndrome that ws very helpful?

Dear Stacia, Thank you for your question. I have found that with a hug in the morning, a joyful attitude both the person with Downs Syndrome and yourself will work harder. Downs Syndrome people can be meticulous, a bit slower than one may be used to, therefore one must be patient. The quality of the work plus their great work ethic insures a successful result. Don't forget to get your hug before going home

I believe people without visible disabilities have difficulties working with individuals with disabilities because such individuals mirror their hidden disabilities. Few people, if any, likes to see what they consider their "failures" in other people.

I recall exploring possibilities of employment with UNICEF for blind & deaf individuals. There was no policy in place actively advocating for such individuals. I doubt if such a policy has been put into place now. But to do that, quite a few major systemic and people adjustments would need to be made. In the long run, the investment would be worth every penny. The UN Charter talks of inclusivity in employment. That theory needs to move into the realm of implementation - at least in UNICEF with which I'm familiar.

Dearest Ms. Alice,

It is rare in organizations to admit their shortcoming, and must be even more painful for great ones like UNICEF. I am hopeful that with caring, compassionate people like yourself at UNICEF, effective change will, must.......... please occur.

Dear Philip,

First of all I am honored you logged in. Your reputation expands beyond the borders of New Zealand. I am not only impressed with your work but also results. New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to made NZ sign language an official language. You have a fantastic TV program promoting issues for people with disabilities, called ATTITUDE. A friend of mine Lianna Kennedy runs an amazing job coaching program for people with disabilities ( www.deaf.co.nz) which I encourage everyone to visit, as this is a great model for all countries. Now if the All Blacks had won in rugby I would have given you last word. Next time. Thank you Philip for contributing.

Dear Howard, This peace of work is the most outstanding work in this area! It's able to show for all Human resources departaments, that A person with disability it's as a good worker as any other work, just need trainng ando tools to work! Congratulations!!! Please send more information about this kind of idea in this website!!! Best regards

Dear Ms. Heloisa, Thank you for your question. There is no short answer, but I will try and be as brief as I can using as an outline questions I received.

What institutional/personal practices are you creating/reformulating?

The infrastructure limits in Botswana, coupled with the worldwide demand for hearing aids outlined by WHO, makes it necessary to open additional facilities in other parts of the world. We have been asked by other non-profit organizations in Mexico, Jordan, and Pakistan, to help duplicate the program established in Botswana, as I was asked by present Brazilian stakeholders. Their mission, like Godisa's, will be the provision of low cost hearing aids for their region, as well as the empowerment of their workers who will be hearing impaired or deaf. Local stakeholders will invest time and money and we will transfer technology and manpower for free.

Each project will be independent and have no financial attachments to, or responsibilities for, the others. Whenever possible, each project will try to purchase as much technical equipment, office supplies, and parts from the local market as is possible and affordable. Each project will be run as a separate humanitarian, non-profit, sustainable operation. The projects will be designed to help meet demand, not only in the country of assembly, but also in the wider trading area. For example, Jordan will service all the Mid-East, and Brazil, all of Latin America. The Jordanian program (through another Canadian NGO, CISEPO, and their Mid-East counterpart, MEHA) is particularly exciting, as their workforce will include young Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli deaf adults working together Each of the regions requires help to get its organization operational, such as: fundraising through grant-writing proposals; defining infrastructure needs; training local counterparts in administration, and marketing; implementing financial transparency programs; setting up regional Board of Trustees and ongoing mentorship. Each region is at a different stage in its development. We will work with each new local General Manager according to his or her own project and personal development needs. The ultimate goal is a trained, educated, empowered staff and a sustainable non-profit organization. We will share with them the deaf empowerment programs we have started, which they can adapt to meet their own cultural needs, as the deaf culture is different than the culture of the hearing in each community, and differs from country to country. Each project will ultimately help the less advantaged children in its trading area and region get low cost hearing aids, which will enable those children to be mainstreamed in local schools. There are very few schools for the deaf in developing countries. Article 26 of UN Charter on Human Rights, states "everyone has the right to education." This project aims to give the hearing impaired or deaf child improved access to education. All centres will work together and share for free any technological developments. We will take advantage of any price breaks, and economies of scale in purchasing any new technologies. For example the solar charger costs in Botswana is over $20.00US, with the volume requirements from Brazil the cost for all will drop to below $15.00US. Local sourcing will be encouraged with information shared with all projects. This process will help each region become sustainable at a quicker rate than Godisa. These regions will also have much lower start-up costs, because Godisa and Brazil project called Aurora have already completed the initial research and development. These reduced costs, combined with the lessons learned from Godisa and Aurora triumphs and errors will dramatically increase the probability of success for these new projects. In effect we are setting a new paradigm for business by setting up competitors to Botswana and now Brazil project as both projects sell to these areas. When the new organizations become operational, Botswana and Brazil will not sell into these trading areas.

Which segments within this general hearing disabled group are specifically targeted by your strategies (age, income, gender, etc.)?

A WHO 2001 report stated that 250 million people need a hearing aid, two thirds live in a developing country, yet only 6 million aids are manufactured every year. I read a study this week (Olusanya et al 2005) that stated that 90% of the 665,000 babies born with a hearing loss each year live in developing countries. We will target hearing impaired babies, especially those serviced by International NGOs and government institutions and hopefully make our mark in this segment.

Initially in Brazil, like Botswana we will hire young 17-23 year old deaf workers` mainly deaf woman. We have found that by economically empowering and providing education programs to woman, they are more concerned and more likely to educate their children. This is a major step in breaking the poverty cycle.

Could you describe your distribution strategy, by segment (for-profit organization, government, NGOs) and by country? What are the estimate market and your participation?

While WHO states that there are 250 million people in the world who are hearing impaired, only 30 million are likely to be helped significantly by hearing aids, i.e. those with severe-to-profound loss and children under the age of 7. These 30 million can also be reached and helped by trained audiologists. There are no studies done in any Latin American country on exact need, only WHO studies which say that the range of hearing loss is in the 5-9% range. Again this is the range but includes all those people who could use an aid, not necessarily those who have access to be tested, nor money to purchase one. It includes the elderly population, in who hearing loss is generally quite common. We will also help and go after INGO’s who have a fixed and or limited budget but wish to donate as many hearing aids as possible to a particular project of theirs. Finally, if a for-profit retail store wishes to purchase the product we will sell it to them. We will also try and private label the solar charger and batteries to for profit organizations, thereby increasing the awareness of the category.

Our goal in year 3 of Brazil project is to assemble 4,000 hearing aids, 6,000 solar chargers and 10,000 batteries per month. The present building and infrastructure in the future will allow us to increase this amount 2 ½ times.

Could you briefly describe your deaf empowerment programs (including specific objectives, partner organizations, duration, and number of participants)?

The young deaf community in Brazil suffers from a lack of language. Lack of language means not only the knowledge of sign language but also the comprehension of concepts. Too often in deaf community what we consider simple concepts such as the meaning of the word “why,” or words expressing” beauty”, “pain,” ” fear,” do not exist in their internal language. Deaf education is a key component to sustainability of the solar powered hearing aid project. In conjunction with the deaf education department from a University in Sao Paulo, a 3- year program on deaf education will be implemented. In Botswana, this was not done initially, and it caused a high employee turnover at the beginning and much wasted time, effort and money . There will be four parts to the education program: 1) These deaf educators will be part of the selection committee that chooses the initial Aurora employees. Some of the criteria they will use will be language ability, as the initial group must be able to communicate with each other, technical trainers and management. They will also do a psychological profile and involve the hearing parents of these deaf employees at an early stage. The chosen employees will initially work on language development. 2) Internal education will focus on HIV- AIDS education, home economics, and through the initial assessment, other required basic programs. This will be done in conjunction with electronic technical training , which will also be done in sign language. 3) The Aurora employees will use the skills attained to teach other deaf organizations. The government in Brazil, through an excellent tax incentives program, encourages companies to hire people with disabilities. But too often, these people lack some basic skills, either communication or vocational ones, and are therefore not hired. The Aurora program will help break down this barrier and offer more opportunities. 4) Deaf-to-hearing civil society educational programs. Needs assessment will be established and society’s road blocks to integrating the deaf community into civil society will be addressed. In Brazil, issues such as communicating with police, hospitals and other institutions will be reviewed and the employees and local deaf community will determine the needs and plan and implement the solutions.

The deaf educators and professors found that the most effective method of training, and teaching deaf–to-deaf education is through using role-playing models and via deaf theatre performance. This method will enhance their ability to express their internal language. It has also been proven there is no benefit to educate someone on HIV- AIDS unless they have a sense of self worth. Giving them a reason to live, a sense of accomplishment, of self- empowerment will be the primary motivating factor for them to want to lead and maintain a healthy life-style. This empowerment of the Aurora workers will be the primary focus of the deaf educators. This approach was proven in Botswana, where the deaf workers participated in, and lead, many extra-curricular social and educational activities. Some of the programs in Botswana included ballroom dancing and designing an HIV- AIDS sign language dictionary - the first one developed in the world. The result in Botswana after 2 years had the effect of the employees having a lower HIV rate i.e. 10% versus national average of 38%. Given people with disabilities are more at risk and are taken advantage of more often, plus have less access to information on HIV, this was a MAJOR accomplishment. The secondary benefit to the solar powered hearing aid program was a healthier staff with less employee turnover, which created higher level of product workmanship, with less initial defective products being assembled, which lowered the cost of the product. It cannot be stressed enough that the deaf education program is a major component to achieving financial sustainability of the program. The personal health of the workers and other stakeholders will be a major outcome of this program.

What is your vision for the global deaf-to-deaf training? How many people would you expect to involve? How do you perceive this impact in the lifetime of a deaf person and for the overall hearing-impaired group?

It is felt that this is the most exciting part of the program and an outcome for employees as well as impact for society of each organizations deaf empowerment program. Breaking the traditional north to south training and the more recent south to south training, and now by having a deaf to deaf training program both south to south and south to north is exhilarating. I personally cannot wait to see my ex-fellow workers, my Botswana community members in Brazil teaching others and learning from their new deaf friends. This above all other aspects is the program which motivated me to get this program started in Brazil. I am sure the same feeling will be felt when traveling with Brazilian workers to Jordan or Mexico to train the next group.

At different times, all 10 Godisa employees have traveled outside of Botswana to teach others. It will be the same here and hopefully in every future project. The employees will have earned the right to teach others.

The new enterprise to be established in Brazil was described as a “sustainable professional enterprise”. Could you explain these characteristics?

In order to achieve the project impacts the organization must be a sustainable professionally run enterprise. The first part and on-going process is to get the employees sustainable, i.e. confident, self- aware, self- assured and independent. Through the road of education becomes the discovery of self. A sense of ownership of the NGO by the employee through their implication into the NGO’s future direction be it for new technology and or educational programs is fundamental.

Sustainable from a financial perspective means that after training, preproduction and initial production period that the money donated by grant organizations generates enough revenues through profitable sales that no additional external funds are required. To achieve this, we must run a professional organization, offering an excellent world class quality product and backed up with equivalent customer service.

A financial business model which accounts for all expenses, investments, overheads and running costs in order to determine a break-even point and selling price has been developed. It is a dynamic business model so that when one cost changes in the model, it shows the required selling price in order to be sustainable. We will also be employing David Greens from Project Impact’s pricing strategy, called Compassionate Capitalism. In this process, when selling to for-profit organization, we will charge a higher price thereby allowing us to sell at a lower margin to those people who are marginalized by society. Yet we will balance the average price using aforementioned break-even model, which allows for growth, and future investment in technology, training and education in the selling price.

Just about a couple of months ago I've been thinking about a program of work with people with mental health problems, providing them jobs according to their personal abilities and needs. Frankly speaking I didn't even think to work with Down Syndrome because of problems of working with such presonalities, I have some experience of contacting with them. That's why I think that this inclusive practice is one of the most improtant ways to help these people to overcome the gap between them and society. Here in Belarus it is extremely difficult to find ways to work with people who have such problems. All humanitarian aid is thoroughly controlled by the government so that lots of NGOs and churches have to pass a burden of formalities to get it. Any financial assistance like grants needs to be affirmed by the special governmental body. Of course, the core porblem is not the government -- first of all, the society does whatever possible to exclude these people from everyday life. That's why the first thing that should be examined is social matters, not financial ones. And social matters cause financial ones greatly. The state prefers to finance sport and sports facilities instead of financing facilities for people with disabilities. And even if these facilities are built they stay unfunctional (like elevators for disabled people at the underground stations). Anyway it is really impressive and quite motivating to see that such programs are successful and have a great potential. Thank you. I look forward to communicate and, possibly, cooperate with you.

Here is more on the 25 year old Whirlwind Wheelchair project in English and in Spanish at YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tusPSLLerJQ

http://totem.notlong.com

Not how Ralf and team are constantly innovating based on learnings from around the globe.

Dear Mr. Sergey

I understand you point about governments wishing to finance sports events and not work on social problems. Maybe the answer lies on the other side of the same coin. Belarus in 2005 had 110 athletes compete in a Special Olympics Table tennis ( ping pong) tournament. I think the tournament was organized by a Dr. Borisevich, in Gorodishche. More recently the Belarus football ( soccer) Special Olympic team from Borisov joined your National team as they played( and beat) Luxembourg in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying.

Maybe get involved in the Special Olympic movement in Belarus. As new heroes are discovered, barriers will disappear.

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

I am working on a project that will eventually bring educational and employment opportunities to hundreds of thousands if not millions of blind children and youth around the world.

The problem I face is that understanding the true value of the strategy I am pursuing requires fairly deep knowledge of blindness-related educational and employment issues, developing country conditions, and open source software technology. This has made it very difficult to find investors, and having to rely on volunteers has made progress painfully slow.

Where do you believe I might find investors that are knowledgeable about blindness, developing countries, and free and open source software?

On an unrelated note, who could I talk with at SocialEdge.org about the web site itself. I am blind and the software being used for these posts is apparently completely inaccessible to users of screen readers such as myself. I was able to ask my wife to help me post this, but my continued participation will not be possible with the way this site is currently designed.

Best regards,

Fernando