Youth Ability Summit

The "Youth Ability Summit" was part of the inaugural launch of The Open Hands Initiative, which took place from August 1 to 3, 2010 in Damascus, Syria.

The Summit was the first of its kind, bringing together American and Syrian youth disability advocates to share their experiences, ideas, and culture, while creating strategies to promote the rights of youth with disabilities.

The youth worked with comic book and disability experts to create an innovative and groundbreaking global publishing platform--a comic book--for promoting the empowerment of people with disabilities. The result of their efforts is the "Silver Scorpion" comic book featuring the world's first disabled superhero who extolls the values of both Syrian and American culture.

Eventually, the comic book will expand into a series that will cover contemporary issues in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. The comic book will be printed and distributed in Syria, the US, and around the world.

• Meet the Youth Participants
• Meet the Comic and Disability Experts
• About Our Partner Organizations
• See the Summit Photo Gallery
• Summit Press Coverage

The Youth Ability Summit also hosted a three-day writing workshop which produced the first cross-cultural guidebook for implementing the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This crucial manual was authored jointly by disability experts from Syria and America. You can read and download the manual "Ensuring Rights in Development."