the right to human rights

This is the story of some the work that International Service does in Bolivia.

Bolivia is a curious country. As I have said before, there seems to be much disagreement between both Bolivians and foreigners on how poor Bolivia really is. In terms of human development, it is ranked just 108^th out of 187 countries listed. However the human development index suffers from the same problems as any other general index. In order to be useful in comparing countries to each other, it must be largely simplistic. This is not to argue that it can’t be useful, only that it cannot possibly explain all the relevant factors. For instance, it does not necessarily take account of the divide within a country. 

There is a significant divide between urban and rural wealth in Bolivia, as around one third of the rural population lack access to basic services, many children attend school for just 4 years or less and disability is still seen as a curse and is not widely accepted. Many disabled people are denied the rights that they have as human beings. 

International Service has worked for nearly 60 years to help people around the world to understand their human rights. This may be a child understanding their right to a safe and secure environment in which to grow up. It may be a person with a disability understanding that they have the right to do everything that an able person can do. It might be helping to empower people to claim the rights they already know they have.

International service works with grass-roots organisations and local groups to help people to know, understand and claim their rights, as well as seeking to tackle the roots causes of why people are denied certain rights in Bolivia. For example, poor nutrition in children is seen as contributory factor to the large number of children living with preventable diseases such as polio and German measles. Part of the ICS project our group of volunteers is involved in (a very small part of the work International Service does in Bolivia) is aimed at tackling the root causes of poor nutrition and helping parents and communities to understand the connection between healthy eating and good health.

Today some of us were lucky enough to be able to volunteer on behalf of International Service at a huge disability fair in the centre of La Paz. Our stall consisted of information leaflets, mountains of blue wrist bands reading 'soy inclusivo', translated as 'I'm inclusive', as well as two games, designed specifically to deal with issues of disability and human rights. The first was a tactile version of twister, with each row of coloured circles also having a specific texture to them. The second was an adapted game of snakes and ladders, where the children (and adults!) taking part were given goggles with varying levels of visibility to make the game more difficult. Some squares were also marked ‘pregunta’ or ‘question’, where the participants then had to answer a question on human rights, tailored to their age in return for another go and a sweet!

The atmosphere at the fair was infectious, with the level of involvement of both children and adults astounding to us Brits, as well as the positive impact that the vast number of organisations that had turned out were having on the people of La Paz. Disability in Bolivia is slowly coming out of the shadows and into mainstream discussion, however there is still a lot of work to do in order to reach a place where disabled people are able to access all the resources and services they need to live full and free lives.