Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 27, 2023 (ZIZ Newsroom):
St. Kitts and Nevis will be represented at the Busan World Disability Conference 2023 (BWDC 2023) in Busan, Republic of Korea later this month.
President of the St. Kitts Nevis Association of Persons with Disabilities Joseph Bergan has been selected to travel to South Korea to participate in the Busan World Disability Conference 2023 from August 7th to 11th.
Speaking with ZIZ News. Bergan outlined what he expects from the international event.
“What I’m expecting from this conference is that from time to time, we in the region as sister and brother organizations, as we would say, we would communicate through networking and we would basically talk about what’s happening in our region and what’s coming in on stream. But to go a bit further on a global scale, Disabled People International has bigger connections with people like partners like PAHO and North America Association, Canada Association, UNESCO, and some other very big global partners. A lot of our partners and supporters are involved in this initiative,” he said.
At the conference Bergan will be given the opportunity to share insights on challenges and new opportunities for persons with disabilities.
He spoke of the significance of St. Kitts and Nevis being part of this global conversation, noting, “It means as a little federation or the smallest nation, as we say in the Western hemisphere. We have a voice at that global level. As a reminder, we had a conference as such here in 2018 where we saw the Convention for the Right of Persons with Disabilities was ratified and we are further waiting legislation. So initiatives like this now, I could state that case at this forum and we could have the different diplomats or heads reaching out to the different government agencies here and help them push this initiative.”
Bergan said he is pleased to represent the federation at the upcoming conference.
“I am very excited about going on this trip and I just want the Federation to pray for me on a whole. And I hope that whatever is discussed at that level, that it can be very important here when we bring it back into the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and implementations going forward. So I think this is very important to see that St Kitts and Nevis is represented at a global level and I’m happy to be that person to be representing the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis.”
The Conference is organized by the Organizing Committee of BWDC, with the Busan Metropolitan City and the DPI Korea as co-hosts, supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea.