At Kindcentrum Theresia in Eindhoven, this week was all about ‘dealing with disabilities’. For five days the students not only learned about disabilities, but also experienced what it is like to live with a disability. From learning to read Braille, to writing without hands, to doing sports in a wheelchair.
The lessons and activities were designed by the Liliane Fund. The school and the fund aim at raising awareness and creating empathy with handicapped children by having them really experience the challenges a handicap brings.
Activities
What’s it like to be blind? Can you do sports when you do not have four limbs? How can you communicate with your classmates when you are deaf? The pupils KC Theresia had four days to find answers to these questions. “It is a huge challenge, but you do experience what ir’s like. The athletic exercises made me think of the Paralympics”, says Quinn.
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Source KC Theresia
Two other pupils, Lena and Sahana, says an important value they took away from this week is connection. “We learnt how important cooperation is, and that you do not have to do everything all by yourself. The exercises taught us to work together, not just with people with handicaps, but also with our regular classmates”.
Experience
Lenneke Wolff, assistant head at KC Theresia, it was a conscious choice to have the pupils undertake activities. ‘’We did not merely want to teach them about handicaps, we wanted them to experience it. We think tjat in so doing, we broadened their understanding”.
She also noticed how the pupils developed empathy. “When I now hear how pupils talk about the subject, I can see how they understand ir at a deeper level”.
Sponsored walk
The first four days, the pupils were taught about handicaps by representatives of the Liliane Fund. This is a charity working for handicapped people living in places in the world where a being handicapped is the biggest additional burden. On the fifth afternoon of the week the pupils repaid the representatives by raising money for the Fund during a sponsored walk.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Greta
