http://www.lgtinc.org en-us http://www.lgtinc.org N/A contact@lgtinc.org Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:48:31 EDT 20 http://www.lgtinc.org/articles/247/1/Recent-Reports-on--Human-Rights-in-China.   Persecution Impacting Persons with Disabilities.   To learn about the persecution of Falun Gong members in China as it impacts Falun Gong practitioners that have disabilities and how this persecution is causing a new population of Chinese citizens to have disabilities, check out the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group webpage at http://falunhr.org/     Click on the two reports under Violations in China that appear on the far left-hand side of the home page that are titled,   "Violence against Persons with Disabilities" "Violence Leading to Disabilities"     International Organ Harvesting Practices.    Shocking evidence of the systematic occurrence of organ harvesting for profit as trade for international organ transplants are the contents of two reports.  "Bloody Harvest" and the First Report by David Matas, Esq. and David Kilgour, Esq. These reports are at: http://www.organharvestinvestigation.net/     Falun Dafa also known as Falun Gong.   To learn more about Falun Dafa/Falun Gong refer to www.falundafa.org   Cat Rooney Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EDT http://www.lgtinc.org/articles/170/1/Healthcare-for-Kids-Rally-Flyer-and-Other-Information--Please-Distribute%21 September 19, 2006   Dearest Advocates:   Please find attached the "official" flyer for our upcoming Healthcare for Kids Rally to be held on November 4th at 9:30am at Georgia State Capitol.    The time has come for us to unite our voices to be heard....HEALTHCARE must be a priority for our children! This rally is being put together for everyone that has been impacted or has a vested interest in the Medicaid system (which includes the following: parents, providers, and concerned tax paying, voting citizens of Georgia....Therefore, everyone is impacted by this issue in the State of GA!)   At the rally, we will be discussing the following issues: + Eligibility + Access to care and provider networks. + Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis & Treatment Federal Requirements. + Burdensome Application, Appeal and Claims Process.   We encourage children to attend and plan on having some entertainment for them as well. It is going to be a family friendly event! We need to put a face to the children being impacted by poor decisions.   The color theme is RED.  Please try to wear red the day of the event.    We recommend that you either car pool with other families or take Marta. There is parking available but it might be easier to come together as a group!    We currently have a wonderful volunteer group of over 40 concerned citizens wanting to make a difference and change in the direction of Medicaid!  I am amazed at how many people are actively wanting to get involved.  If you would like to volunteer (still looking for people the day of the event to help with set-up/clean-up): please send Leanne Manning (leanne_d@bellsouth.net ), my administrative assistant for the Rally, an e-mail with the following information: Name, e-mail, phone numbers, where you live, and if you are a parent, provider,etc.   Also- if you know of a organization and/or person that would like to donate to the Rally, please let us know.  North Metro Miracle League (NMML) has graciously offered to be an administrator of funds for the Rally! Please see the attached flyer for further information. Thanks in advance for your help in this matter.    This is going to be the event of the year for Healthcare in this State....... Let's show our support!   Feel free to distribute this flyer to anyone you think would like to attend and post at therapy clinic's doctor offices,etc. WE need to get the word out about this event. The more people that show up the better........   We are voting citizens and need answers to the healthcare crisis in Georgia!   UNITED... WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!   Additional information can be found on our website: www.kidshealthcarega.org  Hope to see you there!   Sincerely, Heidi J. Moore Healthcare for Kid's Rally Coordinator   --Heidi J. Moore (Proud Mother to Jacob - 6 years old with Down syndrome & Jared - 4 years old) "Help The Children Now, So They Can Help Themselves Later!" The material contained in this e-mail is for general information only. It is not intended in any way to provide or offer legal advice. To obtain legal advice, please consult with your attorney or a qualified legal representative. Heidi J. Moore Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EDT http://www.lgtinc.org/articles/166/1/URGENT%3ASave-That-Date%3A-Children%26%2339%3Bs-Healthcare-Rally%21-11%7B47%7D4%7B47%7D06-at-9%3A30am September 1, 2006   Dearest Advocates:   The time has come for EVERYONE to get involved.......    We are planning a Children's Healthcare Rally at the State Capitol on Saturday, November 4th at 9:30am.  More information will be following but I wanted to make sure you SAVE THAT DATE!   We all need to speak up and have our voices heard for our children and the providers that service them.  This is an election year and we need to make sure the State understands OUR priorities must include healthcare for our children.   The Children's Healthcare Rally will involve some of the following issues:   1. Eligibility Issues for disability waivers (including the Katie Beckett Waiver). 2. Access to a viable provider network (including therapy!) 3. CMO concerns. 4. BCW Concerns. 5. Overall, administrative paperwork problems in the system!   As you can see, we will be advocating for all children with and without disabilities that require healthcare from the State.   The issue is...... all children need healthcare (which includes having service providers to perform those services!).   If you are interesting in getting involved, donating time, or money in helping make this be the most effective rally to get the lawmakers attention....please send me a BRIEF e-mail stating the following:   1. What you think you do to help the cause? 2. Contact information including: name, phone numbers, e-mail address. 3. Where you live? 4. Are you a parent, provider, friend, concerned citizen, etc?   A rally committee is being put together to help make this a successful event.  Thanks in advance for wanting to participate!   Let's show our strength in numbers....OUR VOTE COUNTS!    UNITED... WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!   Hope to see you there! More detailed information will be following shortly.    Sincerely, Heidi   --Heidi J. Moore (Proud Mother to Jacob - 6 years old with Down syndrome & Jared - 4 years old) "Help The Children Now, So They Can Help Themselves Later!" The material contained in this e-mail is for general information only. It is not intended in any way to provide or offer legal advice. To obtain legal advice, please consult with your attorney or a qualified legal representative. Heidi J. Moore Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EDT http://www.lgtinc.org/articles/128/1/To-all-brothers-and-sisters-fighting-for-disability-rights%3A-By-MASAYO-from-Japan                                                                  By MASAYO from Japan     To all brothers and sisters fighting for disability rights:   I was very excited and happy the whole time I spent time with all of you. It brought back memories of advocating for disability rights many years ago in Japan. Around 30 years ago in Japan, when people saw a person with a disability in public, the typical thought that crossed their mind was 'which institution (nursing home) did he/she run away from?' It was so rare to see anybody with disabilities in public so when they did go out they were the focus of everyone's eyes with the thought; "WHAT are they doing in the PUBLIC?" These people were all supposed to be hidden away in special institutions and not displayed in public." Then there was an incident. A man with cerebral palsy was handing out his poetry to people passing by on a street with other singers and performers. A policeman came running saying "who is responsible for this? This is public place, not a freak show." It did not occur to the policeman that the poet with CP was not any stranger than the other street performers. In Japan, the institutions/nursing homes had metal bars in the windows like a jail. I was reminded of this when I heard the words "We would rather to go to jail than to die in a nursing home". The Japanese institutions (nursing homes) were the same as jails or concentration camps for people with disabilities.                      In April of 1976, a member of an activist CP group (that I was part of) who was newly institutionalized by his relatives killed himself by throwing himself in front of a train. The suicide was a result of the depression and hopelessness of his isolated situation. He had confessed recently to other members about being a sole target of abuse and being ignored by everybody in the institution from the beginning. Getting this sad news, most of members got angry at the institution for the inhumane treatment of him that led to his death. They also appealed to the system itself that was working against freedom and independence among people with disabilities. With words like; "We will get our real life out of an Institution." "Our life is not in special Institution." Some of the people with more severe disabilities went after the officers and directors of the institution but they ran away leaving the protesters inside the office. This was the beginning of a 24 hour "Sit-In" protest. It was the first time in Japanese history that the Special Police Force was ordered to move people with disabilities.                      Inaccessible Public Transportation: We (the Japanese CP group I was member of) also protested for public transportation for people with disabilities around that time. It was very hard for people with disabilities to use public transportation then. If someone with a wheelchair tried to ride in a bus, the driver refused to start the bus. In 1977, to change the discrimination against people with disabilities, 120 people with CP gathered for a protest at the main bus station in Kawasaki city. As a result, a total of 28 buses were blocked by us at the station. When the bus company made a temporary bus terminal so they could avoid the protesters and serve their regular customers, we went to the new buses to ride so they could not ignore us. We were careful to have the non-disabled volunteers leave the busses and the station after helping the members of the CP group on to the buses. Back in those days when there were protests for people with disabilities, people including police and government all tend to think that; "people with CP were not intelligent enough to make any protest plans and execute them. Therefore somebody else like non disabled volunteers around them had to be controlling the people with CP." We wanted to make it clear that we the people with CP were the ones planning and executing the protests against the bus company and no one was controlling us.                             Kawasaki city government decided to order Special Force Police to clear us off the buses that night. The hundreds of Special Force Police full armed by duralumin shields, protectors and clubs surrounded the protestors' buses illuminated by many projectors. They tried to get into buses and of course it was easy for them. And three or four Special Force policeman for each CP member dragged us away from the buses. Some CP members were too excited and fought with the police braking the steering wheel or windows.                               We protested against many segregations and discrimination policies that target disability rights rather than the rights of institutions and transportation systems. Every time we protested, the Special Force Police was ordered to clear us by force. Police tried to find out some one without disability who instigated us to do so, because they didn't think an individual with CP was worthy to arrest as a leader of these protests. Maybe they could not imagine that people with CP can plan, prepare, organize, and to do something like a protest by themselves. They searched for the clues through my home, and all they found suggested me as a leader. They gave up prosecuting "someone" without CP for the protest, everything being held in evidence was eventually returned to my home.   Today: Today, most of the members of the CP group suffer from physical deteriorations and burnout effect, especially damage to cervical vertebrae. There are members who used to be able to walk and even assisted other members with CP but now cannot even sit and are having problems with bladder sensory. Other members who were able to sit in the wheelchairs by themselves 30 years ago now need straps to stay in the wheelchairs. If you consider the growing health problems among adults with CP, there are too few professionals studying these problems compared to the number of studies on children with CP.                                      I believe it is time to bring attention to this serious health issue ourselves. My friends from the Japanese CP group and I are conducting a research project to understand and find a solution to the deterioration problems with adults with CP in conjunction with my husband who has a PhD in physical therapy. We are also hoping this will inspire more researchers to address this issue and enlighten people with CP themselves to pay more attention to their body and its well-being. We collected data by interviewing subjects about the changes in their bodies through their whole life such as what activities of daily living they are able to perform compared to which ones they could do when they were younger and when and what kind of physical problems they started to have (like back pain, neck pain, numbness of nay body part, and loss of balance…etc ), what were they doing when changes happened to see the possible cause, and what did they do to solve or reduce the physical problems they had…etc.). I believe that to achieve independence and freedom of people with disabilities throughout their whole life, it very important to pay attention to one's body and know its limit. We should live our life with our own rhythm instead of try and catch up with rest of society. Even people without disabilities are having physical problems due to the extended lifespan modern medicine has provided.                                  K Nelson (NIH/HINDS) stated there is no tool to show effectiveness preventing birth asphyxia which was long time believed as main cause of CP and has recently realized a minor factor at the International Cerebral Palsy Conference. Her statement seams to suggest consequently that CP will never end. The fact that there will be more people born with CP in the future shows how important our study is to prevent and solve physical deteriorations of the health of adults with CP. From the study we could learn and teach children to understand and listen to their bodies more effectively. This could help them avoid damaging their body and losing abilities through overuse or physiological exhaustion.     We also did a presentation about our study and findings at AACPDM last year. Some of the audience in the conference said it did not make any sense not to have any actual people with CP attending the conference in the first place. I believe even in those academic fields we as people with CP should be more active to solve our health problems. Also at the International Cerebral Palsy Conference in Finland, we stressed the importance of successful mobility transition (e.g. utilizing power mobility in early stage of progressive functional limitation) from a life long perspective among people with CP. We also presented at the International Congress on CP "New Advances in Treatment of CP" regarding constant incidence of adult functional deterioration regardless of pediatric interventions.                                                When we presented our study in both Norway, Finland and at the World Congress of Rehabilitation International 2004, several people with CP commented that the deterioration issues are not only a Japanese problem. We realized there are similar severe physical problems with adults with CP from overuse of their bodies in other countries beside Japan. Until that point we only had data from Japan and could have been led to believe these problems only apply to Japan and dismiss the fact our research could apply to other countries as well.   For our study to be more useful to not only to Japanese with CP but people with CP from other countries, we would like to start collecting data from non-Japanese adults with CP. I am hoping to find as many people as possible who are interested in our work and want to help solve the deterioration problems experienced by adults with CP by joining our study. Also my husband's fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh expires soon. I am hoping anyone has any suggestion or advises to find a way to continue our study in America because I believe we have not finished all the things we came to do in this country such as finding people to join our research, collecting data from Americans with CP, procure funding for a worldwide study, etc.   Thank you   MASAYO FURUI     Masayo Furui Wed, 24 May 2006 00:00:00 EDT