Disability is not a condemnation if you are not condemned by yourself!

I thought for a long time over the thing that I want first of all to share with the children. What idea, what important point to explain to them? And I decided that first of all I want to emphasize that they are a full-fledged part of our society and can fulfill themselves like any healthy person. I want them to understand their possibilities and to have faith in themselves. With Oleg, we decided to tell the children about successful disabled people who found and fulfilled themselves in spite of many difficulties and obstacles that they had to overcome. And also to make them understand where and by what professions they can work after receiving an education.
We began our lesson with the story about a girl by the name of Jessika who, being born armless, learned to manage perfectly without arms and to do everything with her feet: from putting on make up, to driving, to typingminging, to swim and even to piloting a plane!!! We accompanied our story with corresponding photos and it was really impressive.
Human history knows a lot of examples when disabled people became talented painters, composers, writers, actors, and even presidents! And what sports results handicapped persons show on the Paralympic Games!
We told about Roksolana from Lviv who, having lost both legs in the 11th class, became champion of Europe in individual shooting.
We tried to give an idea that in reality there are very few people who are really incapacitated. There are always some fields where a person can find himself or herself. In the developed countries there is no more stereotype that a handicapped person can do only some simple or unskilled work.
Handicapped people can work as doctors, teachers, etc. A disabled person, as well as the normal one, has to have a possibility to work almost in any field – everything has to depend on education and desire, not on preconceived opinions  regarding handicaps.
The next idea that we shared with is that you have always to listen to your heart and intuition.  Do not give up your dream but go to it despite all the obstacles that you may have on your way. To give an example we told the story about aChinese youth who participated in the competition “China has the talents” and who played the piano with his feet!!! He is completely armless and in the past his teacher told him that he will never be able to play the piano, but this youth did not yield and asked for a chance and as a result he proved a reverse by becoming the best pupil of his teacher! The children as well as the teachers that were present for our lesson were very impressed when we showed them the performance of this youth on the competition.
In the end Oleg told them about his way, how he does not lose heart and goes straight to his goals with faith and confidence that eventually he will reach them for sure. Children listened to Oleg’s story very attentively as it was the story not about some unknown person but about a man that they have known very well for a long time, a man that they already love! Oleg’s example was the best proof that the disability is not a condemnation if you are not condemned by yourself!
Article by: Tatiana Starovoytova