Monday in Bangkok: Disabled Peoples' International

Monday, January 25, 2010

The visit with Disabled Peoples’ International was fantastic today. We heard from two dynamic representatives from DPI: Ms. Saowalak Thongkuay, Regional Development Officer and Mr. Sawang Srisom, Assistant Development Officer.

The Students and Staff of DPI

Ms. Saawalak gave us a really comprehensive overview of the disability situation in the Asian-Pacific Region. After visiting mostly smaller national singly disability organizations, it was nice to have a presentation that was more global. For example, she talked about causes of disabilities in developing countries in general (not just Thailand), such as inadequate nutrition, infection and disease, water quality, accidents armed conflict, terrorism and landmines. She also covered the triple discrimination faced by women with disabilities and the overall impact of poverty not just in terms of lack of basic necessities but also lack of the poverty of opportunities and human rights for pwd in developing countries (monetary versus non-monetary poverty). She also gave a nice overview of the timeline and summary of international steps that led to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (the first draft was written in Bangkok!). I also appreciated the way she directly involved the students in discussion instead of just presenting to them. She is very knowledgeable and engaging. Thanks to my friend David Morrissey of the USICP for referring her to us!

Mr. Srisom covered Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) - another aspect that had not yet been covered during our travels. He reviewed what is meant by ICT and why it is so important to pwd as well as the international measures that support ICT such as the Tokyo Declaration and Action Plan, the Biwako Millennium Framework and the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). It was really fascinating.

Following the professional presentations, the students had the opportunity to interview Thai citizens with disabilities. They asked many interesting questions. I look forward to reading their writing assignments after these visits.

When we arrived back at our hotel we were happy to see Danielle who had spent the night at a local hospital. She just had a virus; however, that combined with travelling and dehydration had made her symptoms worse than they otherwise would have been had she been home in Delaware in bed!

Mat and John playing in the pool - trying to drag me in actually...

After our visits, some of the students went swimming in the little pool at our hotel. Others were headed for a canal boat tour. Laura, Erik, and I went on a tour-book walking tour of our neighborhood: Banglamphu. Banglamphu is old Bangkok and contains many of the temples (wats) and other major attractions, including the Wat Bowonniet, Democracy Monument, and Wat Ratchandatda. As you might expect, we saw many giant golden statues and images of Buddha and the temples have the typical Thai or Indian golden and intricate painted rooftops. More interesting to me was the monk university and residency. It is the headquarters for the Thammayut monastic sect, a reformed version of Buddhism. Several of the royal family studied as monks at this particular monastery. We observed several young Buddhists with shaved heads and bright ochre robes doing daily chores.

We ended our tour in a neighborhood near Khao San road, famous as a popular destination for backpackers. The streets are crowded with vendors, restaurants with outdoor seating, weary travelers getting foot massages or fish foot massages (people stick their feet into water filled with little fish that swim between their toes!). We had typical Thai food. I had Chicken Satay with peanut sauce and rice (yum).

Khao San road at night

Tomorrow we visit Ratchasuda College for the Disabled and an autism center. I have to go to bed. We have to get up early again and I’m tired.