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WHO REPRESENTS DISABLED PEOPLE? DAN CALLS TIME ON CHARITIES PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY OCTOBER 27TH 8.30AM ALEXANDRA SUITE ROYAL NATIONAL HOTEL BEDFORD WAY LONDON WC1. HODG. Disabled people are embarking on three days of protest against the largest charities in Britain on OCT 27 / 28 / 29 October in London. DAN will be asking the largest Charities to cease their operations and let disabled people control their own destiny. DAN would like to stress that it will deploy tactics of NON VIOLENT civil disobedience and street theatre to "Dish out the Dirt" on these institutions. "These charities are not run by us and not controlled by us yet they claim to speak for us" says a DAN spokesperson. DAN's message to them is to move over and let disabled people talk and advocate to the government directly for the rights that disabled people need. "We say to them that despite the messages you put out about disabled people being powerless and needing your help we are powerful and its time for you to go." The DAN spokesman says "Charities have become the major stumbling block to disabled people's freedom running many of the institutions that segregate us from mainstream society." Whilst local and national disabled led organisations struggle to make ends meet national charities often pay executives £100,000 a year plus. Disability Rights campaigners are also concerned that when it comes to talking to government the charities are often willing to sell out disabled people. Disabled People and their organisations should be talking to government not the un elected unaccountable charities who have a vested interest in denying our freedom. For a full press briefing pack please call 0121 247 4424 Or email freeourpeople@blueyonder.co.uk CALL XXXXXXXXXXXXXX mobile on the days. 10 reasons why charities have to go
10 things you should ask charities.
Its Saturday Night and my friends are going to the disco. I want to go but I can't. My mom won't let me. My dad won't let me. My carer won't let me. I am 46 years old. And I can't go to the disco. Its Saturday Night and I want to go to the disco. I want to go but I can't. My mom has kept my benefits. My dad won't phone a taxi My carer doesn't care. I am 46 years old. And I can't go to the disco. Its still Saturday Night and no one wants me to go to the disco I want to go but I can't. My mom has bought off Mencap My dad's paid off the government My carer won't consent I am 46 years old And I can't go to the disco. Its like this...... every Saturday of every week in every town in Britain for people with learning disabilities. All we want to do is go to the disco, be with their friends, have a drink and maybe if they get lucky have a snog. Why is it too much to ask?Why won't Mom, Dad and the carer make it happen? Why are they allowed to get away with keeping me, locked up at home while they go out, keeping my money and spending it whilst they go out, spending my money on the taxi that takes them out. Why do I have to live like this? What does it have to do with Mencap and the Government? Mencap was set up to work with carers and people with learning disabilities. Mencap show they prefer to work with carers, listen to carers and act for carers first and people with learning disabilities second. Mencap don't think we can speak for ourselves. One of Mencap's chief executives thought we couldn't organise ourselves because animals couldn't organise themselves and because children couldn't organise themselves. I am 46 years old. You can see what Mencap thinks of me. What's it go to do with the government? Mencap are telling the government that the mental incapacity bill will be good for people with learning disabilities. That it's ok for my mom and dad and carer to speak for me, to act in my best interest, to make decisions for me even if it is a decision I don't agree with, even though everyone knows these same people have abused me all my life. Stole my life and stole my money. Stopped me from going to the disco on a Saturday night. Stopped me from being with my friends or having a drink. Its time to get wise. You know what's true. You've seen it in the papers. You've seen it on the tele. People with learning disabilities get a bad deal. We get a bad deal at home, in care homes, off rich organisations and their overpaid workers who are paid too much to tell people what we should have but what we don't want. Its time to get real. We want to be free. We want a real choice of where to live, who we live with, what relationships we choose, where to work, where to have fun. You can't keep us locked up like this forever. You can't let the government make the wrong decision because they listened to Mencap and not to me and people like me. Send this to your MP to show you are concerned about what Mencap says about me and what has always happened to me. THEY STEAL OUR VOICE; THEY STEAL OUR CASH; THEY LOCK US AWAY. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People is basically a million-pound charity that is strangely unpopular with the very people it claims to serve. For example, the Government recently recognised British Sign Language (BSL) as a language in its own right. The RNID showed very little interest in the 5-year BSL recognition campaign, which was led by community based BSL users, until BSL was finally recognised and the Government put up £1 million for bidding. Suddenly, they were 'experts', despite being led by hearing people who can't sign! The RNID with their wealth of resources are actively bidding against the deaf campaigners and their organisations for the government's money despite being asked not to. We want rights, not charity. We don't want to see 'Deaf Pounds' going straight into the pockets of the RNID's fat cats. If they couldn't support the campaign why should they get the cash? This is typical of how these charities operate. BUT QUICK TO TAKE RESOURCES AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE. Their Chief Executive is hearing which sends a clear message to Deaf People and the wider world that they (deaf people) are not capable of running their organisation. Deaf people say that they are ready and willing to take over the organisation and work with the disability movement for concrete change. If they seriously want to advise the government on employing deaf people they could start with themselves. The RNID is the main culprit for keeping Deaf people locked in 'care homes' that they have set up all over the UK. Until the RNID is GOT RID OF deaf people will not have the chance of full inclusion into our society. Despite all this the RNID is still whispering in the ear of government and is recognised by this government as a leading advisor. not the RNID We call on the RNID to get our of out lives. BLIND PEOPLE CAN'T EVEN BEG THEY NEED A DOG TO DO IT FOR THEM Despite demands from disabled people, the RNIB continues to raise money by using patronising and negative imagery and language about visually impaired people. PRICING FREEDOM OUT OF THE MARKET Rather than demand that private businesses and public bodies make their information accessible to disabled people as is required by the Disability Discrimination Act it has developed a monopoly on essential equipment for Blind people and then charges some of the poorest members of our society extortionate prices. All this is done with money that the public donates and with the full blessing of this government. These so called services include: Provision of long canes, brailing and transcription devices. By doing this the RNIB is falsely inflating the price of making information accessible and limiting the availability of such information. STILL LOCKING US AWAY Hypocritically, the RNIB claims to be in favour of inclusive education whereby disabled children and young people learn alongside their non-disabled peers. In fact, the RNIB runs many segregated schools, colleges and other residential institutions, again at a fat profit falsely claiming that disabled people need to go to such places! RNIB SAYS BLIND PEOPLE ARE UNEMPLOYABLE According to its own figures, 92% of RNIB staff are not disabled people. None of its senior managers are disabled people either. Although it claims that a majority of its Executive Council are disabled people, almost all of those on this unpaid body are hand picked and appointed by the non-disabled people paid to run the RNIB. Is this democratic accountability to disabled people? NO. DIVIDE AND MISRULE Despite all the above the RNIB employs full time lobbyists to talk to the government. These lobbyists are unelected and unaccountable and by working in isolation play nicely into the governments divide and conquer strategy. on our behalf. Not surprisingly the RNIB has a history of dividing the disabled people's movement being one of the first to welcome the very flawed Disability Discrimination Act. By arguing from an impairment specific standpoint they are the original creators of a damaging beauty contest between disabled people with different impairments. DAN says:
THEY KEEP US APART AND LOCK US AWAY Residential Institutions
Leonard Cheshire decides when you eat what you eat, who wipes your arse and when. Leonard Cheshire decides who you can see, when you can see them, who your friends are and are not, if you can go out when you can go out and who you can go out with. Leonard Cheshire has a budget of approximately 100 million pounds most of which comes from our taxes. Local Authorities pay £35,000 + for each person incarcerated. Leonard Cheshire residents get a budget of £50 per year for clothing and £15 a week to spend. Their Directors are on £75,000 a year. Leonard Cheshire is using its financial muscle to move into the "Independent Living Market" After years of incarcerating us now it wants to stop disabled people creating their own solutions. Leonard Cheshire residents often are not allowed to have any privacy. They are brainwashed and scared and see their appalling situation as their only choice. Hardly anyone leaves a Cheshire home except in a box. Those that do tell of the repeated human rights abuse and indignity suffered in their homes. THERE IS A BETTER WAY???OUR WAY! Worldwide Leonard Cheshire is responsible for hiding away millions of disabled people in awful situations. DAN believes that institutions are no longer solutions for disabled people if they ever were. DAN believes that all disabled people regardless of their impairment or situation should be given the right to remain and fully participate in the communities they live. DAN believes that the way to ensure and protect that right is through the funding of the independent living movement, run by disabled people themselves. DAN believes that if funding was redirected from institutions like Leonard Cheshire we could create the support disabled people need to live in the community as opposed to locking them away. Who do you think has the answer? ...... Disabled people or high paid professionals that for years have locked us away? Where do you want to live? ...... Behind the walls of a Cheshire home where you are open and vulnerable to all forms of abuse or in your community. What do you want to support? ...... Disabled people solving their own problems and living independently or disabled people being brainwashed into thinking that removing themselves from the community is safe? What kind of society do you want? ...... One that keeps disabled people away from you or one that is inclusive of all? SAY NO TO LEONARD CHESHIRE |
