Monday, April 4, 2011

Super Mums


Louise Whitaker
1st April 2011

I just wanted to write a blog entry about the mother of Jose Alfredo and the mother of Frank. These women are poor but patient, loving and calm. They both have large 18 year old boys who cannot feed themselves, bath themselves, speak or amuse themselves.  As well as this, both are single mothers who have other children. Abandoned by their husbands, I would imagine, due to the stigma attached with having a disabled child. Often the mother is blamed for this.

The women were an inspiration. They were doing everything they had in their power and in their financial ability (which is not a lot) to get these children to Equip Kids International to get new wheelchairs to improve theirs and their children´s lives.  I would think that having a child in England with a severe disability would be challenging enough, but here, the enormity of the task seemed greater. Houses are built of adobe, there is no hot water and evenings and days in the rainy season can be extremely cold. No-one has heating here in Cusco.  There is no government financial support for families and certainly no careers allowance. The pavements are shoddy, rarely consistently passable for a wheelchair, disabled toilets hardly exist and disabled friendly taxis  are never seen. Added to that people stare. Disabled children are kept in the home generally or in institutions. Children and adults on the streets of Cusco when we took Lurdes out and in the bus station stop and stare. A few ask questions ,but mainly they just stare.

These Mums are amazing and they and their children are exactly the reason why Leander and MySmallHelp have decided to continue to work in Peru.

Jose Alfredo´s mother is an inspiration. She is seen here leaning on Jose´s legs as he was unable to hold himself up in the slippy plastic chairs in the bus terminal.


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