Youth With Disabilities | United Nations For Youth
The effects of discrimination
“When there is no discrimination, we all will be given the opportunities to learn and to grow together as one people.”
Bindu, Liberia
Imagine being turned away from school because you are unable to see as well as your friends. Think about what it would feel like to be told the health center will not be treating you today because you have a disability. Is it right that as a disabled woman you will not be allowed to benefit from the land distribution happening in Southern Sudan, or that you will not be invited to join the local women’s savings group?
These are not just questions to provoke discussion. Each example is a recent experience from the lives of young people with disabilities around the world. They provide us with an insight into the types of challenges these young people face, challenges that have little to do with their physical limitations, but more to do with how they are treated by their families and communities.
Discrimination, or treating people unfairly because of prejudice, can make the lives of young people with disabilities very difficult. Despite having the same hopes and ambitions as non-disabled persons, they encounter barriers that make it much harder for them to succeed. Young people with disabilities experience signify cant discrimination in areas such as education, health, gender and equality. The types of discrimination they face can be linked to attitudes, the environment, local laws, or cultural practices.
“People see and laugh at me because I am different, but I see and laugh at them because they are the same.”
Vijaya, India
Out of a healing and enlightening seminar, called
Mi Terra Yi, which means Mother Earth, whose main topic was Nurturing, we came upon the request of promoting inclusion as high priority social action.
We are aiming to devote our circle of Youth Exchanges in 2023 in giving the opportunity to young people, from different backgrounds , different abilities and disabilities, to interact, to co-exist, to discover our commons, to express our special characteristics and needs. The opportunity to listen to interact, to observe, to experience and to care for us and for our community
As in Natural Ecosystems, human societies are consisted of diversity. As we say in Environmental Sciences and Permaculture, balancing a system is raising its biodiversity.
We presume as pattern that human social systems are demanding biodiversity as well. To propose more inclusive societies, we are organizing a pilot in terms of Youth Exchange, with the aim of creating safe space for the young people to coexist.
To achieve the creation of safe space, we are including the possibility of a support person for each of our participants with disabilities and other experts according to the difficulty that any participant is facing.
We aim to give open space for expression and communication for those that are wishing to inform and share.
We are developing common activities during the YE where with rhythm, dance, body movement, painting (mandala), we create and participate to the extent of our will and ability.
We are eager to learn how to be more inclusive, by being guided by sharing experience and knowledge on the topics of disabilities.
We are eager to become more aware and sensitized.