Thank you.
Perhaps I may go ahead and answer Mr. Lake's question. I come from a very small town in the northeastern part of India, so I can talk to you about my own experiences and that of my family members who have children with disabilities.
Like Nafisa said, most of the time people are not even aware that their child has a right to education. A child goes to school at four years of age, but between zero to four years there's hardly any intervention available for most families to even understand how their child can be prepared to attend regular schools.
Children without disabilities have access to going to a playground, a prep school, or the resources and knowledge of access to rehabilitation. However, getting ready for school programs does not exist in many countries, and people are not really aware of the importance of that.
Even if you overcome all of those challenges and reach the school, schools either ask you to not come or ask you to provide for all the additional costs. Families have lost income. Families have had to build ramps. Families have had to beg and plead to make sure the classrooms are never changed for children with disabilities. I'm not even talking about those with intellectual and development disabilities here, because children with those disabilities are not even accorded that opportunity. Where there is the small sliding door that is open for others, I don't think that even opens for children with intellectual disabilities, in our part of the country at least. I think that's an important issue to consider.
Global leaders like Canada really have a role to play in ensuring that when we are supporting education programs in such countries, that we ensure we are doing no harm by reinforcing those barriers.
Thank you so much.