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"Santiago embodies the Lorraine Matusak award. He does not wait for change. He boldly empowers others to be change agents."
- Susan Sygall, CEO of MIUSA in her presentation of the award to Santiago at the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance Global Summit in December 2018
With a mission to advance leadership and disability rights globally, every day at MIUSA is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Working with more than 2300 alumni from over 135 countries, we put our trust and hopes in the thousands of disabled activists and allies we have been privileged to work with over the past 38 years.
Mobility International USA (MIUSA) es una organización estadounidense sin fines de lucro, cuya misión es empoderar a las personas con discapacidad alrededor del mundo para que alcancen sus derechos humanos mediante intercambios internacionales y desarrollo internacional.
Mobility International USA (MIUSA) is a U.S.-based, non-profit organization whose mission is to empower people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development.
The RightsNow! Consortium and Mexican partner organization, MADIJAL, implemented a successful three-day Seminar on “Access to Justice for People with Disabilities” in Guadalajara during April 2018. U.S. and Mexican disability lawyers worked with local government officials to provide workshops and presentations to 133 participants from government, universities, the legal community, civil associations and disabled people’s organizations. Seminar topics included:
“Women are women. If you serve women, you need to serve all women, and you should always expect to have disabled women and girls. This is non-negotiable.” These words, shared by senior-level MADRE staff by the end of the training, reflected a clear and bold shift in thinking had taken place, especially for an organization where most staff had very limited or no prior experience with disability rights issues.
MIUSA’s in-country partner, Action to the Community Development Center (ACDC), convened 30 leaders with and without disabilities in Hanoi in May/June 2018 for an intensive five-day Training of Trainers (TOT), conducted by a RightsNow! training team of U.S and Vietnamese experts.
Mobility International USA worked with Armenian partner organization, “AGATE Rights Defense Center for Women with Disabilities” to support disability rights advocates and allies to influence the content and passage of the “Law of the Republic of Armenia on the Protection of Rights and Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities” (Disability Law).
Today marks the 28th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and we at MIUSA want to thank and celebrate the many disability activists, allies and organizations who took action to make it possible.
Their dedication and perseverance has enhanced the lives of millions of people with disabilities, both in the United States and globally. Many principles that were the basis for the ADA have been utilized when drafting and implementing disability laws and policies in countries around the world.
We are thrilled to announce the publication of Promoting Inclusion in Education Abroad: A Handbook of Research and Practice, co-published by Stylus Publishing and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The first of its kind in the field of international education, this book offers ways to increase the diversity of U.S. students engaged in international education, including students of color, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities.