Peace Corps Bangladesh: Model for Inclusion

Tina L. Singleton, International Disability & Development Consultant

MDG # 8:  Develop a global partnership for development

The Peace Corps, with its role in training the next generation of community development workers, has a responsibility to be inclusive of all people in its programs and services.  Tina Singleton, a former Peace Corps volunteer, gives a step-by-step account of how Peace Corps Bangladesh made its program more inclusive.

The first group of Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Bangladesh in 1998 to focus on teaching English language skills to Bangladeshi teachers. Since then, Peace Corps Bangladesh has focused on two project areas: youth development and education. Youth Development Volunteers work in government youth development centers; Education volunteers teach English to the community. Peace Corps Bangladesh recognized the need for people with disabilities to be better served in projects and activities, and decided to assess their projects through a disability lens. They wanted to examine disability inclusion from programming, training and administrative perspectives, and how to most effectively include people with disabilities into Peace Corps Bangladesh’s country projects.

Programming

First, the Youth and Community Development and Teaching English as a Foreign Language projects were examined to identify strategies for making them inclusive. Recognizing that each Volunteer’s community is different and strategies for inclusion will be based on the particular reality of each, one of the objectives of the assessment was to identify local issues and refer Volunteers to disability-related resources to use in their respective communities.

• A short questionnaire was sent to Volunteers to determine what types of disability related activities they were already involved in at their sites. Three Volunteers served as Rapporteurs at the Regional Symposium on Disability, held in Dhaka from December 9-11, 2003, while others were teaching English to disability NGOs and providing computer support.
• Disability-related questions were added to the Volunteer quarterly report forms to obtain data on participation of people with disabilities in Volunteer activities and to identify disability-related activities that Volunteers are conducting.
• Disability-related resources from local and international disability NGOs were collected for the Volunteer resource center/lounge. Volunteers were also provided with a reference sheet about including people with disabilities in projects and activities.
• An inclusion statement was added to Volunteer Assignment Descriptions (VAD). The statement reads, “Peace Corps Bangladesh is committed to the inclusion of all members of the community in development and promotes the inclusion of vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, women, the elderly, young children, etc. in Volunteer projects and activities.”

During this assessment, Peace Corps Bangladesh was in the process of developing a new Environmental Health Project. Disability inclusive language was infused during the planning phase of this project:

• An inclusion statement was added to the Project Purpose/Vision of the project.
• Disability-related project goals were written into the Environmental Health Project goals of the Environmental Health Project Concept Paper and Ministry Environmental Health Project Proposal.
• Disability-related training components were added to the “Priority training needs for incoming Volunteers” section of the Environmental Health Project Concept Paper and Proposal.
• A local disabled people’s organization that is conducting activities in the area of accessible water supply and sanitation and use by people with physical disabilities was identified. Meetings were held with the director of this project and project sites earmarked for inclusion as site visits for the Volunteer Pre-Service training program. This NGO will also provide materials and facilitate training sessions.

Training

Training is a key component of the Peace Corps program. Trainings are conducted throughout Volunteers’ service, including pre-service and mid-service trainings, and specialized in-service workshops.  Trainings were effective opportunities to get Volunteers thinking about inclusion of people with disabilities before they begin work in their communities.

• In 2003, the Centre on Disability and Development conducted a disability awareness session for new Volunteers during pre-service training. This local NGO provides training and technical assistance to local non-disabled development NGOs on inclusive development. As part of their training, Volunteers received contact information for development NGOs working at or near their sites who had been trained by the Center.
• Local disabled peoples’ organizations and other local organizations have been identified to conduct sessions on disability awareness and inclusion at Volunteer trainings and in-service workshops.
• Future in-service training sites were evaluated for physical accessibility.

Administration

Peace Corps office staff provides invaluable administrative, program and training support to Volunteers; therefore, commitment to inclusion by administration staff was crucial to the agency’s efforts to create inclusive projects.

• Administrative and program staff participated in disability awareness training conducted by local disabled peoples’ organizations.
• Peace Corps Bangladesh has included physical accessibility considerations on its “wish list” for the new office space.

While many Peace Corps Volunteers around the world are involved in activities that either focus on or target people with disabilities, the efforts of Peace Corps Bangladesh provides an example for Peace Corps in other countries as to how to incorporate disability issues into the agency’s country projects and training programs. Local community resources, organizations of people with disabilities and other organizations working for or with people with disabilities groups provide valuable disability expertise that Peace Corps Volunteers and staff may not have. Through partnerships with local disability organizations and groups, both the country programs and community development efforts of Peace Corps Volunteers will be more inclusive of everyone in the communities in which they work.

Contact:

Peace Corps Banglades
House No. 57 Isakhan Avenue Sector 6,
Uttara Dhaka-1230. Bangladesh 
Tel: (880) (2) 891 8435-8
Fax: (880) (2) 891 1017
Web: www.peacecorps.gov

Tina Singleton
International Development and Disability Consultant 
Email: tsconsultant@aol.com