Deaf Orphans

With Christmas coming up, I thought this would be a good cause to mention after a friend sent me the details... Lances Deaf Orphans is an organisation that is based in Kenya, Africa.

It is run mostly by deaf people who teach sign language, schooling and offer somewhere safe for the children to eat and sleep.

This is much needed, especially after all the post-election violence in Africa that started early last year. Since then, they have taken on 20 more orphans.

They rely heavily on donations of clothing, bedding, computers, educational tools and money to help the children to learn and survive.

Some of the donations Lances Deaf Orphans have received were matching t-shirts which is important so the children feel like they have uniforms and fit in with other school children in their area.

They have also received, skipping ropes and soccer balls. Other donations included a new printer and a cheque for $150. This means so much to the orphans and their carers, you can view photos of them enjoying their new uniforms and toys at http://www.lancesdeaforphans.com/projects.html.

Sadly, one of the orphans, Lavender, died from Malaria, they wouldn’t normally be able to afford a coffin and proper burial but with all the charity’s help, they purchased a coffin and gave her a proper burial.

Another girl had a nasty fungus growing on her head, they were able to receive proper medication for her and it has completely gone away now.

Lances Deaf Orphans had to build a new toilet or they were going to be closed down, luckily donations covered this as well.

They were given their first ever Christmas feast last year of goat and soft drink (it was the first time most of them had ever tried soft drink).

They had 45 pairs of Croc brand shoes donated to them for the orphans as well.

Most of their cot (camping) beds have been given to them as well, before this, the children were sleeping on the floor.

If you’re feeling generous this Christmas, or want to help someone less fortunate than yourself, think about sending the orphans some food or bedding or pencils or anything Australian children take for granted. Just go to the website and send the organiser an email and he will tell you how you can send whatever you wish to help the orphans.

You can read more about the orphanage and the work that they do on their website, just click on the link above. They are doing such great things and will hopefully one day enable these deaf children to grow up healthy and educated and pass on the gift of love to other orphans in Africa.

‘The First To Go’ – The Killings Of Disabled People During WWII

I came across a video of a play called ‘The First To Go’ written by British actor, Nabil Shaban (pictured above); who like myself, suffers from Brittle Bones and is confined to a wheelchair. The stage production tells the story of the murders carried out by Adolf Hitler against disabled people in WWII.

Nabil stars in the play as Siegfried, a wheelchair bound man who was born with Brittle Bones. In one scene, he’s in an institution and has been sentenced by Hitler to die because of his disability. Hitler wanted all disabled people who were institutionalised for at least 5 years to be killed.

He described people with disabilities as ‘unproductive consumers’, ‘useless eaters’ and said ‘destroy all the weeds which take all the goodness but give nothing in return’. He had also said, ‘if they are not employable or only employable to do simple machine work, they must die’.

There were ‘Killing Centres’ which were first created to cull all disabled people, there were 6 ‘Killing Centres’ and there were approximately 30 deaths an hour that took place in them.

One of Hitler’s goals was to get rid of all the tainted genes that existed to create an uncontaminated gene pool for a ‘perfect’ race, saying that ‘we haven’t just maintained an unworthy life, we’ve allowed it to multiply’.

They used many disabled people as human guinea pigs for cruel medical testing and had such well known methods of killings as the gas chamber, euthanasia and lethal injection, among others. A man called Karl Brandt was the evil genius behind Hitler’s Euthanasia project. There was also a Dr Josef Goebbels, who was born with a club foot, he chose to hate all disabled people and was the mastermind behind the propaganda campaign that was for euthanasia.

One noted disabled hero was Claus Van Stauffenberg, he only had one eye and was missing an arm, but made an attempt to blow up Hitler.

I have always been fascinated in the stories surrounding Hitler, perhaps because he had no regard towards the lives of those who were disabled and wanted them all to die. It makes me think, if I lived in Germany during WWII, would I have had any chance of survival and also makes me so grateful to have been born in a time where the views towards disabled people have changed so much, not as much as a lot of us would like, but a lot better than those of WWII and certainly moving in the right direction, more and more each day.

I am not discussing this blog to badmouth Germans in anyway, (I am half German myself), but to explore what it would have been like for those unfortunate disabled souls who lost their lives and had no chance at all.

To view the video that talks about the killings of the disabled people in WWII and how they were regarded, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIDT-TuRPFc and to view a part of the play featuring Nabil Shaban, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ezwZmf5I_0.

Family Of Autistic Boy Forced To Leave Australia Due To Lack Of Funding

This story is about a family with an Autistic son, Jonah; they have been forced to move to the UK to get the necessary assistance with education for their youngest child, which clearly isn’t on offer in Australia.

Jonah’s father, Kevin, has said that in the last three years, with lost wages and therapy bills, it’s cost them around $90,000 to care for his son’s development.

Last year, the Australian Federal Government passed a long awaited funding program for Autistic children under the age of six, who don’t attend full-time school.

This package means, families with Autistic children, will receive $6000 annually, for two years; this will help them pay for therapy to help their child develop as best as possible. Unfortunately, for Jonah, he is already six so he is over the maximum age.

They then decided to look at each child on a case by case basis, giving the family hope that Jonah could be given financial assistance, but then another setback, Jonah attends full-time school, that means he doesn’t fit the systems criteria.

Nicole Rogerson, the director of Lizard Children’s Centre, a private clinic for Autistic children, also has a son with Autism, and says that $6000 a year, would only cover the costs of two or three hours of therapy a week. She says that to benefit an Autistic child’s development, they need a minimum of twenty hours a week in early intervention.

Kevin says that he ultimately made the decision to pack up his life, and the lives of his wife and their three children, to get the best help for Jonah in the UK.

The Australian Education Department knows of children with Autism, but they don’t actually come and meet with them, or try to work out the best needs for the child. In the UK, within the first three months of moving there, someone will come and meet with Jonah and his parents and assess Jonah, devising an individual program that will best suit his needs to help him to maximize his opportunities.

This story was aired last night on the 7:30 Report on the ABC Network, to watch the video, click on this link - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/20/2661233.htm?section=australia

It’s a sad fact if people with Autistic children feel they have to leave their child’s birthplace just to get a proper start on their development.

Clearly, something needs to change in Australia to benefit families of Autistic children. It’s estimated, Autism affects over half a million Australian households, with those numbers, surely more can be done.

With today being the first of three days, of the Asia Pacific Autism Conference, which will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, hopefully issues like this one, will be raised to help make a brighter tomorrow for Autism sufferers and their families.

Living With Autism

An interesting video that explains what it's like to live with someone with Autism. Click on the heading Living With Autism to view.

Autism Therapy

Click on the 'Autism Therapy' heading to see some of the excellent work that's done to help teach children with Autism.