FWBO Leeds and Disability

The Leeds FWBO Centre have taken the lead on equality and diversity issues by establishing a group to look at ways to remove barriers to participation in the life and work of their centre. The group have named themselves the Ratnasambhava Kula. A kula is a group or family, and Ratnasambhava is the archetypal Buddha (right) whose wisdom is the Wisdom of Equality. The idea for the group came as a result of a talk by Dorothy Mallon and Lucy Wilkinson (below left) on the subject of Disability, Equality and the Bodhisattva Ideal - FWBO News will publish a transcript in the features section in a few weeks.

Dorothy and Lucy have both been involved in the disabled people's movement for many years, in the North East of England and, more recently, in Leeds. This has included work around issues such as disabled people and eugenics, as well as working to achieve legal and institutional change, including working within the Disabled People's Direct Action Network, or DAN, who use civil disobediance to promote full participation and equality of disabled people in society. Dorothy and Lucy have also carried out disability equality training, based on helping individuals to reassess their relationship with disability issues using the Social Model of Disability. They have also campaigned on other issues of equality and discrimination. Lucy and Dorothy became Mitras in in May 2006. Lucy and Dorothy can be contacted through the Leeds Buddhist Centre:
enquiries[at]leedsbuddhistcentre.org (replace [at] with @)