Education, training and development organisation Masincedane Community Service hosted a disability awareness day at Christmas Tinto Primary School in Asanda Village on Tuesday 26 July.
The organisation’s rehabilitation coordinator Marcia Torres said about 700 children at the school participated in the programme and learnt how to treat people with disabilities, along with the respect that goes along with it.
“We are all human and we all have the same feelings,” she said. “Our human rights enable us all to be treated with respect and dignity. So if there is a person we know who has an intellectual disability, we need to care for and respect that person.
“It is another human being. If we have a friend who cannot see properly, we assist and care for that one, and that one will care for us too, as we are not perfect. We are all human and we are not perfect, but we can care for and respect one another in life. That is important, the respect for one another.”
Torres told the children that there is a stigma around disability and that this needs to be addressed.
“Here at school you may know children who have a disability,” she told them.
“Embrace them and involve them in your activities, don’t leave them on the outskirts. This will make you a very good person who cares for and treats others with the dignity they deserve.”
Torres also encouraged the children, future leaders, to start applying such constructive behaviour today.
