Ministries to the Disabled
Approximately 10% of the population have some kind of disability. For Spain that means approximately four million, of whom the government has registered with a significant level of disability (2000) 1,771,636 people. In 2003, European year for the disabled, we also wish to introduce something of what the Spanish evangelicals are doing in this area.
We list the names of some of the ministries of whose existence know:
Nueva Luz, working with the blind, providing Biblical and other materials for them. Based in Madrid. Info in Spanish here.
 MariNieves
Proel, a ministry of SIL/Wycliffe, working to produce a written, symbol-based sign language for the deaf. In November, 2004, a joint project with the Catholic Episcopal Conference was launched to train translators to produce a complete interconfessional translation of the Bible into the Spanish and Catalan sign languages, both in written form and also on video/DVD. Info in Spanish here.
An interesting statistic recently released in Madrid gives the number of disabled people in work:
In the region there are a total of 182.129 people with more than 30% disability, of whom 111.098 are of working age. Yet only about 30.000, 27% of the total, are actually in employment. The iformation came from Social services councillor, Pilar Martínez. These figures show the great need and opportunities for ministry among people with disabilities.
European Disability Network meet in 2004 in Barcelona
This network which links evangelical ministries to the disabled across Europe was inspired by the work of Joni and Friends, who had an office in Brussels for several years. Mefi-boset organized the southern European regional meeting for 2004, which took place over the May 1st bank holiday weekend.
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