Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

All it takes is one Person!

Friday, August 13th, 2010

 

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I AM honoured to see every day how Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s work continues to transform the lives of millions of people with intellectual disabilities, and their families.

This week last year the world lost a remarkable woman and a dear friend of Ireland in Eunice.

On the first anniversary of her passing tomorrow, it is fitting to honour her and to celebrate her lasting legacy.

Deeply inspired by the struggle of her own sister Rosemary, she set out 42 years ago with one vision: a world in which people with intellectual disabilities are fully integrated into society.

The Special Olympics has grown from that day to what it is today — a global movement of 3.5 million athletes in over 170 countries in all regions of the world dedicated to promoting respect, acceptance, inclusion and human dignity for people with intellectual disabilities through sport. In Europe/Eurasia, there are 500,000 athletes across 58 countries.

Her passion for the Special Olympics movement she founded is one that happily coincided with her great love for Ireland.

It was here in 2003 that the world games were first held outside the United States. It was a great gift to Ireland and seven years on the effect of those games on the nation is still fresh in our hearts and minds.

Through the common and simple vehicle of sport, Special Olympics is helping to bring about attitudinal change in the way people with intellectual disabilities view themselves and are viewed and treated by others, replacing misunderstanding and fear with respect, acceptance and inclusion.

Communities, sponsors, volunteers, coaches, spectators, journalists and all those who have been embraced by Special Olympics athletes find that the experience opens their eyes and minds and changes their lives forever.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver leaves this profound and lasting legacy on the world. Not only has Special Olympics changed millions of lives but it has a real impact beyond sport, helping shape public policy and effect social change.

I know I speak for everyone at Special Olympics Europe/ Eurasia when I say we are committed to working tirelessly to continue her work and to bring her powerful vision to life; to change the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, using sport as the catalyst for respect, acceptance and inclusion.

This year is an exciting one for Special Olympics. Next month, we will celebrate the 2010 Special Olympics European Games in Warsaw, Poland, and in June 2011 we will celebrate the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece.

Both events will provide strong platforms to raise awareness of our movement and showcase the abilities and spirit of our athletes. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was a frequent visitor to games and competitions in Europe/Eurasia, inspiring us all with her energy, her unfailing commitment and, above all, her enormous love for the athletes.

While the World Summer Games take place every four years and the European/ Regional Games take place every two years, it is important to be aware that Special Olympics happens every day with more than 30,000 competitions taking place year round in communities worldwide.

I believe the world right now is hungry for what we have at Special Olympics.

Everywhere you look, people are hungry for authenticity. There is a crisis in trust everywhere. People are asking: how can I make a difference and feel a part of something bigger?

At Special Olympics we are uniters. Our athlete, family and volunteer stories inspire, entertain, energise, change attitudes and break down barriers to inclusion and friendships.

Corporations sponsor Special Olympics because they share our brand values and our programmes touch so many people so positively.

Funding is always an issue for us and we continually seek new corporate partnerships to support our mission and continue Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s vision.

Last year the European Commission made an unprecedented commitment to Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia by granting €6m .

This much-needed funding allowed us to empower, through sports, more and more people with intellectual disabilities across Europe, while also changing attitudes and creating a more inclusive and accepting world for all of us.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver devoted her life to fighting for the rights of those with intellectual disabilities. She opened her home, she coached and above all, she was a friend. She demonstrated an indomitable spirit in action.

The first ever Eunice Kennedy Shriver Day (EKS Day) will take place on September 25 this year. Hundreds of events will happen around the world, including Ireland, to celebrate her life and impact and to encourage new fans of Special Olympics.

The Shriver family hopes EKS Day will become an annual event across the globe. To quote Tim Shriver, CEO of Special Olympics International and son of Eunice: “I cannot think of a more fitting way to celebrate my mother’s life and legacy than to encourage acts of volunteerism that will teach people to see their peers with intellectual disabilities as classmates, teammates, colleagues, friends and most importantly, as equals. Ultimately, I hope that this day will put us one step closer to the world she envisioned.”

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an outstanding leader in the worldwide struggle to improve and enhance the lives of people with intellectual disability.

Tomorrow, I ask you to remember this remarkable woman on the first anniversary of her death and embrace the Special Olympics movement she founded so that every person with intellectual disabilities is accepted and included in society without fail.

Mary Davis is managing director of Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia

- Mary Davis

Irish Independent 10th August 2010

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Five Novels That Treat People With Special Needs With Respect

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Five Novels That Treat People With Special Needs With Respect

My older daughter has cerebral palsy, and living with her over the past 19 years has given me a sensitive gag reflex for the way people with special needs are portrayed in Hollywood movies. Novelists — not surprisingly — handle these characters with considerably more depth and complexity. Here’s a list of five novels for which I’m particularly grateful.

1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (2008).
This enormous debut novel had already been on the bestseller list for months when Oprah chose it last week for her popular book club. And what an excellent choice it is. Loosely based on Hamlet, this tender and suspenseful story is about a mute boy and his special breed of eerily aware dogs in a small Wisconsin town. Some of the most enchanting moments describe the private sign language Edgar has developed to communicate with people and animals.

2. Up High in the Trees, by Kiara Brinkman (2007).
I know people raved about Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but to me its depiction of autism relied on too many savant parlor tricks. I prefer this heartbreaking story of a little boy with Asperger’s syndrome. His family is struggling to function in the months after his mother’s death. Some sections are almost too emotionally painful to read.

Deafening.jpeg3. Deafening, by Frances Itani (2003).
The heroine of this Canadian novel loses her hearing as a child in the early 20th century, but a sharp-eyed grandmother intervenes and makes sure she gets the education she deserves. Later, her love affair with a soldier sent to fight in WWI is portrayed from both sides: his hell in Europe, her worry at home. It’s bracing, romantic and captivating.

4. The Center of Everything, by Laura Moriarty (2003).
Ten-year-old Evelyn Bucknow tells this sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always insightful story about life with her welfare mother in a small Midwestern town. The title comes from the pastor at Evelyn’s church, and some of the best lines are Evelyn’s reflections on God and religion. When her ner’-do-well mom gives birth to a baby with special needs, their little family finds new reservoirs of patience and affection.

Lamb in Love.jpeg5. Lamb in Love, by Carrie Brown (1999).
My favorite romantic comedy is about an English postmaster, 55-years-old, who falls in love for the first time with an equally inexperienced woman. She’s the full-time nanny for a profoundly disabled man, and the three of them make a thoroughly charming little group in this novel that you cannot help but love.

Of course, these books are very different from one another, with lots to enjoy and appreciate, but one of the things I like about them all is the way they fluidly integrate people with special needs into their stories without sentimentality, pity or romanticism. Someday I hope life will imitate art.

By Ron Charles |  September 25, 2008; 7:00 AM ET

Taken From Washington Post

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Facing Death, Student With Special Needs Completes Master’s Thesis on Accessible Housing

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Joshua Winhelde_picIt is well known that people with special needs can accomplish amazing things despite their so-called disabilities. But in the annals of such heroics, a special place must be reserved for Joshua A. Winheld.

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On February 5, 2010, Winheld was awarded a Master of Arts degree in urban studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. For his thesis, he explored factors preventing local real estate developers from building more housing that is accessible to people with physical disabilities. Accessible housing was a subject that had interested Winheld since the age of 10, when he was forced into a wheelchair by Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

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As his thesis neared completion in fall 2009, Winheld was working against increasing physical limitations. “When you have Duchenne’s, you can never be sure when your condition will worsen and in what ways,” Winheld once wrote on his ever-upbeat blog. In Winheld’s case, he now required constant nursing care and he was dependent on a ventilator, exhausted by debilitating cardiac medications, and susceptible to shocks from an implanted heart defibrillator. Six years before, in fact, Winheld had abandoned all hopes of earning his master’s degree and had withdrawn from school. But in 2008 he summoned the energy to reenroll and resume his studies in the subject he loved.

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As Winheld typed his final thesis revisions in early November 2009, he used a computer that he controlled with head movements. It was the same way that several years earlier he had painstakingly keyed all 75,000 words of his autobiography, Worth the Ride: My Journey with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (iUniverse, 2009).
After putting the finishing touches on his thesis, Winheld triumphantly wrote on his blog, “With a deadline looming and on the verge of exhaustion, nothing was going to stop me. If only for a moment, I was able to recapture some of my old magic, pushing myself every time I wanted to take a break. Just after midnight, I submitted my paper.”

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The thesis was accepted and Winheld was awarded his master’s degree along with other graduates at a diploma ceremony in February, but Winheld was not there to receive it. On December 5, 2009, less than a month after he had submitted the paper, Josh Winheld died at age 31. Completing the thesis “was a final herculean achievement in a short life that, by all accounts, was defined by accomplishment, grit, and wit,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in its obituary.

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Winheld’s thesis, titled “Housing Accessibility: The Role and Perspective of Developers in Philadelphia,” included some surprising findings. His research revealed that real estate developers may not be as antagonistic as is often thought toward making housing accessible to those with disabilities. But he also learned that the developers he interviewed do not feel a moral obligation to make private spaces accessible and that they have a hard time accepting, or even comprehending, the concept of “universal design,” where all structures are made accessible to as many different types of users as possible. Winheld offered some recommendations for shifting developers’ views, including seminars for housing professionals and “giving those in the development industry the opportunity to temporarily experience having a disability, as is done in college classes and medical schools.”

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“My hope is that by [my] talking to these developers,” Winheld explained on his blog, “advocates for those with disabilities will be better able to understand the development process and can bring about a better housing situation for people with disabilities in Philadelphia, more than a quarter of whom live in poverty and many of whom are aging.”
Winheld’s thesis advisor, Prof. Carolyn Adams, delivered the principal address at the ceremony where Winheld received his posthumous degree.

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“If Josh were here today,” Adams told the new graduates, “he would offer this bit of advice to his classmates: Once you have set your goal and chosen your path, never, ever, give up.  Let that piece of advice be a gift to you from your classmate.”

 

 

 What an inspiration- and what a tough life- but a fabulous legacy “Josh never gave up, as long as he lived”- may he Rest In Peace!

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