People with disabilities motivate others not to give up

“I always say that blindness took away my sight, but it increased my sight, and I believe that sight is important to get far in life.” With that sentence, the journalist keira gracewho suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, concluded the forum where Panamanians with various disabilities shared their stories, achievements, experiences and challenges.

This is a forum “Dare to meet me”, organized by the State Radio and Television System (Sertv), where Ricardo Gaitan Villarrealrepresentative Panama at the 2019 Central American Football Championship for Amputees; Elian Williams Zunigachildren’s symbol telethon 2030 in 2009 and Indira Riosa teacher with a hearing impairment, told how the disability taught them to see life from a different perspective, thus motivating other people not to give up and achieve their goals.

In fact, a passion for motivation led to Gaitan Villarreal for the study of psychology, and Indira for working with children with hearing impairments, teaching sign language.

In accordance with Vielka Escobar, dean of the Faculty of Special Education and Pedagogy of the Specialized University of America (Udelas), Great emphasis is placed on education, especially at college, so that later these people can enter the labor market. Namely, he mentioned that a month ago, a group of young people with hearing loss obtained postgraduate studies from Higher education and their goal is to become university professors.

Escobar also reminded that it is important for families to accept the condition of people with disabilities, either from birth or if they acquire it, and to include them, that is, for a family member to participate in all daily activities.

In this regard, the dean reminded that family members must be accompanied by a mental health specialist during this process.

“We as a state must improve these conditions by providing this support. I always say that for this there are staff who work in health centers, which are the first instance that must provide support, because they are citizens who live in that place. There are police centers of the Fund for Social security (CSS), but there are other support centers in universities. We at Udelas (with 70 students with disabilities around the country) have support centers to guide parents, a guide to the community, teachers; it is collegial work and grouped in alliances between different institutions, whether state or private,” he explained.

The panelists agreed that their family members were initially overprotective, but when they were convinced that they could achieve their goals, everything turned into trust and support.

During the event, sign language interpreters were present, who play a fundamental role for people with hearing impairments; For this reason, sign language is developed through seminars at the Panamanian Institute for Special Qualifications (Iphe), the National Police, the Ministry of Education (Meduca), the National Secretariat for Persons with Disabilities (Senadis), among others, and even university graduates.