Sunday, November 23, 2008

SHARE FOR PHYSICALLY CHALLANGED

To share is the best way to show we care.

Share, the way we show, we care; So let us cheer the special as spectators cheeer the goal.

Special could be those below poverty line, orphans, elderly people, physically challenged, natural calamity/terror attacked, or any other ways.Well how we forget, the first and the basic: Educate all. Our thoughts should have expression or it is of no use!!


Happen to meet few special people and have found that the inequality experienced by people 'disabled' by and in modern society is beyond expression. They do not have access to proper services for their needs and is forced to wait to be put to bed. They are excluded from mainstream society, forced to accept their condition, their impairment, and the society find it difficult to accommodate him. Society refuses to adapt itself to his impairment.

‘He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.’ - Wilfred Owen


FINANCIAL

Assistive Technology like wheelchair, standing frames, text telephones, accessible keyboards, large print, Braille, & speech recognition computer software or sign language can be provided to the really genuine people. Also some need financial assistance to get operated.

The need is to ascertain the genuiness, and priorities them. There are some, who are just waiting to give a try, if they are able to get some financial assistance, which may not be a real success.

One member of the team is entrusted to measure, their requirement, collect the required details and ensure their genuiness in each of the following areas:

FAMILY FIRST: As service begins at home, the effort in this direction is communicated to the family members.

SCHOOLS & HOSPITALS: There are especial schools for such people, and even in government schools, and other schools, there are so many needy, which are found from references, of the teachers, and nurses/doctors, and the staff working there. Then they can be met in person, or in groups.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS: There are many service organizations, working for the welfare of such people, like the Ramakrishna Mission, Chinmaya Trust, Christian Missionaries, Association can be set with them.

NEIGHBORHOOD: There are so many people in our surrounding, and we find so many of them on our way from home to office, place of worship, playground or market. Also it is seen that people around some polluted organizations face specific disability. These are to be tapped.


NON FINANCIAL

SELF HELP: What most of them need, is a regular help. Indeed there is no greater help than self help. And the need of the hour is to find means so that they can help themselves in the long run.
 We have identified Employment exchanges catering to the needs of such people.
 We need to identify disability insurance, nationalized and private: Disability benefit, or disability pension, is a major kind of disability insurance, and is provided by government agencies to people who are unable to work due to a disability, temporarily or permanently. In the U.S., disability benefit is provided within the category of Supplemental Security Income, and in Canada, within the Canada Pension Plan. In other countries, disability benefit may be provided under Social security systems. These need to be identified, communicated, and provided.


DONATION OF ORGANS: There are few acts in life that are nobler than donating our organs. Donating our organs after we are gone from this world is the closest and simplest that we can do, but we are reluctant, or ignorant about. Organs that can be procured include the heart, intestines, kidneys, lungs, liver, pancreas. These are procured from a brain dead donor or a donor where the family has given consent for donation after cardiac death, known as non-heart-beating donation. The following tissues can be procured: bones, tendons, corneas, heart valves, femoral veins, great saphenous veins, small saphenous veins, pericardium, skin grafts, and the sclera (the tough, white outer coating surrounding the eye). These are only procured after death. Organs that can be donated from living donors include part of the liver or pancreas and the kidney. An awarness about this has to be created, and proper matching has to be done.

CULTURAL/SOCIAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION: The Paralympic Games (meaning 'alongside the Olympics') are now held after the (Summer and Winter) Olympics. There is a need to popularize and encourage people towards this.

COUNSELING: Disability is not just a status condition, entirely contained within the individual. Rather, it is an interaction between medical status and the environment. There are many people who are in need of counseling, and in many of the cases, it is not just the special individuals, who need counseling, but their supporters.


To quote Sachin Tendulkar on: The Great Indian dream

“Let us work towards an educated, healthy and poverty free India. You may say I am a dreamer, Let me not be the only one….come share the dream…..

There is more to life
than cricket!!”

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