Dear sir/ madam,

Greetings.

I am a Commonwealth award holder Bangladeshi anthropologist currently studying in the anthropology department at the Durham university. As part of degree requirement, I am conducting my masters dissertation on "Disability and Development: Experience of Disabled Peoples Organization". Beside, before joining in Durham University, as a Project Manager of Handicap International, a Nobel Peace winner INGO working alongside people with disability, I have managed three inclusive development project in Bangladesh for building enabling environment and society for person with disabilities.

-As a Project Manager of Organizational Capacity Building to Advocate for the People with Disabilities in Bangladesh project (December, 2009- September, 2011) I have worked alongside more than one thousand person with disabilities connected with 20 disabled peoples organization; -As a Project Manager of Inclusive Culture, Leisure and Sports Activities for Children and Youth with and without Disabilities for Social Inclusion project (March 2008December, 2010), I have worked alongside more than three

hundred children and youth with disabilities and their parents; -As a Project Manager of Capacity Building of Service Providers in a Government Vagrant Home to Support People with Disabilities project (October, 2008- August, 2009) I have worked alongside more than one hundred people with intellectual disability and mental health problems living in institutional setting of vagrant homes.

Recently, I have been informed that a training program titled " Frontrunner for disabled students" has planned to be organized soon. I am very interested to participate in this training for few very specific reasons- Firstly, it will give me an unique opportunity to meet with and learn from students with disabilities as well as leaders of different sectors- I believe after returning back in Bangladesh, sharing this experience will be valuable for students with disabilities and young leaders of disability movement in Bangladesh Secondly: It may give me an opportunity to talk with students and representatives of different organizations to explore their perspective on my dissertation topic "Disability and Development". Thirdly, I have intensive experience of facilitating inclusive culture, leisure and sports project in rural Bangladesh which has significantly contributed for the inclusion of children and youth with disabilities in villages of Bangladesh- which can be really inspiring for students with disabilities in UK. I may share this experience ( I have capitalized the experience in a power-point presentationwhich you may check, its attached with presentation)

I pray and hope that considering above, you will kindly give me an opportunity to participate in the training.

Yours Sincerely, Nadimul Haque Mandal Mobile No: +447466826310 Email: nadim.mandal@gmail.com.

Please see yellow marked part Even People With Disability Have The Right To Love And Sex
by Adapt (Able Disabled All People Together) on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 6:27pm ~ Emotional day at the conference as mothers narrate experience of social exclusion ~ ~ 14 year old kid with cerebral palsy from Bangladesh enthralls audience ~ Goa 21 Feb, 2012: Sex is a basic need for everyone, be they humans or animals. Yet people, even parents say things like he cant even walk, why would he think of sex? Everyone has the capacity to love and love and sex are as important a need for people with disability as it is for others, said Dr. Avinash De Sousa, a psychiatrist from Mumbai who has been working with disabled people for over a decade. He was speaking on the third day of the international conference

on inclusive education for people with disability titled The North South Dialogue IV Implementing Tools of Change for Inclusion organised by ADAPT Able Disabled All People Together (formerly the Spastics Society of India). Earlier, the day began on an emotional note with mothers fighting tears while narrating the stories of their children. When my daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy the doctors said she would be a vegetable. 25 years have passed and despite her disability today she runs a beauty clinic, said Shobha Sachdeva, from Mumbai, who has also been the principle of a special school run by ADAPT in the past. She added, Despite 40 years of seminal work by ADAPT, parents are still told the same things by many ignorant doctor. The person who stole the show on the third day is also the youngest delegate in the conference 14 year old Anila Hossain from Bangladesh. Holding the audience in rapt attention for 10 minutes, this spunky girl who has cerebral palsy said in slow but intelligible English, It is painful when I go to the market and people stare. I am not included in schools. I have seen my mother cry so many times due to this. A young age has not come into the way of her asserting her fundamental rights as she has been instrumental in bringing disability into the purview of the globally reputed organization Save The Children. National Award winning writer for her book One Little Finger Malini Chib, said, Disability is both a human rights and social issue and today disabled people want their own identity. Previously the traditional view of disability focussed on the individuals impairment. For decades disabled people were forced to be fixed and fitted and society wanted us to adopt a normal identity. In todays postmodern age disabled people are seeking their own separate identities. Statistician Nenette Goodman who has worked for several global organizations and is currently analysing data from the Shiksha Sankalp program by ADAPT stressed on the need for inclusive education when she said, I was lucky to be living in the US where every childs right to education is enforced by the law. That has made all the difference. Her son Alex is a high functioning autistic but today, at 24 years of age, has a job and lives on his own despite being very different from others. Mithu Alur, Founder-Chairperson ADAPT talked about her journey as a mother of a child with cerebral palsy. Doctors love the world vegetable in this country. Even the ministers are no different. One minister in the early days of my struggle for inclusion told me I will give you stipend for each disabled person in the country, but let them stay at home. They want to remove everything that is different and diverse from this world. Teacher, trainer, writer, consultant from UK, Richard Reiser brought in gender into rights of the disabled. He said, You cannot have equality for the disabled if you have gender inequality. They are all connected. He said that to uplift the plight of people with disability, We have to build a strong robust layer of disable advocates who can challenge the society and governments and force them to change. Intended to be a dialogue between the affluent countries that have advanced when it comes to the rights of the disabled and the developing nations of the world, the conference today saw speakers

from countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mongolia, Tajikistan, UK, Nepal and India. The international conference that began on the 19th, gets over on the 23rd.