Ocyan supports initiative for people with disabilities

Ocyan supports initiative for people with disabilities

Ocyan supported the lecture “Como Empoderar Pessoas com Deficiência” offered by the filmmaker and social educator, Alex Duarte, on 09/20, in Cabo Frio (RJ), in the Lakes Region. The event, aimed at people with disabilities, was organized by the Public Labor Prosecutor’s Office of Cabo Frio, the Superintendence of Public Policies for People with Disabilities and the City Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“Ocyan considers to be critical to help integrate and include this important group of people into the labor market and the society as a whole. We are committed to the cause and since the beginning of the year we have an affinity group composed of internal volunteers from the Diversity and Inclusion Program focused on the advances we can have in relation to this matter,” says Danielle Rossler, responsible for the legal area and contract administration at UN-P and member of Ocyan’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

The inspiration for the lecture came from the first immersion of people with Down Syndrome in Latin America, an action created by Alex Duarte and entitled Expedição 21. In the activity, 18 young people with changes in chromosome 21 participated in a “reality show” for four days, when they stayed in a house, away from their parents, to seek to develop skills, learn to live alone and be more autonomous.

Alex Duarte explains that society usually insists on seeking biological explanations, cataloging symptoms and standard behaviors for people who have in common diagnoses like this, but the differences between each one give us the opportunity to think that the limits are in the cultural situations involving us.

“After the experience, one of the participants, the writer Vinicius Streda, is living alone. This and other results will be transformed into a scientific research, led by the neuroscientist Mr. Fernando Pinto Gomes, with the aim of showing how interaction with positive environment can improve learning and self-esteem of people with intellectual disabilities,” explains Alex.

About the lecture

Alex Duarte brings an enriching experience on how to deal with differences, judgments and strengthen our emotional state. He stimulates personal empowerment, such as that which seeks a positive mental attitude and sees disability as something to leverage opportunities and never to segregate people. The lecture is an orientation of how to manage emotions, control your own destiny, with responsibility and respect for others. Alex also brings an exclusive content about Expedição 21, with a practical study about how the environment favors the development of people with disabilities.