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Volunteer Sees Disunity Hampering Mongolia's Disabled

Written by William Kennedy
Thursday, March 12, 2009.
Many obstacles stand between disabled people and a comfortable life in Mongolia, but one of the biggest may be a lack of cooperation between the various groups representing them. Recently, the aid organization Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) arranged a meeting of several Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) in Ulaanbaatar’s Puma Hotel, with the express purpose of promoting exchange and collaboration. It’s a necessary step for groups of marginalized people hoping to advance their causes, according to Nickson Kakiri, a VSO volunteer working with Mongolia’s Federation of the Deaf as a Mainstreaming Disability Adviser. “Organizations or individuals, if they don’t speak as a group, they’re not strong, “he said. “If they don’t involve other groups, they’re not as trusted.” Born in Kenya and deaf himself, Kakiri studied in the United States and has worked in Mongolia for over a year. He speaks to members of Mongolia’s disabled community through a sign-language interpreter, and while he can get his message across, the different languages (sign language for the deaf, brail for the blind, Mongolian for others, etc.), as well as the varied experiences of Mongolians with different disabilities, can create misunderstandings, dissimilar priorities, and even divisions for the groups. And it’s not just communication, but access to information that poses a challenge for this would-be community, Nickson says. Many blind and wheelchair- bound Mongolians are confined to their homes, often unable to access books, the internet, and public transportation. In these circumstances, it’s easy to find oneself out of society’s loop: unable to receive a quality education, and unaware of one’s rights. President of the Mongolian National Federation of Disabled Peoples Organization (MNFDPO) Ts. Oyunbataar agrees that access, physical, educational and technological, causes real problems for disabled Mongolians. His organization is one of over a dozen that serve and represent Mongolia’s estimated 115,000 disabled people, and as the title suggests, it is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of DPOs, while bringing people with disabilities together. Despite these noble and ambitious aims, Kakiri, who in the Ulaanbaatar planning to work with the MNFDPO, notes that the organization’s efforts are hampered because it has had trouble settling its own affairs. “I found out there was a leadership problem in the organization and some financial management and other management problems— would they elect a president? Will they have a vote to change a president? That kind of policy was not clear” Kakiri stated. “[Moreover], many organizations spoke with me, and said they didn’t have a voice in that federation.” Many acknowledge that internal and external problems, as well as charges of corruption and inefficiency have proven detrimental to some Mongolian DPOs, damaging the credibility of the organizations as a group, and harming their prospects of collaborating, as well as advancing the causes for which they fight. While a few associations have sterling reputations, Kakiri added, particularly the Mongolian Federation for the Blind, they sometimes hesitate to link themselves to groups with past or ongoing problems. Both the Federation for the Blind and the Mongolian National Federation of Disabled Peoples Organization were in attendance at last week’s VSO meeting, and that may be a good step toward creating an untied front. Ultimately, the goal is to give DPOs a strong voice and to ensure Mongolia’s government complies with the UN Charter on disabilities it passed late last year. Oyunbaatar said that disabled activism has created some political backlash, which has made life more complicated, but to successfully achieve its objectives, disabled groups will likely have to put aside their own differences before they can take on other opponents. “Each DPO is dissimilar, and that creates problems for cooperation,” Kakiri said. “[But], if a person has the right leadership skills, they can bring disabled people together.” Mongolia is still looking for that leader, but those belonging to and working for DPOs hope that meetings like this recent roundtable can help one emerge.