The association of disabled women "One.pl"
This is an initiative of a group of friends and we would like to enlarge this group. Discussion not attack is our method.

The Manifesto

We are a group of women. We are a group of active women. We are a group of active disabled women. What? Disabled? It sounds like a prison sentence. Like a third, fourth, fith category of a human being. Like a third sex . Like a worse citizen. Like an unexisting being. What? Disabled. We can't eliminate words like those. But we want to adapt those terms. To give another context to them. Let's try to turn a sentence for life into an idea for life. A worthy, active, normal one. What? Disabled.

Why "One.Pl"?

A disabled woman is doubly discriminated against - because of her sex and because of "her lack of ability".

Apart from the problems that disabled women share with other disabled, there are also those ones concerning only women.

It is visible in STATISTICS.
EDUCATION: according to the research from the year 2000 the huge rate of 57,3 % of disabled people had only a primary education. 19% of disabled people had a middle education. And only 3,5% of disabled people had a higher education. Women make up the majority among the UNEMPLOYED disabled people which means 53,2% of the population of the disabled. As far as education is concerned it's analogical - women are a worse educated group. It's similar with ECONOMICAL ACTIVITY- in a group of 2071 disabled men, 1556 are unemployed and in the same group of disabled women there are 1877 unemployed, which gives an unemployment rate 12,1 for men, and up to 20,4 for women.
In comparison with other countries from the EU, in Poland we have the lowest rate of employment of disabled people and the highest rate of pensioners.

Where do we come from?

We are a group of educated, active women (among others a lawyer, a psychologist, a polish scholar, a social worker, a musician). We decided to work in a non-governmental area in order to fight against double discrimination that we and others similar to us have to face in this country. The fact is that we have to live in a reality that discriminates against people because of their sex as well as their "the lack of the ability". That's why we decided to create an association, that is going to concentrate on both issues. We know it will not be easy to cope with the problem but we are not going to give up.

Where do we go to?

We intend to be occupied with "THE PRIVATE" as well as "THE PUBLIC" part of disabled women's life. Among our major aims there is to create good circumstances that let disabled women live a worthy life. To reach this it is necessary to have employment that gives financial independence. That's why we plan leading different courses, making research on the work market in order to find possibilities for a disabled women's career and publishing information booklets.

We want to support scientific and artistic activity for disabled women and promote them by social campaigns, conferences, exibitions or concerts.

We also want to organize a professional psychological help and build a web of support groups for disabled women as well as their families and friends.

And finally we are going to face a taboo subject connected with the sexuality of disabled women which is a matter of great importance for us.