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ELSA Press Releases
June 16th 2002
ELSA Chair Edwin J. Farr awarded MBE in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours, for services to the Stuttering Community.
Edwin Farr, at his home in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom said:
"I am delighted, surprised and humbled to receive this award.
I believe the award recognises not just my efforts, but those of a great number of volunteers who work tremendously hard to improve the conditions for people who stutter - an area of disability which is not high profile. Stuttering in fact affects 1% of the adult population and 5% of children.
As well as being a member of the British Stammering Association (BSA) for around 20 years and a trustee for 12, I also saw a need for more dialogue between groups. Inspired by a conference in 1987 at St Andreasberg, Germany I set up a charity, The European League of Stuttering Associations (ELSA), 12 years ago. This brought together the national organisations of Europe into a respected lobbying group, raising the profile of stuttering within Europe. ELSA is a founding member of the Brussels based European Disability Forum and has a vote on their General Council.
In addition the charity has been able to access European funding for events, seminars and information output and dissemination to discuss and promote best practice and to help stop the isolation often felt by people who stutter.
Seminars for young people are an important part of ELSA's work. They have given young people the opportunity to meet, an opportunity which they would not have had if it were not for the European money ELSA sourced.
ELSA has a membership of 25 national stuttering associations across Europe and has held 14 meetings since it was set up in 1990.
I hope everyone who has been involved with the BSA and ELSA feels that they can share in this award."
More information on ELSA's and the BSA's work can be obtained by accessing www.elsa.info and www.stammering.org |
