A job-coaching service will be provided for disabled people at MCC Hall on September 21, according to Shwe Minn Thar Foundation.
Published on Thursday, 18 September 2014 19:06
A job-coaching service will be provided for disabled people at MCC Hall on September 21, according to Shwe Minn Thar Foundation.
Local disabled organisations and over 400 disabled people will attend the event, which will be the first of its kind in Myanmar. International organistions have also been invited to attend the event.
“Just talking about creating employment opportunities is not enough. We need to let them know what to do. The aim of this event is to make it easier for disabled people to apply for jobs,” said Myat Thu Win, founder of Shwe Minn Thar Foundation.
According to statistics collected in 2009, 1.3 million people are living with disabilities in Myanmar and 80 per cent of them are unemployed. The survey found that 62 per cent were landless and 52 per cent lacked formal education. Myanmar was the first among Asean countries to draft legislation to assist disabled people. It passed the Law on Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities in 1958.
Myanmar held a seminar with entrepreneurs from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand on creating employment for disabled people earlier this year. Another seminar with local entrepreneurs on the same topic was also held in Yangon in July.
The Myanmar National Disability Conference was held at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon from June 10 to 12, where representatives discussed education, human rights and social affairs. A national-level disabilities council was also formed with 21 members, following the conference.
A forum hosted by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in July was told that about 85 per cent of people living with disabilities in Myanmar are unemployed, though new legislation may provide incentives to the private sector to provide them with jobs.
Myanmar signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on December 7, 2011, but has yet to pass new legislation protecting their rights. A bill drafted in 2012 has yet to pass Parliament. It is intended to update the legislation passed in 1958, which was considered progressive at the time though critics say it was not implemented. People with disabilities want the right to employment to be enshrined in the legislation.
A World Health Organisation report titled “Disability in the Southeast Asia Region, 2013”, in 2009, said that the number of people with disabilities in Myanmar is 2.4 per cent of population. Mobility disability is the top impairment, followed by visual impairment, speech and hearing, and intellectual disability.