Seeking to support the people with disabilities and to integrate them into the Lebanese society and economy via procuring the environment which meets their needs and capabilities in the job market, the Human Rights Centre at Beirut Arab University, together with the CRS Association and in cooperation with EDAN and Arcanciel, organized an awareness raising day concerning the people with disabilities in Lebanon.
On that day, students from the Faculty of Architectural Engineering presented an integrated engineering project for the development of the Hariri Building at BAU to meet all the needs of disabled people.
Students from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences clarified the rights which the disabled enjoy according to Article (220) of the Lebanese Law which stipulates the necessity of procuring an environment suitable for the disabled to carry out their everyday life activities.
The Centre for Entrepreneurship at BAU participated in presenting the ways the disabled can execute the projects that meet their physical capabilities and how to raise the funds necessary for these projects.
Students from the Faculty of Arts elucidated the codes of conduct and behavior necessary to deal with disabled.
During the day, a dialogue was held in which Dr. Omar Houri gave a talk and some short movies were shown, shedding light on the obstacles that the disabled face in both the society and the job market. Moreover, some testimonies and speeches were presented by some disabled people calling for the rectification of some offensive expressions and abusive behaviors towards the disabled.
Mr. Fadi Al Halabi, the known activist and media figure, summarized the challenges that the disabled face, stating that there are 100,000 disabled people in Lebanon, 80% of whom suffer from unemployment and 60% from illiteracy. Ms. Fadia Farah, Head of the Lebanese Association for Self Advocacy, attributed the injustice of the job market towards the disabled to the absence of experience in setting and observing the laws concerned with the disabled.
In his turn, Mr. Ibrahim Abdallah, Head of the Disabled Union in Lebanon, criticized the governments inefficiency as related to the issue of the disabled, and accredited the achievements to the efforts exerted by the concerned associations actively involved in the field.
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