Welcome to e-include, the e-journal of Inclusion Europe.

The wall I know, the barrier I jump

Last year, Inclusion International had a World Congress.
2700 people from all over the world came to the Congress.
There were 800 self-advocates.

There is a video
in which 5 self-advocates from Spain
talk about their experiences from the World Congress.

You can watch the video here.
It is in Spanish but they want to have it also in English.

To be a self-advocate means to participate, to contribute, to have an opinion and a voice, and to advocate for yourself.

Feaps Cantabria·and Edigráfica present a documentary about 5 self-advocates from the Spanish reagion of Cantabria attending the 2010 World Congress of Inclusion International entitled “El muro que conocí las barrera que saltaré“ (The wall I know, the barrier I jump).

In 60 minutes, this film documents the day-to-day experience of 5 self-advocates participating at the 15th World Congress of Inclusion International that took place in June 2010 in Berlin.

Ana Diba, Sergio, Reyes, Germán y David, together with their support person, were the only Spanish representatives with intellectual disability attending what is “probably the most important participative congress of its kind.”

At the event, the Spanish self-advocates met many people from all over the world which·face the same situations and problems·in·life.·The documentary starts·by explaining the motivations of self-advocates·to undertake·suchjourney,·the preparations preceding the Congress·and expectations of each of them.

"During 4 days of the Congress, the wishes, emotions, motivations, doubts, fears and all sorts of situations emerge naturally, showing us, for many people absolutely unknown, reality of people with intelectual disabilities"·the authors explain.

The documentary also includes interventions from professionals in the disability field and statements done by the protagonists during the journey and immediately after, testifying what participating in the Congress meant to them.

The authors have placed the documentary at verkami, an online platform where independent artists seek funding to realize their ideas. In this way, they aim to collect money that would enable them to disseminate this material as an awareness-raising tool. The funding will be used to:

Translate all the phrases that appear in the film into English and incorporate subtitles of the film footage for English version.
To include in the “extras” of the DVD a section where the protagonists would comment on the documentary, providing a complementary and added value to the work.
Finally, to produce more copies of the DVD and create interactive menus.

You can watch the documentary here http://www.verkami.com/projects/743-el-muro-que-conoci-las-barreras-que-saltare or visit www.verkami.com