Dr. Fifield and his wife, Lori, with First Lady Pilar Nores de Garcia and Dr. DeeVon Bailey, USU's Associate Vice President for International Research.
A delegation from the CPD visited with government officials in Peru earlier this month, in an effort to see if CPD services could be a good match with Peruvian needs.
“We’re in the stage right now of formulating ideas,” said Dr. Bryce Fifield, the CPD director. People from the CPD and the Peruvian government will identify common goals, then look for funding sources.
Among the dignitaries they met were First Lady Pilar Nores de Garcia, Women and Social Development Minister Navidia Vilchez Yucra and Michael Urtecho Medina, an elected member of the national congress. Urtecho uses a wheelchair—and he told his visitors that when he was elected, he was unable to enter the nation’s capitol building. Since then ramps have been built, attitudes have begun to change and Urtecho has become one of the vice presidents of the national congress.
When it comes to including people with disabilities in Peru, the officials are taking a thoughtful, measured approach, Dr. Fifield said. They are interested not only in increasing the visibility and value of people with disabilities, but they are also looking to bolster education, support and training of educators and other service providers.
The delegation also met with Dr. Guillermo Vega Espejo, president of CONADIS, the national committee working on inclusion as it’s laid out by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Peru ratified the convention in January 2008.