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Employment > Awards > N.C.P.E.D.P. - Shell Helen Keller Awards 2002

Sister Rosario Lopez: Empowering disabled persons in rural areas

Sister Rosario's persistence is infectious. She has a tremendous capacity to inspire people and motivate them to share her dreams.

Sister Rosario Lopez combines compassion with great leadership skills to ensure that disabled persons in Meghalaya receive employment.

Trained as a nurse in U.K., she has been involved in rural development programmes for 15 years. She belongs to Missionaries of Jesus Christ, a religious group, and has dedicated herself to the empowerment of the rural population of Meghalaya.

Sister Lopez believes that development of skills leads to economic independence which, in turn, leads to personal dignity. Since the enactment of The Disability Act 1995, she has taken up the cause of employment of persons with disability and pursued it with great diligence. She has lobbied tirelessly for the three per cent reservation that the Act mandates. She has been creating awareness about the reservation in government departments and, at the same time, preparing disabled persons to take advantage of the provision. For her part, she has employed ten persons with disability – ranging from headmistress to a helper – in her own NGO, the Bethany Society. Currently, she is supporting five graduate students with disabilities who would be candidates for jobs under the reservation scheme.

The Bethany Society run by Sister Lopez imparts training to illiterate adult disabled persons to help them set up micro-enterprises. The training ranges from organic farming, setting up nurseries, food processing, making cane and bamboo products to knitting and tailoring. More than 50 persons with disability have been trained under this programme.

She is on the Governing Body of the Society for the Welfare of the Disabled, Shillong. In 2001, she received the P. A. Togan Sangma Award for social service from the government of Meghalaya for 30 years of selfless service rendered to the rural disabled people of Meghalaya.

Bethany Society
Arai Mile, New Tura
W. Garo Hills 794 101
Meghalaya
Phone: (03651) 423 96, 243 44
Fax: (0364) 227 705
E-mail: catshillong@hotmail.com

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