A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Halit Ferizi - Champion for the Disabled

Halit Ferizi, the president of Handikos, the handicapped association, looked on the arrival of international agencies in Kosovo as a godsend. He was convinced that they would be receptive to his message and his model of advocacy. It was, he felt, a "historic opportunity" to get the needs of the disabled integrated into the reconstruction of Kosovo.

Halit Ferizi

Disabled people in Kosovo faced new challenges after the war. By December 1999, Handikos had registered 340 new disabilities from landmines and unexploded cluster bombs, and even more by cars. "Old cars and bad drivers are creating a new generation of paraplegics and spinal injuries," said Halit sadly.

Halit had other reasons to be gloomy when we met with him in early 2000. Thieves had just ransacked the temporary offices of Handikos and stole all of the computers. With them had gone 13,000 personal files on handicapped families, laboriously collected over the years. But Halit reacted as he does to all reversals-with optimism and enthusiasm. He was much too busy to let it get him down. Within hours, the Handikos staff had new computers and were rebuilding their data base.

Like all successful advocates Halit set himself clear goals. One was to preserve and strengthen the Handikos network. This was not helped by the fact that international agencies recruited ten of the most talented Handikos volunteers. (None was disabled. In fact, not a single disabled person was hired as an interpreter by the agencies.)

Halit also found that international agencies were often insensitive to the needs of disabled. He was unable to attend meetings of the UNHCR's community officers because they were held on the second floor of a building whose elevator was broken.

But true to form, Halit tried to turn this to advantage. He argued that ramps should be built into every public building constructed in Kosovo under the U.N. program. If this could be done early enough, it would cost no extra money.

UNMIK was trying to build a new health system from scratch, and Halit knew there would never be a better chance of integrating the needs of the disabled into the national health policy. He was also determined to find a place for preventive health care, so as to reduce the number of accidents.

When the United Nations announced plans to hold elections in municipalities, Halit immediately began thinking of his constituency. How would disabled get to the polls? How would people without hands cast their vote?

He also watched with growing concern as the U.N. administration developed a policy on welfare. So little money was coming in from tax revenues and aid that the UNMIK proposed to put a very low cap on welfare payments. Furthermore, instead of supporting vulnerable individuals, every single member of a family would have to qualify as vulnerable before that family could receive any support.

Halit was more than happy to work with the international agencies to get through this challenging agenda. He remained grateful to international NGOs like Handicap International, which had supplied Handikos with wheelchairs during the dark days of Serbian rule. (Halit was less complimentary toward NGOs working on landmines. Sometimes, they would support mine victims while ignoring victims of other forms of disability who lived in the same village. This, to Halit, was discriminatory.)

Halit was willing-even eager-to work with the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which was trying to organize Kosovar NGOs into a democratic structure. After several abortive attempts, the NGOs came together for an assembly, which elected 13 organizations to an Executive Council. Halit willingly accepted to join, although he has since been critical of the Council's apathy.

He was asked to join a working group on healthpolicy and also to represent civil society on the central elections committee. These were both important policy-making bodies, and Halit accepted the invitations with excitement.

This enthusiasm is critical to Halit's success as an advocate. Instead of snubbing international officials, he sympathizes with their frustration. While everyone else predicts doom and gloom, Halit Ferizi's face is wreathed in smiles. He would come bounding out to meet visitors, if only he could walk. So, from his wheelchair, Halit does the next best thing. He embraces them and makes them feel important.

Coming from someone who has been partially paralyzed for almost 30 years, it is both humbling and uplifting. One leaves Handikos convinced that UNMIK would be crazy not to build its entire reconstruction plan around the needs of the handicapped.

It is completely genuine, and it has also brought rewards. Halit has become something of a poster child for reconstruction. Money is pouring in to Handikos, and Halit is emerging as a person to watch in post-war Kosovo. The disabled will be a force to be reckoned within the new Kosovo.

Despite his disability, Halit is in many respects the personification of civil society in action. "Civil society means taking control of your own life," he says. "We are ready to assume our responsibility. They cannot make democracy without us."