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Body Diversity

2019-1-ES02-KA105-0127192019Youth mobilityfinalized
Countries: ES|LT|BG · Grant: €17,460
Disabilities - special needsGender equality / equal opportunitiesInclusion - equity

Objectives

We believe it is vitally important to work towards SOCIAL INCLUSION of all people, which is why we decided to carry out this project that aims to deconstruct cultural models that reject difference, to discover realities that remain invisible and therefore implicitly carry the discrimination of those who live them. Above all, we aim to build a model of relationships based on trust, respect and acceptance of diversity as a factor that generates cultural richness. In our society there is still a stigma towards people with INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY, considering them incapable of developing an autonomous life and/or critical thinking towards the world around them, often implicitly considering this group incapable of making their own decisions or of feeling, in the same way as others do, whether it be love, sadness, anger or pleasure. All this generates different forms of DISCRIMINATION, INVISIBILISATION and VIOLENCE towards these people. In addition to the above, we focus especially on the situation of WOMEN with intellectual disabilities. They face a double discrimination: because of their gender and because of their disability. But not only these two, but they can also be victims of a third and a fourth discrimination: because of their ethnicity, their economic vulnerability, their age, being unemployed, etc. and every day they are more and more discriminated against. being unemployed, etc. and each one of these characteristics adds up to a greater stigma. Women with intellectual disabilities, not only suffer discrimination, but they are often made invisible, they are not represented in the media, in the cinema or in decision-making spaces. In fact, the overprotection that families have towards them is much higher than in the case of men with the same disability, which makes that many times their space of action and interaction is reduced to the home. Apart from all this, we have to take into account certain types of violence that are executed against women with intellectual disabilities, related to the fact of considering them as lacking autonomy and power in the decision making, as well as for being a woman. We refer here to forced sterilization, where women enter and leave the hospital without understanding what has happened, since the families and the medical system do not consider them owners of their body nor capable of making decisions about it. On the other hand, there are studies that tell us about the physical and sexual abuse of these women, which occurs mainly in their immediate environment, although it should be pointed out that in Spain we do not have specific and official data on the subject. In addition to the above, we would like to highlight the issue of sexuality. A subject that has been normalised in our society, today we enjoy sex education in adolescence that ensures mutual and healthy enjoyment. Today, human sexuality is seen as an essential part of people's lives. But this perspective does not seem to be reflected in the same way for people with intellectual disabilities. The same taboo that used to be reflected in society as a whole continues. Sexual education is still an exception for this group, there are hardly any specific resources for the sexual and reproductive health of people with intellectual disabilities. In fact, the subject is often avoided because they do not know how to deal with it. However, they are no strangers to gender violence, sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancies or STDs. Nor are they unaware of the need to learn to know themselves, to accept themselves and to be able to express their eroticism. Thus, the objectives of this project were: a) To awake the critical conscience of the people with intellectual disabilities and of the society in general, about the image that is transmitted about them and about the gender inequalities that exist in our context. b) To empower this group and especially women with intellectual disabilities to act as agents of change of their own reality and to know, understand and be able to defend their rights, as well as to take back the control over their bodies and desires, giving them the tools to do so, such as raising their voices through media literacy and the use of ICTs. c) To contribute so that people with intellectual disabilities learn to know themselves, to accept themselves and to express themselves with satisfaction in all the dimensions of life. d) To live an intercultural experience.

Project partners (3)