“Value who you are. You have lots to say and lots to achieve” : Michael Sullivan

Last week 20 Down Syndrome Australia Board Directors and state Executive Officers and one very pregnant administration coordinator braved the humidity and heat of Darwin in November for their Annual General Meeting. 

... On Friday, our AGM and board meeting was held at the Members and Guests Lounge at Parliament House and we were fortunate enough to have three speakers present to us: 

• the Honourable Jane Prentice, Assistant Minister for Social and Disability Services 
• Michael Sullivan, Chairperson of NSW Council for Intellectual Disability (CID), and 
• Suresh Rajan, President of the National Ethic Disability Alliance (NEDA). 

All three presenters were wonderful and we sincerely appreciate their contribution to our AGM. Thank you! 

But for anyone who, in particular, doesn’t know who Michael Sullivan is, we feel you should.

Michael is not only the Chair of NSW CID, but he is also on the NDIA reference group on intellectual disability, a member of Australia wide advocacy group OUR VOICE, and has recently been appointed the University of New South Wales Ambassador for Healthy Aging. 

Michael also has Down syndrome ... read more about the meeting and Michael's contribution here, on the DSA News page.

On Friday (18 November 2016, DSA posted its thanks to Suresh Rajan for his work in immigartion, on Facebook:

Down Syndrome Australia was delighted to welcome Suresh Rajan to speak at our AGM today about immigration and disability. 

The Australian Down syndrome community has long been a staunch and unwavering advocate for changes to our discriminatory immigration laws and has supported and advocated for people with Down syndrome and their families to have equal opportunity with others to migrate to Australia. 

In recent times, we have enjoyed the support and expertise of Suresh in our endeavours. With his passion for human rights, experience as President of the National Ethnic Disability Alliance, President of West Australians for Racial Equality, member of People with Disabilities Australia board, prolific commentator on social justice and human rights, and much more, not to mention being a really nice guy, he is a much valued ally.