The revolution of Independent Living in Latin America to the world!

WE NEED FUNDS FOR GO TO VIENNA, A CHANCE TO PRESENT THE INDEPENDENT LIVING MOVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA ALL OVER THE WORLD

Since the pandemic of Covid 19, We have been working with my colleagues, mainly from the Morpho Center Costa Rica, to create a network called "Relavin," a Latin American Network for Independent Living, to support each other and further develop the movement for independent living in Latin America.

This trip's objective, in addition to receiving the Zero Project award in Vienna, is to advocate and promote the independent living movement in Latin America and to strengthen the network worldwide. The funds will be for logistical expenses of the trip of the people with disabilities who will attend the Conference, as well as their personal assistants.

We have held three large-scale online seminars and invited Ms. Amalia Gamio, Vice President of the United Nations Committee on Rights, and Mr. Facundo Chavez, who is in charge of the rights of persons with disabilities at the Office of the High Commissioner UN, as lecturers, to widely promote the need for independent living in the region.

On December 3, 2022, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the nine member countries of the network held a parade to appeal for the rights of persons with disabilities to live in the community. The parade was supported by the Center for Independent Living in Japan, and after returning to Japan.

As a result of Relavin remarkable achievements last year, three Relavin member organizations, the Morpho Center in Costa Rica, the Nueva Esperanza Association in Bolivia, and the Chilean Foundation for Independent Living in Chile, have joined together in the Zero Project, a global initiative in the field of inclusion of people with disabilities.

The awards ceremony and conference will be held at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria, from February 22 to 24. Wendy and Carlos from Costa Rica, Feliza from Bolivia, and Jimena from Chile have been invited by the above organizations to participate in the conference, but they will travel and stay at their own expense and will only receive a partial subsidy for their stay. Of course, each will be accompanied by their personal assistants.

We are very happy to receive the award, but we think it is more important to participate in the future development of the conference, so we have started a crowdfunding campaign at the Morpho Center. We published it yesterday at the following url and would like to ask everyone to donate.

https://assets.gogetfunding.com/la-revolucion-de-la-vida-...

For more information about the Zero Project, please visit the organizer's website.

https://zeroproject.org/zerocon23

We will also have a panel on the first day of the event titled "Good practice of Independent Living in Latin America," which is one of the main objectives of the event.

https://www.b2match.com/e/zero-project-conference-...

Our center provides the following services:

-Training, and coordination of personal assistants.

-Free legal advice for people with disabilities and their families.

-Emotional support, peer counseling.

-Training on human rights issues and other issues relevant to the population.

-Political advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities.

Please help us spread the word!