New horizons for Cambodians with disabilities Prime Minister opens seminar

Seminar seeks to fuse the efforts of 15 different ministries into a coherent approach that will give Cambodians wirh disabilities a chance to generate an income for themselves and their families.

Press release | PHNOM PENH | 01 October 1999

Phnom Penh (ILO News) -- Calling for greater efforts to help disabled Cambodians make a living and better their lives, H.E. Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia inaugurated a seminar at Phnom Penh’s Inter-Continental Hotel this morning on “Opening New Horizons for Cambodians with Disabilities”. The three-day seminar, from 4-6 October, seeks to fuse the efforts of 15 different ministries into a coherent approach that will give disabled people a chance to generate an income for themselves and their families and contribute to the economic development of Cambodia. Representatives from those ministries, the National Commission for Demobilization and Reintegration, employer’ and worker’ organizations, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and donor agencies will all be taking part in the meeting, which was organized jointly by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSALVY), the Disability Action Council (DAC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of developing policies and providing services to promote the integration of disabled people in society. “Given the right circumstances, disabled people can be very productive”, he pointed out. “What it takes is proper training and an occupation suited to their abilities and work capacity.”

He called for wider vocational training for disabled people through the opening up of training centres. He said that rural development programmes – from road construction to employment and small enterprise promotion – had to take account of the needs of disabled people. They needed improved educational opportunities and access to health services too.

Mr Hun Sen cited disability prevention measures that included the ongoing Cambodian Land Mine Clearance Campaign, a road safety campaign to bring down the number of people seriously injured in road accidents and greater efforts to check diseases like polio, which was on the increase.

The Prime Minister said that that each Ministry had a part to play in getting disabled people to participate fully in Cambodian society. He called on them to examine their policies and programmes to ensure that they took into account the specific needs of disabled people. He expected the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Health to set an example that other ministries could follow.

Ms Mitsuko Horiuchi, ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, said that disabilities were an occupational disadvantage that could and should be overcome at national level through policy measures, regulations, programmes and services.

The ILO, she noted, had been helping disabled Cambodians through its “Vocational Training for the Alleviation of Poverty” programme and had set up a “Disability Resource Team” with financial support from the government of Japan. Both projects integrate disabled people in mainstream training courses. She promised that the ILO would continue to support efforts by the Government to make disabled citizens into productive workers.

Also speaking at the opening session were Mr Ith Sam Heng, Minister of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation, Mr Yi Veasna, Executive Director of the National Centre for Disabled Persons and Mr Son Song Hak, Director of the Disabled Peoples’ Organization of Cambodia.

The organizers plan specific follow-up measures, to be coordinated by the DAC, to ensure that the ideas and proposals formulated during the seminar actually broaden job opportunities for Cambodia’s disabled.