ASP appointed member of APCD Empowerment Café

The ASP will be an official "barista" of the E-Café of Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) based in Bangkok, Thailand, effective August 1, 2012. The team was appointed on July 12, 2012 at the APCD-JICA Consultation-Workshop.

APCD People

The APCD Empowerment Café or E-Cafe is a platform that promotes information dissemination and knowledge exchange on disability and development in Asia and the Pacific from the perspective of the sub-regions Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Pacific and East Asia.

There are currently seven baristas, Ms. Lyazzat of Kazakstan, Mr. Rahim of Malaysia, Ms. Natagamon of APCD, Ms. Yoshimi of APCD, Mr. Akram, Mr. Atif and Mr. Ghulam (Chief Barista) of Pakistan. Baristas are persons in charge of writing and gathering news and information to be posted in the E-Café.

With its re-launching, the E-Café will be reformatted to include autism and other intellectual disabilities. The group appointed Executive Director Ranil Sorongon of Autism Society Philippines and Ms. Phacharin of the Group of Persons with Intellectual Disability in the Mekong Region as new baristas. The two emerging disability sub-groups are perceived to be under represented in the empowerment movement.

The platform will be the launch pad for promoting the 3rd Asia-Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities from 2013 to 2022. Existing sections like the Barista Pick up, the Latest News, the Popular Contents, the E-Café TV, E-Café Poll will be joined by the new E-Café Photo Gallery, and supplemented by social media like Facebook and Twitter.

With the re-launching of the E-Café, we are hopeful that it will engage stakeholders in the region in meaningful interactions that benefit persons with disabilities in Asia-Pacific. Let our voices be heard!

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