Belize celebrates International Day for Disabled Persons
Today is International Day for Disabled Persons. To commemorate the event News Five spoke to some of the people who live with a disability and the people who work with them. One thing they all have in common is the desire to succeed. But they can’t do it alone.
In 1993, Wilbert Smith was thrown from a horse while training to become a jockey. The accident has left him confined to a wheelchair. But although he can no longer walk, Smith is determined to not let his disability dampen his desire to achieve in life.
Wilbert Smith, Paraplegic
“I would like to say to the youths that there are a lot of possibilities that they can do out there. If I can face the world in my situation, why can’t they?”
Jacqueline Woods
“There are two thousand registered disabled persons in Belize. These people who live life unable to see, hear, talk or walk sadly face yet another obstacle: through no fault of their own they have been neglected by the community.”
Anna Williams, Coordinator of Disability Services Division says while the disabled have come a long way with some being integrated in schools and the society, there is a lot more that needs to be accomplished.
Anna Williams, Coordinator, Disability Services Division
“I think sometimes people are just afraid to accept that disabled people are more like us than they are different and I think sometimes disabled people or having a disability poses challenges and sometimes disabled persons themselves are afraid to make the step forward and accept those challenges and also the community on a whole.”
Andre McCool, Assistant Teacher, Stella Maris
(signing) “I feel a little bit nervous about being deaf but I try to be the best deaf person I can be.”
Thirty-four year old Andre McCool has been deaf since birth. But although he cannot hear he has been teaching others how to communicate with the hearing world. Besides giving lessons as an assistant teacher at Stella Maris School, McCool wants to establish the first deaf club in Belize.
Andre McCool
“I want to set up a deaf club to encourage deaf people to come to the club. I want the deaf to have the best opportunity. I want them to get a good job and more education to develop the deaf culture more and for them to become successful.”
Stella Maris is one school that has been equipping the disabled with the necessary skills to help them become productive citizens. But they need the support of parents and others. Graciela Vega, who is hearing impaired, teaches sign language at Stella Maris to students between the ages of three and six years old. She wishes the student’s parents would also learn to sign.
Graciela Vega, Teacher, Stella Maris
“Some parents they need to learn the sign language to communicate with them. When they go home, the parents must sit down with them and do homework. A parent must communicate with them with sign language.”
The Disability Services Division does what it can to identify special problems and offer services.
Anna Williams
“We offer screening services that we go into health centers, hospitals to identify at an early age that we could treat. We also offer rehabilitation services in the form of physiotherapy. We have just added an audiologist service where we do hearing test and fitting of hearing aids. We also have a woodwork shop where we produce some of the equipment.”
The business community is asked to do its part by providing employment to the disabled. At the age of six years old David Barrera suffered with polio. Today he works as an office assistant with the Belizean Assembly of and for Persons with Disabilities.
David Barrera, Office Assistant
“Like help us get jobs and you know housing and stuff. Education is alright because we have the Stella Maris School but I mean like work when we finish the school. You can’t get a job you know.”
These days Wilbert Smith is at Skylink Electronics training to become a technician.
Wilbert Smith
“If they would put more understanding we are just the same, we are not different. It is just that we are not able to move around like the others. While some of us are more complicated, I believe that if we could help them then they could get ahead.”
Jacqueline Woods
“The Ministry of Human Development is looking at implementing a National Disability Policy. The system will address the problem of discrimination against the disabled and motivate the community to become more sensitive and aware of disabled persons and their potential. But until that law comes into effect, we are all asked to give those with special needs the care and respect they deserve.”
