The National Confederation of the Disabled of Peru, is the organization resulting from the transformation of the National Federation of Disabled Persons of Peru (FENADIP), a pioneering institution in the defense of the rights of people with disabilities in Latin America.
the-reason-of-memory.The National Federation of Disabled Persons of Peru was created in the First Peruvian Congress for the Rights of the Disabled, held in Huampaní, Lima, from March 23 to 28, 1981.
FENADIP conquers the first demands, already of a normative nature in aspects of rehabilitation, education, employment, business promotion and accessibility, among others; already of a political nature with the establishment of agencies and public policies to assist the population with disabilities.
FENADIP is the first representative organization of people with disabilities in Peru, and for this reason it is recognized in Law 24067 as a member of the National Council for the Integration of the Disabled - CONAII.
In the nineties, during the government of Ing. Alberto Fujimori, the constitutional and legislative framework that recognized the rights of people with disabilities was repealed.
After a tough struggle to regain rights, in April 1999, FENADIP was transformed, based on five Departmental Federations, into the National Confederation of the Disabled of Peru - CONFENADIP.
Currently, CONFENADIP is registered in Public Registries - Electronic Part No. 11160305, of the Lima Association Registry. It is made up of the National Federation of Women with Disabilities of Peru, 17 Regional Federations and 160 Associations from different areas of disability and from various parts of the country.
CONFENADIP is Affiliated to the World Organization of Persons with Disabilities, DISABLED PEOPLES 'INTERNATIONAL.
In 2001, CONFENADIP founded, together with important national organizations from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Ibero-American Network of Entities of People with Physical Disabilities - LA RED.
PRESENTATION
The National Confederation of the Disabled of Peru - CONFENADIP begins a journey through the history of people with disabilities, thus identifying the most vulnerable human group on the planet; that is, to the group most affected by extreme poverty and social exclusion; However, despite this situation, it has managed to deliver illustrious figures from science, literature, art, philosophy, politics, education and culture to our civilization; Thus, we will also discover the process of how this large sector has had a transcendent influence to reach today the threshold that will define our full social inclusion to the extent that we participate in politics, economics, technology, information and the knowledge in a context of development-generating globalization and contradictorily,of enormous inequalities, hence the reason for our memory serves to recover the valuable contribution of our predecessors, also finding our own symbols, icons and images that will undoubtedly build the inexorable course of giving people with disabilities a real situation of inclusion and development.
Today, we are witnessing great changes in the state, society and the family in their relationship with people with disabilities; the same ones that we have made significant progress in the enactment of laws that; However, they are not fulfilled, we have also conquered wide spaces on the subject of human rights from diversity, having as a corollary the achievement of a United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In the field of public services we will still fight tough battles with the rulers and all kinds of authorities, so a retrospective look at the contribution of people with disabilities gives us the greatest strength based on the transforming experience of subhuman conditions in those who have lived and still continue to live our collective.
The Reason for Our Memory is more than an account of glorious events, the fair and emotional recognition of the sacrifice of men and women with disabilities who knew how to rise to the challenges and circumstances; For this reason, it identifies the man of every place, of every latitude, of every ethnic group and country, particularly those of us who humbly assume our great responsibilities that time is sometimes in charge of making them historical and that can be controversial at the time but in the middle Of the understandable contradictions, it is the results that count.
I have referred to the genesis of CONFENADIP and for this reason, when making the presentation I have had to return to the original sources that will sustain the indestructible pillars of our great movement of people with disabilities in the future.
Julio Wilfredo Guzmán Jara. President.
Latin American Region of the World Organization of Persons with Disabilities - RLOMPD National Confederation of Disabled Peru - CONFENADIP
1. The reason for memory
There always comes a moment, in the maturation process of individuals, collectives and peoples, in which the need to look back at the traces left, to meet again, to locate oneself in space and time, in their kronos and kairos, from outlining their paths, the National Confederation of the Disabled of Peru - CONFENADIP could not be alien to that mandate of conscience.
However; In this commitment, we cannot limit ourselves to the mere institutional sphere, we need to give an account of the context, of the reading of the time, of the efforts and of the direction taken, of part witness.
Seen this way, the subject of our history, who are we ?, will be an initial theme that for some does not fully convince, and perhaps the time for the definitive answer has not yet come; however, being a pending task, we must recognize a collective identity under construction, becoming dialectical.
In any case, it is part of the process of humanity as a whole, of discovering itself, refreshing the memory from the earliest times, from the always referred quotation to the Lacedemics, the Greeks of ancient Sparta and their practice of radical exclusion from the people with some kind of disability; of Christianity that brings us the good news of love, of the gift of life and the equality of the children of God, of disability as a means of revealing divine power, and on each page of the gospel the miracle, blind people who see again, the paralyzed who walk, the dead who rise; respect for the person, Christ and the disciple who ask, do you want to see? or with the answer to the old social question “neither they nor their parents sinned…”
Of Greeks and Jews we are also made, it is the civilization that advances… And in our land, like the peoples of the first hours, from the elimination due to disability to that great social organization of the Incas, their sense of foresight and protection for the most vulnerable social groups, with an inclusive culture, which recognized a productive role for people with disabilities, they are the blind shelling corn…
However, the need for survival of ancient peoples, who recognize in the strength and function of the warriors a central role, are establishing the criteria of value for their members, and then, in the construction of social relations is outlined the origin of the disability, and the figure of the "invalid" will emerge, one who cannot go to war or to the harsh tasks of the field…
That will be the social perception that will mark us throughout history, and although we will also have the emblematic presence of extraordinary men and women - the mythical Homer, Milton, Beethoven, our beloved Mariátegui, Borges and Frida -, it will not be until the other revolution, that of science and technology in recent times, modifies the valuation of social functions, and it is no longer force but knowledge, in which the conditions will be given to rethink whether we should continue talking about invalids…
It is in the last century that we began the transition process, in that brief century as Habermas would like to call, we will have some paradigms for the social function of disability, perhaps those who best represent it are Hellen Keller and Nikolai Ostrovski… How could it be from In another way, responding to ideological discourses of the Cold War, for some it is a matter of valuing the will power and the capacity for self-improvement of the individual; for others, to value sacrifice and fortitude for the sake of the new society.
But it will be the world forums that will give resonance to the Kantian echo on the dignity of the person and perpetual peace, the new generations of human rights, and with it the conditions to begin to debate on disability…
The long period of welfare will be called into question, we will begin to speak of readaptation, then rehabilitation until in the world, under the influence of the events of the sixties, "cradle of profound social transformations" as Pedro Cruz Botti points out, the demands of marginalized social groups will begin to emerge with force, including ours…
In Peru, in the sixties we already had three important associations of people with disabilities: the National Union of the Blind of Peru, the Peruvian Association of the Deaf and the Christian Fraternity of the Sick… But in the seventies it will be the explosion, some have called it “The years of the honeymoon”, it was because of the joy of many that they began to leave their homes for the first time; It will be spoken in terms of physical, sensory and / or mental limitations; joy accompanied by enthusiasm - we could do everything, we believed - will be thought of organizing workshops and building training and production centers; Numerous organizations will emerge, most of them ephemeral, and yet they left their mark…
This stage, which in our opinion begins with the consolidation of the three most relevant organizations of people with disabilities, the conquest of the first Latin American constitution that recognizes our rights, which has as an important event the massive demonstration on Thursday, October 16, 1980, could conclude in the founding Congress of the National Federation of the Disabled of Peru - FENADIP, in March 1981.
In that period, it was clear the need for a general framework that protects the rights of people with disabilities, but there was a lack of a discourse that transcends the legislative proposal, so that the aspirations from the perspective of health were assumed as the north. That is why comprehensive rehabilitation ended up becoming our great goal of struggle.
With the National Federation of Disabled Persons of Peru (FENADIP), in the eighties, a new stage would come, marked since its inception by the international influence of the United Nations. At the global level, faced with the hegemonic desire of rehabilitation experts, important leaders of the group in developed countries began to demand the right to speak with their own voice, thus the World Organization of Persons with Disabilities emerged, and with it a new north…
We lived those years of the eighties demanding our rights, FENADIP achieving extensive legislation in various matters… but we only achieved that, the formal recognition of rights and a state incapable of fulfilling and enforcing rights. The diligent reader may notice, for example, the process of the National Council for the Integration of the Disabled (CONAII), of bureaucratic dilation, of how the years pass between the promulgation of a law, its regulation, the swearing in, its installation, the organization, the preparation of its action plan, the allocation of its meager budget and finally its institutional deactivation…
The lesson of the eighties was that laws are not enough, that resources are needed and above all, that political will is needed to address the situation of our excluded population.
Unfortunately, when we believed we had made progress in legislative terms, the dictator's imprint came who closed the congress, canceled the constitution of 1979 and annulled our rights. Fujimori and his health minister, during the debate on the 1993 constitution, tried to avoid the responsibility of the State towards our collective, they affirmed that disability was a matter for the families and not for the state, so FENADIP had to return to the streets, to defend the rights won.
Certainly it was not a mere whim of the ruler, but the application of a new economic model, and of course people with disabilities do not inhabit an island and are part of a society, a model where the State retreats to a secondary role accepting market forces as a social computer.
That is why we are entering a new stage, in which the interpretation of our social problems cannot be detached from society as a whole, and where the issue of power that guarantees the exercise of the right is central; where knowledge becomes an instrument of liberation; and the role of the economy has a response to disability.
In this perspective, inclusion is not enough. We feel that the reason for our struggle cannot be exhausted in simple passive integration into a society marked by inequalities and injustices. We are convinced that our task has to do with the evolution of humanity itself, from the specificity of our collective identity and the real contribution in the construction of that new type of society that provides a dignified life for everyone.
We understand that the mission of our time is for the effective integration into the social, economic and political life of the country, but also for the change of real life conditions and mentalities, free from complexes and prejudices; hence the frontal fight against discrimination and the relations of domination that sustain it, the concepts of normality and the power structures that establish it.
In short, beyond inclusion, emancipation and liberation in the various spheres. An integrated struggle alongside other groups, which being social, cultural, economic and political, is above all human, that is the proposal of CONFENADIP.
Therefore, in the following lines, without being deterministic, we want to record the north that we discover at each time and note the path traveled, trying not to lose track of the efforts made and the steps taken, this is the reason for our memory.
SO MANY NAMES SO MANY
We have always been, from the seventh day to the rest of God, on valleys, meadows and tombs on cultures and customs.
Here we are from the potter's clay against time and against the clock, so we are late.
We come from the umbilical cord that we have not broken in order to return. And congenitally we remain and due to polio or glaucoma, it is us, the others.
We have always been here and no one has noticed.
We have come from the Canadian cane to fall and get up on the way back.
We have come from the crutch to trip over the architectural barriers made to our measure.
We have come from the wheelchair to climb the ramp of life, This slow life
We have come from the glasses of the blind, to see better what is not turned off.
We have come from the hearing aid to hear other people's voices, sad and also happy voices, voices that respond to the growl AND to our hands that speak for us.
And we are cuddles and we are the moan of the dumb man.
And we've screamed seventy-seven times seven. Article 7, Constitution of the State.
And we have marched at four echoes, feet after the staff
General Law 27050, there is no work and we have continued marching.
October 16 "NATIONAL DAY OF THE DISABLED"
To continue marching
And here we are again to be baptized: In the name of the invalid, in the name of the Exceptional, in the name of the disabled, in the name of the disabled, in the name of the disabled.
SO MANY NAMES, SO MANY TO BE ANONYMOUS.
SO MANY NAMES, SO MANY TO BE DISCRIMINATED. SO MANY NAMES, SO MANY FOR THREE MILLION PEOPLE AND SO MANY NAMES, SO MANY TO SAY:
HERE WE ARE AND HERE WE STAY, TO CONTINUE FIGHTING.
Manuel Inga Samaniego Advisor to CONFENADIP
Download the original file
