Debra Ruh: Hello everyone and welcome to Human Potential at Work. My name is Debra Ruh and I’m the CEO of Ruh Global. Ruh Global, we are strategists, subject matter experts and market influencers for the community of people with disabilities and the aging market and we work on these topics all over the world.

And so today, I’m really excited to have Amanda Blackwell joining us from Guatemala and she’s going to tell us about the work that she’s doing there in Guatemala to help people with disabilities become employed. And it’s something that it’s much different dynamic in central… in Latin America which is one reason why we really wanted Amanda to be on because there are you know, a lot of problems all over the world making sure that people with disabilities are getting meaningful work. But sometimes, when you dig into cultures that are developing, there’s other issues associated with it that maybe people don’t think of. So, Amanda, thank you for joining the program and maybe we can start by telling the audience more about who you are.

Amanda Blackwell: Sure. Thank you so much for having me on. It’s really a pleasure to be talking with you. So, I’m a speech pathologist by trade. I work with people with disabilities most of my adult life and I came to Guatemala about five years ago as a volunteer speech pathologist. I worked at an orphanage for a year and I lived there and work with children with disabilities there. But then, just after seeing the needs here in the country especially for people with disabilities, I decided to stay. And that was… it was supposed to be a one year deal and then that turned into two and three and four and I’m on the fifth year.

So, I really just don’t want to leave here without changing some things and making life a little bit better for people with disabilities. So, I can tell you a little bit more about that journey specifically or… not sure how to…

Debra: Yes. Well, immediately I’d be curious… I have a feeling I know where but where did you come from before you moved to Guatemala?

Amanda: So, most recently I was living in Dallas Texas. I did my…

Debra: Okay.

Amanda: Masters and some PhD course work at the University of Texas at Dallas before coming here. And I actually… I went on a one week mission to Honduras and that was my first time in Latin America, Central America and I just was so impressed by the people with disabilities. I couldn’t… I couldn’t believe how self-sufficient they were. I think…

Debra: Right.

Amanda: Just by necessity and I had never considered that or thought about how people who don’t receive those therapies regularly and all of that extra support, how do they develop these skills? And I just was so impressed by that one week trip and I decided when I got back to Dallas, I have to do something more. So, I need to go…

Debra: Yes.

Amanda: Learn more about that and figure out how they’re surviving and thriving even when… against all odds, right? Without a lot of support. So, that’s how I ended up applying to the orphanage and they needed someone. They needed a speech pathologist here in Guatemala so, here I am. Even though I didn’t speak Spanish or anything… know a soul when I came here. I took some Spanish classes and just jump right in so…

Debra: Which is exciting. And I think that… something that you said is something that I talk about a lot on the program in that, I believe that sometimes, we assume if you’re part of a country like the US or the United Kingdom… countries like the United Kingdom and Europe and things like that that we’re so much farther ahead. And what I find often in the developing countries, we find such self-sufficiency and innovation. Maybe partially because you don’t have a choice.

Amanda: Right.

Debra: Are you going to be imbedded in society and you don’t have the tools? And so, I think… so, it’s interesting seeing the innovations coming from the developing world. And I know that the United Nations really believes that. That’s why it’s so important that yes, let’s employ people with disabilities in developing countries but what are we doing to also make

sure that people with disabilities have what they need to succeed all over the world?

So, your story really spoke to us. And I know you have an organization called Digna. And I first of all was hoping for anyone that doesn’t speak Spanish like me that you’ll explain what the word means but also tell us more about what that is so that we can dig a little bit more into your work.

Amanda: Absolutely. So, Digna means dignity or worthy. And I really believe strongly in the dignity of every human person regardless of whether or not you have a disability. So, I needed a name… I just… I actually did the Camino De Santiago in Spain. I walked 500 miles from France through Spain to Santiago and on that walk is really when I came up with this idea for Digna. I had been working mostly with children but I realized that we’re just preparing them to go back to their homes because there are no opportunities for adults with disabilities here, right?

So, I decided that we needed to shift the focus and the idea while walking just came to me for why don’t we create a real organization for them where we provide the training and the skills that they need and then place them in their dream jobs. But, based on like you said, they might not have a lot of formal training but they certainly have gifts and talents that are just natural and things that they’ve developed just out of necessity or using their gifts and talents in their regular lives and we want to build on that. We want to know that they’re employable and that they have a lot to offer the world and so that’s how it came about.

We… the challenge here is that we don’t have a lot of statistics or a lot of… or just… like a registry of people with disabilities or we don’t really know where to find them. So, we’ve decided to start a disability focus here in Antigua Guatemala which is a smaller colonial town. It just had a… it had a lot of foreigners and I decided that this would be a really good place for us to begin because it’s a more of a closed-knit community. That we have personal connections because that’s the way that we’re going to

be developing opportunities for people with special needs just by talking to our friends and networking and all of that.

So, what Digna sticks to do by promoting human dignity. The way we’re going to do that is by finding the people first of all. We have to… we have to locate them. So, just talking with people who said, “Oh yes. I have a neighbour that has disability.” Or, “I know a friend that knows a friend that has a son that…” you know, so we’re just doing a lot of that right now.

We have one special education school in the area, that’s for the whole department. And there, they have several children and adults with disabilities who unfortunately their grade only go up to middle school and then after that, there’s nothing for them. But there’s actually… we have a 54 year old woman who’s in primary school because there’s really nothing else for her. So, she’s studying alongside her… I guess they’re not really her peers but…

Debra: Right.

Amanda: By the way. So, that’s just how… that’s how urgently we need to get her out and doing something more productive with her life because she’s a very typical person. We’ve also been doing a lot of networking with hospitals, clinics, just really talking to whoever we can to find these people. And then once we find them, we’re doing an interview process where we’re trying to do more person centered planning and getting to know them and learning like I said about their gifts and talents and their interest and helping them identify a dream job that goes along with whatever gifts and talents that they do have. Right?

So for example, we have a guy with cerebral palsy who’s non-verbal but uses an iPod that we were able to fundraise and get him to use our mode of communication and he loves music. So, he used to carry around… before he had his iPod, he would carry around a boombox with him on his wheelchair on his lap and he just loves playing music for everybody

and he wants everyone to listen to the music. So of course, he could be a DJ, right? He could…

Debra: Right.

Amanda: Use his iPod connected to a Bluetooth speaker as we could program, help him learn how to ask people what their favourite song and if they have any request and then he could be at a restaurant during lunch hours or in the evenings putting on music for everybody, right? So, by just trying to use those natural gifts and talent and interest that people have and make it a productive job for them. So…

Debra: Right.

Amanda: So that’s what we’re trying to do with Digna.

Debra: Well, let me dig into a few of those things that you’ve talked about just for… and the reason why I wanted to have Amanda on the program is obviously, we love what she’s doing but, often on the program, pretty much always on the program, we’re talking about success stories and programs that have been around for a while and they have some really great objectives and they had some success but Amanda, her organization is just starting out. I mean, she’s been doing it for a while but she’s just starting up and I thought it would be interesting to talk to Amanda, learn what she’s doing and just understand the walk that a lot of people are taking in countries like Guatemala.

So, I want to step back and just go over a few things, dig into a few things that Amanda said. For example, many of us that are listening, we probably heard of according to the world health organization, one in seven people in the world have disabilities and in the United States, one in five people identify as having a disability and of course, we just celebrated our Americans with disabilities act birthday, 28 years. And so, that’s very exciting.

I had the pleasure to go to… speak in an event in Costa Rica that was led by UNESCO and I’ve mentioned this on the program before but, I had the pleasure to meet David Perez who is now my chief strategy officer. And

when I connected with Amanda, I connected her with David because one thing that we’re really concerned about at Ruh Global Communications along with many others, the United Nations and Others is that, how do we make sure that we are getting to support to people that need it?

And so, there was… there are seven Central American countries but six of those countries speaks Spanish including Guatemala. And so, I was really surprised that some of these countries have done census, some have not. And some of the countries… I remember panama was trying to do a census and they were going… like Amanda just said, “but we don’t know where the people with disabilities are.” And just like, “what? What do you mean?” and it’s sometimes hard to understand that when you’re in another country.

And so, I remember sister Anne was telling us that in Panama, when they were out doing the census, people would hide their children with disabilities because they were afraid… or the adults with disabilities as well because they were afraid the government was coming to take them away. I don’t know what they thought they were going to do with them but I mean, the fears and the misnomers and you know, the cultural barriers. There are just so many barriers that it’s just hard to understand sometimes coming from the United States or say Texas like Amanda you did. So it’s… and to have a speech therapist there, it’s like… it’s worth as waiting gold because they don’t have access to so many things that we do. Now, at the same time, that’s when you start really getting innovation coming in and imagination and things like that and showing the spirit of the people. But I think it’s important to look at programs that are starting out like Amanda’s.

All of us that are trying to make a difference for people with disabilities understand what is happening, what they need. I mean, she said she did a fundraiser for an iPod. So think about that in the United States, I mean, or in Europe or other countries. What do you mean? iPod costs $300. No big deal. But it’s just interesting to note that the work that’s being done and how critical to know this. And also, if you’re a corporate brand and

you’re doing business in the Central America or Guatemala, this is an opportunity to help.

I also was wondering as you were speaking Amanda if your organization is part of the International Labor Organizations Global Business and Disability Network. It is a group of multinational corporations that have come together and committed to employing and including people with disabilities as employees, as customers and there are national networks. And I believe, there’s like 26 or 27 countries represented and I can’t remember of the top of my head if Guatemala is represented. But it’s something that you can join and it’s free for you.

Now, there’s 27 multinational corporations that pay every month… excuse me, every year to be part of this so they can have business to business conversations about employing people with disabilities but, if a corporation, a multinational corporation is located in countries like Guatemala and they’re employing people with disabilities in other countries but not in the developing country like Guatemala, I think there’s an opportunity for your voice to be heard and for them to know you’re a point person that they could go to to not only help you be successful but help them be successful.

So I just want to level set some of the things that Amanda was talking about because I think a lot of us just have no idea how much we have to step back into this conversation to understand what she’s talking about. Like she said, not everybody is getting to go to school. And if you’re going to school, you’re 54 and you’re going to school with children… you know, it’s… maybe they’re having some fun there but you can also see what the problems there are as well.

So, have you… do you know… have you gotten engaged with the ILO Amanda?

Amanda: Not yet. We haven’t. We did just meet with the OAS, the Organization of American States and we’re… We’re signing up…

Debra: Alright good. Good good. And I’ll introduce you to them.

Amanda: Thank you.

Debra: Yes. I’ll introduce you to the ILO too.

Amanda: Great. We’re signing up to be the first group in Guatemala who will be working with them.

Debra: Yay! Excellent. Excellent.

Amanda: So yes.

Debra: Alright. So, let’s… I just wanted to level set for I think sometimes at least, I’m bad about this, sometimes when you’re talking about the stuff, I can’t help but think around my own world and what I’ve experienced. Of course I’m a little different because I have experience so much outside the US but, I just wanted to do some level setting to the audience. And once again, the other corporate brands that are listening to this show, I think these are the opportunities. Once again, you have a representation in Guatemala and you would like to make sure that you’re including employees with disabilities in Guatemala like you are in other countries; Amanda is a very good resource for you. You want to do fundraising, you want to do donations, you want to get involved, that’s why I have Amanda on the program today. We want to make sure to spotlight and really highlight the work that she’s doing.

So, I know that there are employers obviously in Guatemala but, I believe and I’m going to make sure that… you make sure that this is correct but, I think a lot of businesses in Guatemala would be small businesses. You have some big businesses, hospitality and things like that. Is that true that a lot of them are small businesses?

Amanda: Well, actually, Guatemala is the biggest economy in Central America.

Debra: Okay.

Amanda: The private sector is about, I think that 85 percent of the economy is a private sector. So we do have several multinational companies here. Obviously all the fast food chains are here.

Debra: Right.

Amanda: And we have… Nestlé has a big factory. There are certainly call centers and things with the customer service side of things but we do have several multinational companies here. In our specific area in Antigua, we do have a lot of just one restaurant. You know, with one owner who opened it up. So that’s why… another reason why we are starting here but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going after the bigger multinational companies as well.

And we have two big focuses with Digna. We’re trying to do a big education piece like you said because disability is just misunderstood here. I think Guatemala has an amazing rich culture and history which means that lots of things have been passed on to the generations which can be great because we have people making tortillas the way their great great great grandmother did or making clothes and things like that but things have been passed down. But unfortunately, one of the negative sides of that is that people’s understanding of disability has also been passed down and I think they still got fear of the unknown because we don’t really see a lot of people with disabilities out in public here. So, I think people don’t really know how to interact with them and that fear of the unknown is keeping people from advancing and giving opportunities to people with disabilities just because they haven’t seen it.

And you mentioned the statistics about… the world statistics about how many people we think that have disabilities but in Guatemala we know that the number of adults with disabilities is a lot higher just because of the lack of access to healthcare in some situations especially in the rural areas. There are something that doesn’t need to cause a disability like diabetes that if it’s well controlled doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll lose a limb or something like. Or if you have glaucoma for example, that can also be controlled and usually we can avoid becoming blind but a lot of times that happen too because people don’t get the diagnoses in time

and don’t have the treatment. So, a lot of adults that otherwise were not… did not have a disability are now finding themselves at 50 years old with a disability.

So, it’s just… we’re talking about a different kind of population. And also, you’ve mentioned the stigma of families that would hide their children with disabilities, we see similar things here where people blame the mothers for having a child with disability. that god must be punishing her and she did something wrong in her past and so now she’s been punished with a child with disability and so that mom is not going to be taking her child out in public very much because she was saying that people think that she… they’re blaming her for it.

So, there’s just all kinds of things that are happening behind the scenes that are barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities. So, that’s what we’re working on and that’s why we have this big component of education where we want to… we’re working with a big… we’re trying to work on an alliance with a big company here who… it’s not a company, it’s an association. Human resources people from different companies and we’re trying to get in with them so that we can get in front of these companies and educate them really and tell them not to be afraid of people with disabilities and to teach them why it’s good for business like you know in your book…

Debra: Right.

Amanda: You talk a lot about that in all of your podcasts that it really is good for business. You’re not doing it as service necessarily by creating programs for work inclusion here. It’s good for you too as a business to do. So education is a huge piece of what we’re doing. And then we also need to be working on the other end with our people with disability and giving them that necessary training to be able to become employed and to use their talents and build on them to be really good employees as part of different small and big businesses. It doesn’t really matter to us. The point is that they would be working and be productive and feel like they’re contributing to society and have all that dignity that they do have as human.

Debra: And I know, you mentioned OAS, and OAS is doing wonderful things all through Latin and Central America. And I think having the groups like OAS and some of the UNESCO and ILO, some of the UN groups coming together and also seeing leadership coming out of Central America. I know that when we had this event in Costa Rica and they invited the six other countries and there was more than just Central America countries. We had countries coming from Latin America. I know Columbia was there and Brazil and Peru and Chile and others and Spanish speakers.

So, most of these countries were Spanish speakers and really talking about how do we all get together and support each other because many of the problems that we’re going to see in Guatemala were going to also be seeing in Honduras and Panama and Costa Rica and others and you know, is there ways that we can share information and then support each other and learn from each other, create disability persons organizations to make sure that people with disabilities have voices.

I think you have an opportunity from the ground up which you’re doing to really maybe break down some of the stigmas that have been extently created in other countries. I know that in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and others, this work has been being done for so long that accidentally people sort of gotten silo. They’ve sort aside, well, we’re going to just take care of the people that are blind and we’re going to give them everything they need and once we figure that out, then we’ll help the people that are deaf and then we’ll help the people that have cerebral palsy and mobility and then you see infighting in those disability segments. And then of course, there’s always the people that have become disabled afterwards that might have missed some of the opportunities to learn how to do things with those disabilities when they’re children but they’re an adult now so nobody’s going to help you.

You know, there is a lot of moving parts and a lot of confusion about how to truly include these people with disabilities. It’s interesting because in some ways, the corporate brands, they understand they’re a piece of it across the board but, I’m seeing a lot more understanding there. I’m

seeing a lot of multinational and national corporations putting really solid programs to include people with disabilities in their diverse workforce which like you said is very important to the bottom-line and as expected of you as a corporation too by your customers. We all expect you to be having social impacts and focusing on the UN sustainable development goals and purpose, profit, planet people all of those things. And so, I think there’s a lot of work being done.

I think one thing that I want to do on this program is connect people like you Amanda that are on the ground doing the work, pulling on the people, finding the people to help… pulling all the different people together. And I also think that speech therapist, occupational therapist and physical therapist, I see all over the world when I’m talking about meeting with groups, I see leadership coming from these groups. These are the… you were trained to do this and I come… a lot of people that… I have relatives that are speech therapist and occupational therapist and physical therapist and it’s amazing the work they do and how they really really can change people’s lives.

So I think that’s very exciting. But, there’s a lot of moving parts Amanda. So, where do you begin? I mean, you’ve mentioned… first of all, we have to find the people. We have to talk about it. It would be great if you use social media channels and television channels and communications channels could be talking about your work so that if somebody… and it’s interesting how people are consuming data in such different ways now. I mean, like with our program, we have some people that are getting access to this on Facebook. Some come through YouTube. Some come through iTunes. Some through Google Stitcher. I mean, Stitcher or Google player. There’s just so many ways that we’re all consuming data. How do you get your story out so that the people that you want to help know that you’re there?

Amanda: Yes. So, here in our little town in Antigua, we started… we’ve made a real concerted effort to make connections with those other groups. Because there are a lot of people… just like you said, there are people working with the blind and people working with the deaf and people working with

those with Down syndrome and they’re doing great great things but they only helping very small little population, right?

Debra: Right. That’s true.

Amanda: It’s not…

Debra: Yes.

Amanda: The general public, right? And so what we want to do is be that link between all of them. We want to be… we want Digna to be the association that bring in together everyone because we realized that we’re not going to make huge changes and we’re not going to influence the society the way that they need to be influenced in terms of thinking about people with disabilities unless we’re joining together and working as one. So, we actually… our hashtag has nothing to do with Digna, it’s called… it’s same team. We want to work together in Spanish and use more people because we want people who work together. We’re not fighting for donors, we’re trying to be self-sustainable with our education program for companies because the point is that this cause needs to be heard and it needs to… we need to be changing the way that people are thinking about disability. So, that’s a huge piece of what we’re doing.

So, the way that we’ve done that is literally just talking to people here at where we are. We know that there’s… for example, there’s a little group… there’s a group here called Escovita, they’re working to make rooms out of plastic bottles. They’re using… recycling plastic bottles and putting people with disabilities to work and having them make these bottles and so we’re joining with them. We’re doing with the group who does training for people without disabilities. We’re working with them to create trainings, job training programs for people who do have disabilities. And so, we’re having meetings with them and we’re talking and we’re finding out what works for them and what hasn’t worked and we’re learning from each other and we’re just trying to create this community of people who are working towards the same cause.

So… and in terms of getting publicity or networking with people outside of Guatemala, we did start a US non-profit, Digna International so we’re in the US as well. Just trying to… we’re on Facebook, we have a website, we’re doing all of those things and then obviously meeting with David. You put us in touch with David in Costa Rica and he’s given us some other contacts. And so, just trying to talk to as many people as we can because we know that we all need to work together, this is really going to change.

Debra: I agree. And so, I’m going to ask you a couple more questions. And one thing… so I’m going to just let you think about them for a second. So, I do want you to tell us how to find you on Facebook and all the social media and your URL. But also, if there are people out there right… I mean, people are out here listening and watching this interview, how can we help you? Can you give us some examples of how we can help you. And you can always go back Amanda and you can add more. And also you can help me here if you think about it later to the Facebook page because this page will be up and we’ll continue to market it. But, how can the international community help you? How can people… brands help you in Guatemala? How can people help you in Central America and Latin America? What can we do to help?

Amanda: So, I think, as a speech pathologist, I’m not trained in non-profit training. I mean, I know… obviously my job is to help people, connect with their world and so I love doing this and alternative communication is really my passion and so, looking for alternative ways for people to connect with their world is what I do on a daily bases. But, we want to learn about more strategies to really engage like you said the multinational companies in creating trainings that are really effective for people. And they don’t tell people that you need to hire persons with disabilities but rather you teach people or you influence them as to why that’s good for business and why that’s good for them.

So, anyone that does that kind of training and has that knowledge and experience, we would love to learn from you. We would love to connect with you to just learn how to do that. Then specifically in Latin America, our vision, our long-term vision for Digna is to be… to do this model here and then to replicate it in other Central American countries because

we’re all kind of in the same boat with the disabilities and we’re just… like you said, you’re celebrating the how many years of the ADA?

Debra: 28.

Amanda: Yes. 28.

Debra: 28.

Amanda: Yes. And we… our street dogs have more by here in Guatemala than people with disabilities. So, that just tells you where we are in terms of priorities and how far behind we are. So, just learning as much as we can from those people who do have experience like you said from the grassroots, from the ground up because we’re not… we’re not trying to take a big program that’s already working and implement it here; we’re trying to start something from nothing and build it up right.

So, we always talk about in speech pathology doing functional goals and we want everything that we do to be generalizable to that person needs to do in their daily lives or want to do in their daily lives. So, we’re trying to replicate that model within Digna and doing the person centered training and really finding out that person’s individual goals. And so, we’re not going straight to the companies first and saying, “What kind of jobs could you offer us?” because they’re going to tell us the cleaning jobs. You know all of those…

Debra: Right. Right.

Amanda: But we really want to look at the person first. And so, anyone that also has experience with that person centered training, we would love to learn from you as well. So, our website… can I tell the website?

Debra: Absolutely. Yes.

Amanda: So it’s dignaguate… o wait, I’m saying it in Spanish. Dignaguate.org. so it’s D-I-G-N-A and then guate from Guatemala, G-U-A-T-E dot org. Okay.

Debra: And I’ll also… I think the… you know the viewers can already… you already know this but, Ruh Global Communications is throwing our full support behind what Amanda’s doing as well. David is counselling her.

We’re introducing her to people. I’m going to introduce her to Stefan at the ILO.

There’s a lovely woman in Mexico that we had on the program before that has national program. And that’s one thing that I love about the ILO Global Business Disability Network is that they’re here to help us all come together and share best practices. There’s no reason that you have to start from the scratch because there’s a lot of really good content out there. There’s a lot of resources. There are a lot of people that want to help. And so, to me, that’s one thing that we can offer with this program is making sure we’re connecting as many people as possible. So, tell us also your Facebook.

Amanda: Yes. So it’s Digna International…

Debra: You’re signed up. Yes. You know what I meant. Sorry.

Amanda: Yes. So it’s Digna International. So if you just look through that on Facebook you’ll find us.

Debra: So that’s how we can find you in all the social media different mediums?

Amanda: Right.

Debra: And of course you can come to me and I’ll introduce you to Amanda as well. But, I think we all have to come together to help each other. And we’ve had such great successes all over the world but we have so much work to do.

So the US is 28 years into our Americans with Disabilities Act. Many countries including yours have signed and ratified the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, the United States is not ratified yet but the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities is a wonderful place where we’re all coming together and trying to make sure that the world understands that people with disabilities definitely add value in every aspect of the world including with employment. And this is not all about charity; this is about people really finding their purpose in life and Amanda is a wonderful example of that.

Started in Texas, became speech pathologist. Just went on one week to Guatemala and then realized this was her calling.

So, we’re very proud and honoured to feature you on this program and I look forward to having you come back on Amanda and give us updates and let us know how we can help you. But in the meantime, we’ll connect you and anybody that’s watching or listening to this that wants to help in Guatemala. Please reach out to Amanda because people in Guatemala really need our help. So, Amanda, thank you for being on the program today.

Amanda: Thanks so much.

Debra: And thanks everybody for listening, subscribing. Please consider buying my book, “Inclusion Branding” and doing a review on Amazon because the book is talking to the brands and it’s talking to corporate brands about why we’re not just a charity; we can add major value to your corporation. So, we’re all in this together to really evolve the world and I really am grateful for the work you’re doing Amanda. Thank you so much.

Amanda: Thank you for this opportunity. Take care.

Debra: Thank you. And special thanks to our captioner Janette for joining us today and our producer Doug Foresta for being behind the scenes.

Male Speaker: You’ve been listening to Human Potential at Work with Debra Ruh. To learn more about Debra and how she can help your organization, visit ruhglobal.com. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and you want to make sure that you don’t miss any future episodes, go to iTunes and subscribe to the podcast Human Potential at Work. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll be back next week with the new episode.