Report from Mexico

by Tara Flood
Spanish student and volunteer at PROJIMO

Nothing About Without Us - PROJIMO Style

Nothing About us Without Us, the philosophy of the international disabled people's movement, is very much alive and well and working in practice in a very small village in Western Mexico.

Since I started working at DAA (Disability Awareness in Action) I have heard and read so many great things about a project called PROJIMO run by disabled people in some Mexican village somewhere. When I heard PROJIMO offered opportunities to learn Spanish I thought: Mexico here I come!

The idea of traveling around Mexico for a month felt like a big adventure. I did have some reservations - was I going to be able to get around - was the access going to be terrible? Was I likely to face the same exhausting curiosity I experienced in India last year? How on earth was my poor old brain going to cope with learning another language?

Before I got to PROJIMO I already had a flavor of all things Mexican. It is a nation fantastically proud of its culture. The people are passionate about their music, their food, their football, their art, family and life in general.

However like many countries, Mexico has no welfare system, does not have free access to healthcare or statutory provision of disability products such as wheelchairs or artificial limbs. This is the reason that David Werner, whom I had the privilege to meet whilst at PROJIMO, started his work with people living in remote villages in the Sierra Madre mountains more than thirty years ago. He is a great man and despite being the person who got it all started he is completely unassuming and his frequent visits feel more like an old friend coming to stay.

The PROJIMO project came out of the work David was doing and because CBR (community-based rehabilitation) was not available. What made PROJIMO unique from other CBR projects was that disabled people were the rehab providers, the wheelchair makers, the prosthetists. It was and still is a project that recognizes the value of personal experience and how that experience can be part of a process than enables someone to view life as a disabled person positively and to have pride.

Disabled people who live in countries that have some kind of welfare system are without question in a better position than our brothers and sisters who don't, but it is important to recognize that welfare in itself creates its own barrier to participation. Welfare systems are usually designed to ensure that a recipient won't starve, but on the other hand, will not have enough to secure a life of choice and control. It does nothing to remove the barriers that prevent us from accessing education, finding work or indeed seeking protection of our right to life.

My introduction to PROJIMO was with the gorgeous Conchita Lara, who with her husband, Miguel, came to pick me up. My Spanish was virtually non-existent - Conchita speaks no English - you can imagine! Despite this we communicated.

The PROJIMO community is situated in a small village called Coyotitan and has been there since the decision to move from the mountainous Ajoya after safety fears. There are about thirty people living at PROJIMO at the moment. Some, like Conchita have lived there for more than twenty years, others are there on a short-term basis having wheelchairs made etc. There is a mixture of families, friends, workers and visitors.

I stayed with a great woman called Mary Picos and her husband Armando and their daughter Lluvia. Mary is in charge of rehab in PROJIMO and her husband also works in PROJIMO making appliances.
My Spanish classes started in earnest with Rigo who turned out to be one of the most patient people I have ever met. He realized early on that he had his work cut out! My attempts to practice newly learnt words were a constant source of amusement to the children.

Both Spanish teachers, Rigo and Julio, are exceptional people and the downside of not being able to communicate was that I really struggled to explain where I worked and what DAA was all about. I got frustrated because I couldn't talk with them, in any depth, about life in Mexico as a disabled person.

We did manage to have simple conversations about how we are all viewed wherever we live in the world, their desire to live independently, their interest in what is happening in other countries, what disabled people are doing to change things. They understandably think about leaving Mexico to go and live elsewhere to escape poverty and lack of opportunity but I don't believe it is the answer. Leaving doesn't change the situation for the disabled people you leave behind.

I loved Mexico and Projimo is fantastic. Access around Mexico was much better than I expected. I understand that there is a disabled person working in a senior position in the Ministry of Health who is working very hard to change things. That said, life is tough if you are a disabled person in Mexico. Many of the disabled men and women I saw during my time in Mexico were begging on the streets.

However it was incredible to see, in a country were there is no welfare support or social provision, a group of disabled people getting on and doing it for themselves - working and supporting themselves and others. It is an outstanding example of CBR both from a social model and human rights perspective - recognizing that we, disabled people, are our own experts.

Of course there were things that concerned me a little. For example the group of disabled people who live and work there are mostly people with physical impairments. PROJIMO is run by a core of strong and capable women and there is the risk, as has happened elsewhere, that those whose voices aren't as strong or perhaps those who have greater support needs are not heard.

Visitors need to learn from the model of good practice that PROJIMO is and use the principles learnt, to develop their own culturally relevant projects. For the disabled people in PROJIMO they must ensure that everyone's voice is heard not just those whose voices are strongest or loudest.

What PROJIMO needs is more disabled people (activists) to visit and talk to them about their experiences from other countries. They need to hear about rights and independent living and about what possibilities there are 'out there' and what can be achieved when groups of disabled people get together.

So my plea to you is that if you have the resources now or in the future that you get yourself over to PROJIMO, sign up for the Spanish classes, and talk and listen and learn!

Tara Flood