I did a 3-year fellowship with Partners of the Americas (Partners) to design and conduct a project, which I titled "Encouraging Independence." The goal was to train volunteers to help people with disabilities in Brasilia, Brazil – a culture where volunteerism, especially as it relates to people with disabilities, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Conducting any training in a country not one's own can be daunting. I speak Portuguese, the language of Brazil, and therefore conducted my workshop in Portuguese. Planning the workshop required two trips to Brazil, a country that I love and had always wanted to work in. To plan the workshop, I identified country counterparts (from inside and outside the Partners organization) who were interested in and knowledgeable about issues that pertain to people with disabilities.

I studied the culture and language of Brazil long before I visited and I would suggest to all travelers that they do the same. It is also important that people with disabilities or those working in the field of disability learn about the culture and customs related to disability in that country. Correspondence with residents with and without disabilities can be very useful.

I also tested my workshop ideas to see if they would hold up culturally. Would what I was saying about disability work for that country? Even people who think they know a country well should not bypass this step without first ensuring that their ideas and techniques are culturally appropriate and acceptable.

Other preparations involved my dog guide, Quadrant, whom I love and knew would play a very important role in the workshop. Bringing a dog guide to Brazil offered an interesting set of potential difficulties, which I overcame by making advance arrangements and working with my Brazilian counterparts. I had to arrange permissions with the airline and the organizations where we would research and train. People are generally willing to grant these permissions, but they can take time, especially when individuals may not be accustomed to working with animals, even trained ones. I found it useful to plan how to describe what Quadrant does for me and to have the name of a veterinarian in case of need. A number of newspaper articles in Brazil resulted from Encouraging Independence, including a wonderful article on Quadrant, as he was the first dog guide ever to visit Brasilia.

Encouraging Independence was a two-day workshop that instructed 25 volunteers from eight Brazilian private and public sector organizations; it was the first such workshop conducted in Brasilia. One third of the volunteers who were trained were people with disabilities. In fact, it was critically important, not just to me, but to the Brazilian counterparts with whom I planned the workshop, that one of our most essential messages be that people with disabilities could and should play an integral role in a volunteer program. After completing the workshop, participants were all encouraged to use the workshop materials to train other volunteers.

The workshop covered such topics as "Why volunteer?" Volunteers were asked to assess their motivation to volunteer, how much time could comfortably be given and what their main volunteer interests were. Other workshop topics included: helping in the home, with shopping, or with recreational activities; and defining and recognizing a disability. Our emphasis was on physical disabilities. A subsequent workshop was planned to address issues related to people with mental disabilities.

Eight major projects emerged from the workshop, including an initiative to examine the Brazilian laws pertaining to people with disabilities to find ways they could incorporate disability laws similar to those in the United States and elsewhere. A volunteer committee was also formed to recruit university students as readers for blind and visually impaired job seekers. Another group of volunteers addressed shopping and home needs and still others proposed ways to caption television news and public affairs programs for people who are Deaf and hearing impaired.

The result of Encouraging Independence and other related Partners activities was the development of a volunteer training center, Volontarios Candangos, which has trained more than 300 volunteers to provide assistance to children and adults with disabilities. This center is also serving as a model for developing volunteer training centers in other cities in Brazil and in a number of other Latin American countries.

Encouraging Independence is still part of the volunteer training program in Volontarios Candangos. I did not want it to be a one-time training opportunity; rather, I prepared it as a written, living document that is the property of the independent living center to use as needed.

At Partners’ annual international convention in Washington, DC, Encouraging Independence was selected as one of two projects to receive the National Program Development of the Year Award, a respected Partners award that was shared by the members of the DC partnership. Conducting my Partners project was indeed a significant opportunity for me. My colleagues and I hope that the project has made a major contribution to the well being of people with disabilities in Brazil, the largest and most populous country in Latin America.

Partners of the Americas is a private, voluntary inter-American organization that works to improve the quality of life in the Americas and the Caribbean by linking U.S. states with partner countries. The partnerships are run by local communities of volunteers who plan and carry out a variety of technical assistance and cultural exchange activities in the fields of agriculture, community education, rehabilitation, preventive health programs, the arts, disaster relief and women in development. Partners of the Americas is a member of the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange’s Roundtable Consortium.

1424 K Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 628-3300
Fax: (202) 628-3306
Email: tlc@partners.poa.com
Web: www.partners.net