MANILA, Philippines—Inclusive, barrier-free and mainstreaming. These are key words that A.H.M. Noman Khan has turned into reality for countless disabled persons of Bangladesh and beyond.
Khan is one of the seven 2010 Ramon Magsaysay awardees who will be honored on Tuesday, birth anniversary of the late President after whom the award is named.
Khan, 59, is being recognized for “his pioneering leadership in mainstreaming persons with disabilities in the development process of Bangladesh, and in working vigorously with all sectors to build a society that is truly inclusive and barrier-free.”
Khan is a big and able-bodied Asian who had no direct experience with disabled persons in his early life, but after being exposed to them and their plight in the early 1990s, he became totally devoted to this special sector. And there was no turning back.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award has caused quite a stir in his country, Khan happily tells the Inquirer. He is certain the award will significantly increase people’s awareness of the issues affecting the disabled in Asia.
Khan is the 10th Bangladeshi to win the award since it was started in 1958. One well-known Bangladeshi awardee is Muhammad Yunus, who received the award in 1984 and, later, the Nobel Peace Prize. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation has honored 267 individuals and 17 institutions in the past 52 years.
Inclusion opportunities
Khan, who holds a master’s degree in commerce and management, is married and father of two, is the executive director of the Center for Disability and Development (CDD), which he cofounded in 1996.
Based in the capital city of Dhaka, the CDD has trained over 10,000 development workers from 350 organizations in Bangladesh. Many of these organizations, though not directly serving the disabled, are now working toward providing services and create “inclusion opportunities” for persons with disabilities.
Under Khan’s leadership, the CDD developed the Community Approaches to Handicap in Development (CAHD), a unique strategy that strengthens the capability of communities to respond to the needs of their disabled members. It also seeks to mainstream disability so that mainstreaming becomes part of the development work of both government and nongovernment groups.
Ambitious, revolutionary
Called “ambitious and revolutionary,” CAHD addresses disability in a holistic way and not through piece-meal, small-scale approaches. This means that wheelchairs are not the end-solution to physical disability.
“If you only use a medical approach,” Khan says, “you will not solve the problem. Because those with disabilities can do so much more.” He then reminds that there are those who prefer to use the words “physically challenged” instead of disabled.
Khan cites the example of a person with disability who went on to finish a master’s degree but could not find a job. “He committed suicide,” he says. “The problem is with the system, not with the impairment.”
Training
Society must open up. Families and communities must be given skills and their awareness must be heightened side by side with the disabled.
“We’ve held dialogues with schools and the department of primary education,” Khan says. “We’ve trained NGOs. We’ve trained teachers. At first they were resistant, but after the third day of training they were OK.”
Khan argues that teachers in regular schools need not know the entire thing about Braille for the blind or sign language for the hearing-impaired for them to include the disabled in their classes. The disabled will learn if they are provided the right tools and setting. And so will their teachers. But that is easier said than done.
Hidden, marginalized
Khan says that in Bangladesh, a developing country with a population of 158 million, there are an estimated 13 million people with disabilities. Cultural beliefs have caused their exclusion and marginalization.
“Many families would hide them and even avoid mentioning them,” Khan says. But little by little, they have opened up.
Khan adds that the major causes of disability are disasters, diseases, poverty and bad pregnancies.
The CDD now operates seven service and training centers in Bangladesh. In partnership with organizations, it has reached out to 52 of the 64 districts in Bangladesh. A good number on its staff of 175 are disabled.
Many development workers from other countries, including the Philippines, have trained at the CDD and learned the CAHD approach.
“We do not have something as big as that here in the Philippines,” a Filipino NGO worker who trained at the CDD in Bangladesh told the Inquirer.
Disability-inclusive
The CDD’s “disability-inclusive projects” include those in education, food security and disaster risk-reduction. It operates centers that provide information, counseling and therapy.
“We now have well-equipped buses and ships that could reach communities,” Khan proudly says.
Another CDD breakthrough is the National Resource Center in Assistive Technology that manufactures and distributes orthosis and prosthesis devices. The center has also successfully developed a sign language in Bangla, Bangladesh’s national language which is also spoken in some parts of India.
Policy advocacy
The work is never done. Policy advocacy is part of the CDD. As secretary general of the National Forum of Organizations Working with the Disabled, Khan has worked hard to strengthen collaboration among groups and to reach national and international levels to achieve a disabled-friendly society.
At his public lecture four days ago, Khan fielded questions from an audience that included persons with disabilities who used sign language as well as Filipinos who had trained in CAHD at the CDD. He was proud and at home in their midst.
“What is for me should also be for the blind,” Khan says.
“Persons with disabilities have dreams which they want to fulfill like everyone else—to work, to sustain a future, to exist side by side with others. All they need is a proper environment to work in and lead life as equal to everyone else.”
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