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Name Surname:<\/b> Lolita Andersone
\nCountry:<\/b> Latvia
\nCity:<\/b> Riga
\nNationality:<\/b> Latvian<\/p>
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Background: <\/b>Lolita Andersone is first and yet only judge in Latvia who has muscular dystrophy, therefore she moves around in a wheelchair. Before she was a chairman of organization for disabled people and later worked as a lawyer in State Human Rights Bureau for 7 years. Lolita is an amazing example of how, despite the challenges brought by disability, with the help of entrepreneurship and perseverance one can achieve a lot! <\/b>
\nSector:<\/b> Legislation (Law and Justice)
\nPosition:<\/b> Judge in Administrative District Court<\/p>
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https:\/\/www.tiesas.lv\/tiesas\/saraksts\/administrativa-rajona-tiesa-rigas-tiesu-nams-3388<\/p>
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Since I was a child, I had this thought about profession in law. When I turned 13, I knew I want to be a lawyer. I started my studies in University of Latvia and when I finished, it was still in Soviet Union, there was a limited chance of getting a job as a lawyer. Back then I started working in one of the organization for disabled people, and as a chairman of this organization, I organized its work. My work there also included various legal questions but you couldn\u2019t say that it was entirely connected with my profession as a lawyer.<\/br><\/br>I\u2019ve also worked as a domestic producer, I knitted and crocheted beanies for children and worked by accepting private orders. This was my work also when I was pregnant with my son. Not long after my son was born, I understood that now it\u2019s the time to do something in my field, so I applied to State Employment Agency to obtain unemployment status. At first, the attitude was somewhat funny, because of my disability, they said something like this \u2013 are you crazy, what are you even doing here? With the time, the situation got better and I was accepted. Of course, there were not a lot of possibilities, since there wasn\u2019t a lot of jobs which you can do from home. Not long after, there was an article in newspaper \u2018Diena\u2019 about our family, in this article it was mentioned that I\u2019m a lawyer and I\u2019m looking for a job. I had a call from State Human Rights Bureau and I was offered a job there, it was a start of my career. I worked there for seven years, I started as a lawyer and became head of the department. When Administrative District court was founded, I got a call and they offered me to take part in a competition. Before then, I never thought that I could become a judge, moreover, I liked the job in Human Rights Bureau as it was very interesting. But I was said that if I\u2019d take part in this competition, 2-month long training would follow lectured by one of the best lawyers in state. Only because I wanted so badly to hear those lectures, I applied to this competition. Competition was hard, a lot of people had applied and step by step I went through the competition. There were 30 people at the beginning and only 18 stayed after 2 exams. And then I thought \u2013 if I came this far, I must go further and just like that I changed my workplace!<\/br><\/br>Since childhood I was interested in investigator\u2019s profession but I grew older and I had to realize my disability and understand, and think about profession and job which would be more suitable for me \u2013 that kind of job which you can do by sitting at a desk and which doesn\u2019t demand a lot of running around. I think that lawyer\u2019s profession varies greatly, when you obtain an education in law, you can wort in any field \u2013 as a lawyer, as a judge or notary. Even in my wildest dreams, I didn\u2019t think that I\u2019d become a judge, but I love this work. I\u2019m very interested in it.<\/p><\/div>
I faced my first obstacle at the time when I wanted to apply for studies in university. At the time, it was during Soviet Union, in order to apply for studies, you needed a high school diploma and the opinion of Health Commission that you are allowed to study. The process of me going to university was stopped at the beginning when I turned to my doctor, so he can further recommend me to Health Commission. I was told that I cannot go to university. After that, I needed to take a gap year, because I couldn\u2019t longer manage to get all the paperwork done. Then, a number of acquaintances interfered, to be honest, I didn\u2019t really know who supported me back then, and I got a chance to go to Health Commission. There, I was told that state would spend a lot of money for my studies but I won\u2019t be able to work because there aren\u2019t jobs which you can do from home. Basically, the conclusion of Health Commission was that I cannot study, however, I took that paper, went to the university, straight to the assistant professor and he asked me \u2013 are you able to learn? I am, I said, well, then go on and study, he said.<\/br><\/br>The second obstacle I faced when I entered State Employment Agency and told that I want to look for a job. At the time, a lot of laws changed, I hadn\u2019t had any practice, some time had passed since my studies, and I didn\u2019t feel safe about myself in terms of professional career. So I thought that it\u2019d be useful for me to gain some new knowledge in courses, provided by SEA. When I entered the agency in my wheelchair, they almost immediately doubted that I cannot gain my unemployment status, because I\u2019m in state\u2019s maintenance. I answered that I am not, yes, I receive a pension because of my disability but I\u2019m not living in care home. Again, they showed me some documents and said \u2013 but you are unable to work, to which I answered \u2013 no, there is said that I need to be taken care of, however, again I was declined the option to obtain unemployment status. I didn\u2019t make any fuss, I went to the Health and Work Capacity Doctors State Commission and said that I need to change the record, so they did that and now it was said that I am able to work by individual work schedule. I went to the SEA again and now they had to register me, after a while, the attitude changed for the better.<\/br><\/br>One time, when I was still working at State Human Rights Bureau, I decided to apply for a notary assistant job. When you have an experience as notary assistant, later you can work as a notary. So, I wrote my resume, also stating that I have a disability. I was invited for a job interview but when they saw me coming in in a wheelchair, they were shocked and surprised and said \u2013 \u201coh, oh, we have to run around all the time, you won\u2019t be able to handle this!\u201d To be honest, it made me laugh and I knew pretty well that there is not any 'running around'. <\/br><\/br>On the contrary, when I started to work in Administrative District court, the attitude was very welcoming and there were no questions and doubts about my disability. My husband has helped a lot in overcoming these obstacles, if it wasn\u2019t for him, I wouldn\u2019t be able to work and to get to work. Also, when I was still studying in university, my father helped a lot. Now, I can be independent, I don\u2019t need no help, everything is adapted to my needs. There is no situation where I couldn\u2019t get somewhere, also, people are very helpful. Maybe I\u2019m lucky. However, I think it\u2019s because of my nature. Of course, your first impression when seeing a person in a wheelchair, is that he needs a help, however, when people are in contact with me, they forget that I\u2019m in wheelchair. I am strong thanks to my personality and characteristics, if someone says \u2013 you can\u2019t do it, I will do everything possible to do that!<\/p><\/div>
Because of my profession, I can say that I\u2019m competent in law and legislation. I have various skills which have been developed through my professional career \u2013 different training, courses and seminars. I enjoy working both individually and in team. I\u2019m also an active participant in organization for people with disabilities \u2013 Motus Vita. Together, with them I participate in theatrical studio and other events organized within.<\/p><\/div>
Don\u2019t be afraid to take up the initiative. Don\u2019t be afraid to start something, and if you will, everything else will follow! I remember the first time when I went outside in a wheelchair, to be honest, that was my first biggest obstacle I had to face. When I overcame that, there were no more obstacles. It\u2019s only the first moment when you think that everyone is going to stare at you and point fingers, but in reality, no one even notice that!<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1799,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country","category-latvia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/452\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/100mirrors-inc.eu\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}