Revolución rampista!
Tomás Hernández on how disabled
activists shook up a lethargic
local government.
Let me explain. Here in Nicaragua it was
not possible for us wheelchair users to get around like you can
in places like England. We don’t
have transport that is adapted to our needs; road kerbs are very
high. Up until recently we could not to go to work independently
or get into the public buildings we needed to use. Then in 2003 we at CADISCA conducted a survey
of places in Managua where wheelchair users most needed to go and
we identified 200
locations where ramps were badly needed.
We developed a very thorough proposal. But
when we tried to co-ordinate with the municipal council we encountered
tremendous resistance.
The problems of disabled people just didn’t interest them.
What’s more the council pointed out
that there is a law that says if you destroy a kerb you have to
pay a fine of $30. You can
imagine the fines that 200 ramps would have incurred!
We had a lot of awareness-raising work to
do. We had to try and make the authorities understand that providing
ramps was their
obligation. So we started a campaign. We were on television, in
the newspapers. A lot of people supported us. We got support from
university students – especially architecture students – who
helped us in practical ways. People donated materials for building
ramps, cement, sand. We had help from other organizations in the
city which put pressure on the municipality to change their attitude.
But still the municipal council would not
take responsibility.
In the end they agreed that they would not
charge us for ‘damaging’ the
kerbs to create ramps, but the funding for the project had to come
from abroad – mainly from Britain and Ireland.
We recruited specialists to construct the
ramps. The municipal council buildings alone – there are 20 of them in Managua – required
40 ramps. We built ramps at sports centres, health clinics, in
parks, in public institutions, on the main avenue through the city,
in a concert hall, even in two churches – one Catholic and
one Evangelical.
Due to the public reaction and support we
received, we were able to put pressure on the municipal council.
We talked to them, presented
plans, and they eventually undertook to build another 400 ramps
in the following year. So they have continued the work that we
had started. The ramps are built in accordance with norms of accessibility – norms
that were recognized by presidential decree in December 2004.
We have finally managed to get the authorities
to understand that this is a human-rights issue; that it’s not just our problem
but a societal problem. Activists in other cities, León
and Ciudad Sandino, have had similar successes.
At a personal level, for me and my colleagues,
the ramps have strengthened our levels of independence, our mobility
and our self-esteem. They
permit us to feel and to be seen as persons, individuals, interacting
within society. And, of course, it is much safer for us to be able
to go along the pavement than to have to wheel ourselves along
busy roads, and this gives us much more confidence.
Tomás Hernández works for and is the President of
CADISCA, an organization of wheelchair users based in Managua,
Nicaragua. He spoke to NI co-editor Vanessa
Baird.
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