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You're watching UNICEF Television.

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Mauricio Gutierrez from Nicaragua and Ani Hovhanissian from Armenia

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may seem different on the surface,

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but they have both faced the stigma and discrimination

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that comes with having a disability.

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I was born prematurely at five months and suffered a brain palsy.

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Doctors gave me 48 hours to live after being born.

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As a young leader of the national organization Los Pepitos,

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which helps parents of children with disabilities,

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Mauricio uses his experience with his own disability to help others.

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In her native Armenia, Ani is using her journalistic aspirations

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to advocate for the rights of children with disabilities

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and for understandings of their unique situations.

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Mauricio and Ani are both determined to speak up

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in the hopes that improvement in the lives of young people with disabilities

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will help them to be better integrated into society.

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The first problem that I see is accessibility.

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Children should be able to enter schools or cinemas wherever they want to go.

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Both of these remarkable young people were invited to speak

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during the recent landmark signing ceremony of the Convention

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on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,

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held recently at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

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It is the spirit of these children that UNICEF hopes

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will encourage its regional and country offices

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to support the ratification and implementation of the Convention.

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Worldwide society should be re-educated

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because they don't understand the value of people with disabilities

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and what they are capable of.

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As for Ani and Mauricio, they will continue to educate

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and spread awareness about the rights of the disabled,

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knowing that it is the most important instrument

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to helping them achieve equal status in society.

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It is very important that children with disabilities

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have a chance to be educated with other children.

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Then they will learn to live together.

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This is Natasha Ikoli reporting for UNICEF Television,

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Unite for Children.