I was happy to host Tanya Barron, International Director of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, you could say, a symbolic patron of the Hedghehog and other creatures, in Riga. The Latvian organisations of the disabled, "Sustento" and "Apeirons" also met her and the creatures of animators. "Leonard Cheshire Foundation" have allowed Latvian organisations to use the clips and the artwork for promotion of the disabled rights. Who knows, we may have empowered these organisations with a strong lobbying tool! Tanya also told the organisations about the new exciting communication tools used by the lobby of the disabled - viral technologies, new media, Facebook, youtube, mobile phone messaging, you name it.
I also received Tanya and about 35 teachers who are involved in the process of inclusive education over sandwiches and coffee in my residence. With support of Inclusive Education Centre and Ideju Forums, the animation clips will be also available at a Latvian website.
The painful realities and dreams of the disabled children in Latvia and the UK were immediately present in that room yesterday. A whole range of challenges were raised and discussed, from poverty that pushes children into special education, when they could well fit into mainstream, to financial challenges that do not allow to make all schools, either in the UK or Latvia, universally accessible tomorrow - to the fact that perfectly accessible schools are nothing without a change of attitude, both parents, other kids and teachers welcoming kids who are different.
That was an important part of my day and laid out a significant roadmap of work for my colleagues. I hope that the reader of this blog will come across these animals in not a too distant time and will be amused and challenged.
I hope to cover a number of different topics in my blog, mainly - how Latvia looks from the perspective of a foreign diplomat - and to show more of what an embassies, these mysterious organisations, do.