Inclusive Community Forum

The Inclusive Community Forum (ICF) was born because Carmo and I have a child with a profound disability. If before we were already sensitive to this matter, Bernardo came to awaken in us a very special attention for those who, like him, 'have a different life.' And people with some kind of disability in Portugal have, I can assure you, a different life.

There are about 640 000 people in our country with a proven disability of more than 60 % (holding a 'multi-purpose certificate'). 640 000 people. There are many people, many fathers and mothers, many brothers, teachers, doctors, many friends involved.

Because we know that we are privileged, because not everyone has access to the solution to their problems and because we didn't find in Portugal a project that gives us the answer to the many questions we face on our life journey, we decided that we wanted to do more.

We challenged Nova SBE to create with us an initiative to study and better understand the problem of inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. And so the ICF was born, an initiative that will focus on some issues that define the life path of a disabled person – issues ranging from health, education, employability, sports, technology, active ageing, etc.

Nova SBE responded with great enthusiasm, the team was assembled, and work began in September 2017. The ICF is integrated in a Nova SBE Knowledge Center, the Nova SBE Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center.

We realize that we have a long way to go in raising everyone's awareness and a huge responsibility to develop projects that can provide effective solutions to real-life situations of people with disabilities.

One day, someone asked me in an interview that had to do with my participation in projects in this social area if I had found the project of my life. This is 'the project of my life', of our life as a family – with Carmo, Clara, Carmo, Vasco, Vera, and Bernardo. I come to challenge you to become part of it, with us.

Rui Diniz