Friday 17 March 2017

WE STILL NEED TO CREATE MORE AWARENESS


You do have a disability don't you? I queried. Me? God forbid bad thing I am not disabled oo she replied. I wasn't going to let go because I had watched her previously on different occasions struggle to lift stuff off the ground. I asked we sit over drinks and have a chat and she obliged. 

On the day, we talked over drinks and she opened up to me about her chronic back pain. The pain was diagnosed over 5 years ago and she has been taken medications for it. she goes for medical checks once in a while. 

Ada knows that something is not right in her body, she is very much aware of the limitations her pain she faces when working however, she has refused to acknowledge that she lives with a disability. According to Ada, she doesn't look it and no body would believe her if she mentions it. 

Invincible disabilities or hidden disabilities are real. These kind of disabilities are not immediately apparent. the kind that society has refused to acknowledge it's presence in an individuals body and it'd debilitating effects on the individual.
We definitely need to create more awareness when it comes to the issue of disability because even people suffering from the effects of one illness or the other do not even know where to start. The world we live in also do not want to recognize that disability is part of human experience and not a death sentence.

We need to create more awareness because even in 2017, living with a disability is synonymous to being a lesser human or being invincible. If we don't talk about disability and the struggles and challenges that comes with living with a disability, people will not know and persons who are newly disable will not find information's regarding their new state.

Acceptance, tolerance, support and inclusion cannot come without us having real conversations about disability. We need to go beyond street walks and protests to get the message out there. We need to highlight the issue of unemployment, inaccessible transportation system, poor health care, unfriendly structures, hate crime, neglect, poverty and ignorance when it comes to disability.

When we create more awareness about disability, we are riding our society of ignorance, we are ending excuses of people often claiming not to know, we are education the public on how to better relate with persons with disabilities, it is more about not remaining silent in the face of injustice. Real awareness is about holding our government responsible, helping them create better laws and policies that will enhance the lives of persons with disabilities.                  

When we create awareness, we make people understand that living with disability is a valid way of life for some people and persons with disabilities deserve respect and human rights just like everyone else.

There is a lot of fear and apprehension that comes with disability. We rid people of fear and anxiety when we talk about disability and share our unique stories with others letting them know that they cannot fix people with disabilities neither can they eradicate disability form the face of the earth. Rather, it is okay for people to embrace the inequalities in the world.     

Each time we create awareness about a particular issue, we make people understand the problem even when they are not directly affected by it. People will no longer be silent in the face of injustice because they are no longer in the dark. Talking about our issues will help people take our opinions into account. We change the world little by little when we create awareness. Our issues and experience will be more valid and real when we create awareness about them.

Sharonxx 

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