2008
PAO Gersten Shares U.S. Experience in Social Rehabilitation of Disabled People
On November 25, PAO Gersten took part in the roundtable discussion dedicated to the problems of Vladivostok’s disabled community. Ms. Raisa Lebedinets, Director of the Vladivostok NGO ‘Center for Independent Life’ —also an alumna of the Community Connections exchange program—organized the roundtable to attract the attention of the local community, as well as the Kray administration to problems facing the community. One of the main issues which the participants raised was the social adaptation of disabled people and their involvement in community life. In her remarks, PAO Gersten provided some facts about disabled people’s rights and activities, drawing from U.S. history, and listed some programs our American diplomatic mission in Russia has successfully conducted in order to improve the quality of life of disabled citizens in Russia. Post distributed Russian language versions of IIP’s 2006 electronic journal “Disability and Ability”.