Foreign Affairs Forum

View Original

Pay the debt with 1 billion* people who have some degree of disAbility

 

Introduction

The invisibility, lack of socialization and friendships of people with disAbilities in the world, in different age groups, leads to lack of emotional maturity, low self-esteem, abandonment of studies, lack of professional training, unemployment and isolation, leading to depression, major worldwide epidemic by 2030, World Health Organization - WHO.

There are 400 million depressed people today a 4X larger number than the people living with HIV (33 million), among the most affected are the disAbled and their families. 

Case Study 

But how to change this picture? Starting with a good question.

And a question has changed the lives of thousands of children with disAbilities: "How can I sit mother?".

The year was 2001 and Sophia, the middle child of a Brazilian couple, entered the regular school being physical disAble. This year despite working with Architecture for Children, they had to painstakingly build solutions that Sophia could be regarded as equals in the classroom. Without being taxed by his inability to sit alone, but it was recognized for its competencies.

Today Sophia is attending the third year of Psychology University.

Solutions 

This seed sprouted and methodologies capable of seducing were created to solve, mobilize and make all stackeholders in multipliers towards a common goal: Inclusion. That in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team composed of health professionals, educators, designers, philosophers, entrepreneurs, artisans and political scientists worked uninterruptedly in co-creating solutions that today is available to all, stimulate new initiatives and purposeful actions favor of inclusion.

The precept of innovation in product development, services and research magnify themselves, when they arebased on the concept of "user-centered design." Where multidisciplinary teams are assembled according to the specificities of each project with professionals from different areas of knowledge, working transversally in each project.

Creativity stimulation techniques should be used for the generation of ideas and for the guidelines package that does not restrict the potential of the team. Simulating the context of use, the solutions are analyzed to end users in a systematic and controlled manner in order to ensure an effective and innovative solution.

In the example the cited solutions are designed and constructed based on two principles. The first was the research carried out in the target group and the community where it is inserted.

The second was the participative construction among different actors, such as the target group, the final beneficiaries, national and local partners of public institutions and / or private, towards a solution.

Today we know that every inclusive product in the classroom impacts beyond disAbled children, 20 colleagues, 4 families and 10 people connected to the family. Especially mothers and grandmothers who are mostly responsible for the household. In addition to an indirect impact on the whole society through reports, awards and academic works that are inspired by innovative solutions.

The fact is the disAbled child can sit independently in the classroom, well positioned, secure having the opportunity to perform his duties, exercise their autonomy with minimal help, play and facilitate their participation with the others, turns their horizon. 

This horizon of change Allows overcoming the social and intellectual handicaps. Especially the insecurity of parents and educators about the intellectual capacity and socialization. Sitting alone overturn this preconception gruesome. giving a significant effect in the encouragement of school inclusion.

The intangible results: self-esteem, commitment, responsibility and engagement in the struggle for inclusion are important values disseminated for all.

For the disAble children the results range from: able to settle and develop their potential, socialize, learn like all other children, to perceive and be perceived as equal.

It is intended to close the example of how to improve society through innovative and scalable model, providing solutions that enable the inclusion of children and young people with disAbilities and makes changes for the whole family group, especially mothers who suffer ills in their own condition life due to lack of family and government support to overcome the difficulties of having a child dEficient, especiallythe ones that lives in a vulnerable financial condition.

Conclusion 

The inclusion process allows in the future that the children with disAbilitiesmay be placed productively in the community. Creating a sustainable cycle for a slice of the population, which today mostly depends on the society. Becoming independent generators of income individuals with rights and obligations.

Article authored by Victor Arthur Renault Junior victorrenault@gmail.com

 

Sources : * World Health Organization - WHO (09 june 2.011)