Minutes of 3rd All NGO Meet

The following are the minutes of the 3rd ALL NGO MEET that was held at , Bajaj Institute, Dehradun on May 15, 2009 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Attendees :
- Tenzin Phuntrok, Ngoenga School
- Air Commander A. K. Khanna, Bajaj Institute
- P.M. Samuel, Sumana Samuel, Sharp Memorial School for the Blind
- Bhavishya Dua, Deepak Pande, Dr. Sebastian Gruschke, Latika Roy

Foundation
- Sharon Dominica, Anugrah Project
- Sudha Atreya, NIOH
- Anupama Thapliyal, Priyo Lall, Raphael
- Saswati Singh, Inspiration India

1. There was an initial round of introductions.

2. It was suggested that the Mayor of Dehradun, Mr. Vinod Chamoli is expected to visit one of our meetings. He would like to share his ideas in this area.

3. It was suggested that we include the government organizations like NIOH, NIVH, NIMH working in the area of the disability and we work together towards a common cause. It was suggested that we do not use the term NGO meet from now on, it can be termed as the forum meet.

4. It was suggested that the group be named as Dehradun Ability Forum. The other suggestion was to name it as per the UN convention guidelines. It was decided to temporarily shelve the naming issue and continue with the other items in the agenda.

5. Blog:A blog http://dehradundisabilityforum.blogspot.com has been created for the Dehradun Disability Forum. It was suggested that LRF send out invites for the blog to all email ids attending the meeting and reevaluate the problems in accessing the blog in the next meeting.

6. Poster : Bajaj Institute gave a sample poster design. It was suggested that we refine it and put it on doctors’ clinics and chemists’ shops. It was suggested that we put a proposal to the government for spreading awareness in other areas of Uttarakhand. IT was suggested that we have two formats .. a poster format for patients and a card for reference by the doctors. Finally it was decided that we will pursue only the poster format initially. LRF to initiate the design of the posters and come up with options.

7. Meeting with IMA : A meeting with the Indian Medical Association was suggested and it was decided to make a small presentation for the IMA.

8. October Mela : It was suggested that we have doctors camps, food stalls, sales stalls and cultural events at the event.

9. Bhagwanpur Mela : LRF was planning a disability camp at Bhagwanpur for distribution of Mental Disability certificates. Raphael suggested that they can help with the evaluation. Baja suggested that they will send a representative with booklets.

10. Employment : It was suggested that we help the government help themselves. We as a group can identify information on what employment can be taken up by whom. We can also share the details of the employment available for PwDs.

11. DDF Fund : It was suggested that all member organizations would give a small contribution towards the fund which can be used for running and other minor expenses of the Forum.

12. RTI Usage : It was suggested that we can use RTI to get information from government offices regarding disability. It was also suggested the way to use RTI can be put up on the DDF blog.

13. Indian Sign Language course : Bajaj informed about starting a 3 month Indian sign language course after 20th May with charges of Rs. 300/- . They also planned to start a course on beauty culture and setup a beauty parlour for training people.

14. Next meeting : It was decided that there will be no Forum meeting in June due to the summer holidays and the next meeting would be at Raphael on July 17th, 2009. Raphael to send out the time details with the agenda later.