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Grassroots Parent Organizing for Children with Disabilities
in Rural Jamaica
by Elke I. Hottentot
Participatory action research was used to understand and strengthen
the process of grassroots parent organizing for children with
disabilities in rural Jamaica. The thesis presents an overview
of the experience of parenting and organizing for children with
disabilities and of the Jamaican context. Parents' voices were
central to the research and are threaded throughout the thesis.
Four themes and twelve sub-themes emerged in the research, based
upon which six concluding findings were formulated. The first
confirms the complexity of grassroots organizing and the challenges
involved in participation. Other findings are: parents will participate
in parent organizations when invited to do so and properly challenged;
the importance of 'free space' allowing parents to share experiences
of childhood disability; participation causes change and conflict;
and, conflict may either empower or disempower parents' self-image.
The sixth finding speaks to the challenges the facilitator encountered
in supporting a PAR process in a cross-cultural context.
E-Mail: elkehottentot@shaw.ca
Calgary,
Alberta
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