Inclusion and empowerment of people with disabilities in the Balkans: the European Network for Inclusion Beyond the Borders (ENIBB)

In 2016 the Regional Institute Rittmeyer for the Blind of Trieste (Italy) began to work with the Skola 11 Maj of Jagodina (Serbia) and the National Rehabilitation Centre for the Blind of Plovdiv (Bulgaria) for the establishment of the ENIBB, the European Network for Inclusion Beyond the Borders. The original idea was to connect centres, both private and public, of the Balcany area that work to support people with disabilities (PwD) to create a network for the development of policies and activities towards PwD and to research in the fields of the inclusion and the empowerment of PwD.
The Balcany area is a ‘common’ area that has been divided for more than one reason during the last century. The goal of the network is to reconnect the area again in the field of supporting PwD, beyond the borders, and beyond the specific disabilities (for example, Skola 11 Maj supports students with hearing impairments, while Istituto Rittmeyer and NRCB support people with visual impairments).
The different interested area are vocational and educational training, education, job emplacement, accessible culture, empowerment, accessible tourism, policies. The procedures for the establishment are still going on, and in the meantime, the partners of the network met at least once a year to update the in progress projects and activities. Nowadays, we involve more than 20 institutions throughout Balcany area: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia. We have contact also with Albania and Austria, and the network is spreading its activities through Europe.
The intervention we will make during ESOF2020 is aimed at a varied audience: the citizenship, ready to understand how policies towards PwD are going on in Balcany area, the politicians, interested to listen to the voices of PwD for developing new policies, the universities interested to analyse new strategies towards PwD, the research centres, interested to develop new technologies of direct interests for PwD, the enterprises, interested to be in contact with PwD and to be updated above their needs. Also, during the conference, we would like to involve people directly in understanding how the everyday life of a PwD can be and to remember how PwD can support the civil society in a positive way.