At the end of 2013, I had the good fortune to visit Nepal as part of an exchange on disability and leadership. While I was in Kathmandu, I visited the Center for Independent Living - Kathmandu and discovered what an amazing crew they are. Before the earthquake, the CIL-Kathmandu was already doing very cool work in a very inaccessible environment. After the news of the earthquake,I could only imagine what it must be like for them and our sisters and brothers with disabilities now, so I checked in with CIL-K, and indeed they are working in an even more challenging environment. Continue reading →
Considering how long it takes to travel from Berkeley, California to Kathmandu, Nepal, you could say my stay is rather short — seven days. But, thanks to Rakshya and Nirmala who seem to know everyone in the disability rights /independent living and women’s rights communities, my schedule is jam packed from morning until night. Fortunately for me, Nirmala found a brief gap after our visit to the US Embassy (more about that visit later) and I got to meet the staff at CIL – Kathmandu today.
If you didn’t know CIL-Kathmandu was in the building, you might think that it was a motor scooter shop—there’s a garage in the front of the building where at least four of the staff’s four-wheeled scooters are parked. Others rest in front of the building. Four-wheelers are used by people with disabilities — including people who use wheelchairs to travel independently around Kathmandu—there is no accessible public transportation (there’s no public transportation at all) and no private accessible transportation. Wheelchair users transfer to the seat of the scooter and pull their chairs onto the small space between the seat and handlebars (or if your chair folds, hook it onto the side of the scooter).
Day 1 (not counting the 28 hours of travel) of DREDF’s Outbound Portion of the Empower Partnership sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Mobility International USA.
While we were building the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC) in Berkeley, California we often said to funders that one of the important features of the building would be the ability for individuals with disabilities from around the world to leave their homes, arrive at San Francisco International Airport, access BART, and connect with some of the most outstanding disability rights and independent living organizations in the US. I lived that experience in reverse this week, catching BART in the basement of the ERC at 4:30 on November 21, and arriving about 28 hours later in Kathmandu, Nepal on November 23. As the plane descended into the Kathmandu Valley, we could see the incredibly majestic (though all I could think of at the time was “big”) Himalyan mountains. As expected, I was warmly greeted by DREDF’s Empower Partners, Nirmala Dhital of the Nepal Disabled Women Association (NDWA) and Rakshya Risal of Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO). Nirmala and Rakshya welcomed me with a traditional necklace of beautiful bright orange marigolds.
It IS a small world. The woman sitting at the table next to me this morning in the hotel here in Kathmandu was from Concord, CA (not far from Berkeley). Photos of wheelchair basketball players in today's edition of The Himalayan Times: — at Hotel Himalaya. Continue reading →
At the end of 2013, I had the good fortune to visit Nepal as part of an exchange on disability and leadership. While I was in Kathmandu, I visited the Center for Independent Living - Kathmandu and discovered what an amazing crew they are. Before the earthquake, the CIL-Kathmandu was already doing very cool work in a very inaccessible environment. After the news of the earthquake,I could only imagine what it must be like for them and our sisters and brothers with disabilities now, so I checked in with CIL-K, and indeed they are working in an even more challenging environment.
It IS a small world. The woman sitting at the table next to me this morning in the hotel here in Kathmandu was from Concord, CA (not far from Berkeley). Photos of wheelchair basketball players in today's edition of The Himalayan Times: — at Hotel Himalaya.