During 8th-15th of January, the training course (en)ABLE was hold in Porto, a unique city in Portugal. The aim of this project was to focus on the rights of people with disabilities in order to include them in the society.
"In this project I felt I was encouraged to exchange experiences and opinions with people all over the world, mostly due to the fact that not only EU partner countries were participating, but also partner countries. Therefore, it was a huge mix of different cultures starting with the Latvian, Romanian, British, Egyptian, Tunisian, Jordanian, Algerian and continuing with Maltese and Portuguese. I took advantage of getting to know the others and getting to know more about the very different cultures than mine.
By being a Training Course the participants were more involved in the topic of the project, most of them being youth workers or professionals in the field of working with people with disabilities and I felt I have been learning many information from them. Another plus of this project was the common understanding of the fact that we need to design and implement inclusive projects. No matter our country and culture, we all agreed with the importance of including people with disabilities in our projects. It's a global issue and the only way to solve it is to unite our competencies and abilities and to start actually doing these projects.
One great activity I will remember from this Training Course was the workshop of "Empathy expression. Empathy towards disability through art". Well, we all know that we are creative and we can create great things together. But this activity was a pure and sincere demonstration of this idea. Basically, we were divided in two teams with different tasks. The main purpose of the workshop was to collaborate in order to create a big painting using different elements and techniques. Some of us created textures, others were looking for the best shapes to help us create textures; meanwhile the other team was preparing the whole setup so that the textures and the creatures we will create will find their place. In the end, it was a great team work and creative activity, keeping in mind the different disabilities and we way we can integrate them into our work.
In conclusion, we've realized that there is a big potential inner us, no matter if we have or not a disability and we have all the competence to work together for common purpose and I believe this was one of the great outcome of the TC (en)able. Basically, even if we are (en)able, we actually are very able to create great things together.
Well, after the Training Course, I feel I am more aware about how many types of disabilities exists. If before I was considering that the spectrum of disabilities is more related to the physical ones, now I know that it's just a part of it. Therefore, I am able to recognize the different types of disabilities and I recognize the fact that there is a need to integrate people with disabilities in the society's activities. I knew it before, but now I would say that my knowledge in the field has increased."
Well, after the Training Course, I feel I am more aware about how many types of disabilities exists. If before I was considering that the spectrum of disabilities is more related to the physical ones, now I know that it's just a part of it. Therefore, I am able to recognize the different types of disabilities and I recognize the fact that there is a need to integrate people with disabilities in the society's activities. I knew it before, but now I would say that my knowledge in the field has increased."
Georgiana Ionita