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Hello everyone,

Yesterday, we went to hand over a manifest to members of the Dutch parliament.

I recorded part of it and am also sharing the manifest below.

As many of you probably know, our government is currently in the formation process. The biggest political parties are now trying to see if they can form a coalition to form a government, and they are exploring which parties they can and want to work together with.

After this process, they will work on a coalition accord, where they will present their plans for the coming four years to the other political parties and the public at large.

So Stichting SWOM and JongPIT handed over a manifest to parliament, urging them not to forget people with disabilities in this process.

SWOM is an organization that represents people with disabilities in the job-finding / working process, to improve working conditions and the number of jobs. They also lobby for making our education sector more inclusive and accessible.

JongPIT represents young people with a disability more broadly, across all the different parts of society.

These two organisations work very closely together. I am a member of JongPIT, and since I broadly agree with the manifest we’re handing over, I decided to join the group heading to parliament.

The main topic of this manifest is improving working conditions specifically. It is urging for four specific things. I will quickly summarise them; you can find the full details in the manifest I am sharing.

1.

Improving support in finding a job and improving your ability to do the job, such as a job coach.

2.

Stimulating companies to hire people with disabilities.

3.

Improving the number of jobs and their quality in the banenafspraken.

For those that don’t know, the banenafspraak (often translated as Jobs Agreement or Access to Work Programme) is a policy agreement between the Dutch government and employers aimed at increasing employment for people with labour-market restrictions.

This agreement was originally made in 2013 and is part of the broader goal of making the Dutch labour market more inclusive for people with disabilities.

The government is planning to broaden the definition of the group that falls under this agreement, but we are urging for more jobs to be provided as well, as the government always falls short of even creating the number of jobs it is planning to create, by tens of thousands.

The jobs they’re creating are often not very engaging or stimulating either. To be very harsh, in a lot of cases it is just work to keep you busy.

This is not what the agreements were made for. As such, we urge for improving the quality of jobs provided and the growth potential in said jobs.

And finally, we urge for improving cooperation between different government initiatives. There are many different initiatives currently ongoing that aim to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities, but they aren’t very well coordinated.

Also, the role for people with disabilities in the creation of laws and policies pertaining to the group is still very limited.

This is very weird. How can you make policy about a group if you’re not actively involving the group in the creation of said policies?

This also really shows that they are not properly implementing the jobs agreements in the spirit in which they were created. After all, if you’re creating jobs for people with disabilities, the first thought that should come to your mind is thinking of places where lived experience experts can be used and hiring people for the jobs they would be good at.

We have the UN Convention, the European Accessibility Act, the jobs agreement, and many more laws and policies that require the input of lived experience experts. Not only on the side of the government, but also from the side of different companies, NGOs, and other organisations.

Broadly, I stand behind the manifest.

Though, as always, I think it could be a bit more sharply formulated. I am just like that. 😊)

For example, I think we could have been sharper on the jobs agreement. It is crazy that they aren’t using these agreements to get people to where their expertise is actually needed, in more than twelve years of implementation. They deserve more than a slap on the wrist for that one.

Also, companies quite often just think up excuses not to hire people with disabilities because of underlying prejudice. I think this should have been more explicitly stated as a problem and something that needs solving. Sure, some companies have the right intentions, but many companies also simply do not.

But that’s just a difference in the strategy I think we should use. As I stand behind the goals, I participated.

I was very tired, though, when I went. I woke up around 4 am yesterday and was unable to fall asleep again. I just ended up waking up early and going for a swim around 7 am. After that, I went to university to get some things done for the job.

I went to The Hague around 12 for the manifest, but ended up just missing the train. As such, I was a little bit late. There were many people handing over a manifest yesterday, and the lines to get in were very long. Moreover, security is very tight. It is like the airport. You have to take off all your bags and jacket, and everything that could have metal in it. It all needs to go through scanning machines, and you also need to be searched before you’re allowed in.

By the time I got there, the official handing-over and picture moment was already finished. I did get to talk to a member of parliament, but I wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked to be.

After that, we went to the office to chill for a bit and eat oliebollen. I tried to patch myself up with coffee and cola as well, but half an hour later I was basically sleeping on the table.

I ended up sleeping on the train ride back to Amsterdam, and I felt a lot better. I also went for a 5.5 km run, which really helped. I didn’t film this one, but I did make a picture with my guide.

Two people taking a selfie together. They appear happy and are smiling. The woman on the left has long hair tied back and is wearing a black sports jacket with a reflective yellow vest. The man on the right has short, dark hair and is wearing a white sports jacket with a red accent and a red ribbon around his neck. There is text on his jacket that is partially visible. The background is dark, which may indicate an evening or nighttime setting. Both look sporty, likely just after exercising or running.

And that was basically it. I hope you enjoy!

Yours,

Ihab

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