Forty-eight years ago, the voluntary organisation for the disability sector started its uphill climb to what is now the Malta Federation of Organisations Persons with Disability (MFOPD).
MFOPD is the national umbrella organisation, which has 30 member organisations together with a few individual members, whose aim and mission is to seek and achieve the rights of persons with disability. It offers support and collaboration to its member organisations and calls all concerned to bring to the attention of Authorities and the public its magazine One Voice in every sphere which focuses on people with disability, with their needs and rights, and their family.
The Federation “strives to strengthen and develop the measures and services which improve the life of persons with disability and their family,” said President of the Federation Marthese Mugliette, when she introduced the first issue of the magazine published by the Federation.
The title of the magazine, One Voice is in itself an eloquent message to one and all, demonstrating the vision of the Federation which strives to be the Voice of all organisations in the sector since “we count more when we speak with a strong united voice. Under this umbrella organisation, we NGOs become a single entity [with] a single unified public message, especially in our sensitive sector.”
For so many years, the incorrect impression that “persons with disability, their families and NGOs are a fragmented sector” has prevailed. This because the many needs and demands of this sector have falsely been viewed as a non-united civil society representation dispersed into too many tangents. When all specific organisations expressed their demands around one table, One Voice was born to address the Authorities concerned, and results were forthcoming.
There is still a long way ahead, and the Federation is persistent in its endeavours to have all aspects of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities fulfilled. Ms Mugliette reiterates her message: “To all of you out there who believe in our sector and want to make a difference, unite with us and become a member of MFOPD. There is strength in numbers and only strong, clear, consistent voices have a real chance to be heard.”
One Voice is the voice of MFOPD and it is being published to reach out to society, making all aware that persons with disability are not so much a vulnerable sector as much as a nucleus in society offering new horizons to all of us who can envisage innovative challenges beyond the norm.
Maria Pia Gauci
PRO