Spread the word

Take a minute and go to this site. It is something I care deeply about and affects the people that I love the most. Educate yourself!

Visit: www.r-word.org and put an end to the use of the r-word.

A few weeks ago I was walking down the street and I had a 50 tenge coin in my coat pocket for the bus. As I was walking with my hands in my pockets, I saw a man who was begging money from people. He was small and wore an uzbek hat and coat, I looked a little closer and realized that he might be down syndrome. As he came near me I was a bit fearful and unsure, maybe he wasn’t down syndrome, maybe I was giving to someone who didn’t need it. Nevertheless, the government here doesn’t exactly help homeless people, so I held out my hand with the 50 tenge and he took it from me and at that moment I knew that he was down syndrome because he gave me a massive smile that warmed my heart, but also broke it at the same time.

It appeared to me that there was no one to love or care for this man like my niece who has down syndrome, she has a wonderful family, loving parents and sisters. But it seems that this man is alone and he has no place in the society here. It took everything inside of me to keep myself from weeping right there on the street corner.

I saved that for the next day when thoughts of it reappeared during my time with Father. That is when I decided that I am going to try to raise a little awareness here by teaching my students about some of the beautiful people that they so willingly cast out of their society.

Still, things are very difficult here for people who have any sort of disability, mental or physical. At the NGO that we work with at the center they have a community care program that does home visits to people with disabilities and just people who have no one to care for them. This is a great program and I know that it can really have an impact on some of these people’s lives, but I think that education can be stronger.

It is difficult to be in such a society and discover some of the mind frames in this country. But I know that this society is influenced by the west. I think that the more breakthrough that there is in the west in this area, the more breakthrough there will be here. And hopefully, slowly, these people will begin to be a part of the society here.

Please join me in pr*yer for the people in this country with disabilities.