A day out to Mangakino over the weekend in the early hours of the morning.
My partner thought of taking me out on a day trip plus to help him out with his work. I do not mind this by helping him out since we were busy with our own jobs from Monday to Friday. He worked last Saturday while I did the garden tidying up at our home. It was a tranquillity day for us and my partner’s old mate outside Mangakino. Over the weekend there were no texts or emails from our family at all. The early hours of the morning were so bliss, calm and the wonderful sights were dew foggy and the sunrise over the farmlands.
Are people with disabilities including Deaf people beginning isolated from family and close friends?
My partner’s old mate’s wife works for the people with disabilities at one of the organisations I know. We chatted about the topic – people with disabilities having been isolated from their family or friends. I asked the old mate’s wife – Jill (fiction name) why she bought up this topic because she found many people with disabilities including Deaf have been isolated for a long time and never keep in touch with their family and close friends. I asked her if she has thought about elderly people and the people living in the rural area. Jill replied that she did not realise this one.
quote: Having a physical, sensory, mental or learning impairment gives rise to many challenges with regard to feeling lonely…
For example in the Deaf community – Deaf people can often feel isolated or lonely. This is because they can have difficulty interacting with people on a day-to-day basis, so they feel disconnected from friends, family, their community and the world around them. They can also feel frustrated because there can be so much they want to do, but just cannot. They want to express themselves, be independent, do all the things that others may take for granted.
It is not just about teenagers, young adult, or older person even elderly feeling lonely or isolated from the city, family or friends. Everyone including people with disabilities has the same problem but in different ways of their lives such as a Deaf person who has the first language which is sign language, a person in a wheelchair etc.
Jill asked me what I am doing as a Deaf community support worker/advocator of the people with disabilities. Since moving out to the rural area, I start to explore what is the possibility of the rural people facing the problem away from the city. I learnt that there are many people who are living on low income and no jobs, having stressful lives by living on a farm and working long hours, the lack of contacts with many Health Providers and the lack of transports. Of course, to my dismay there were several young people with disabilities living in a rest home, in flatting on their own with no helps, families with children with disabilities who have no help or support helps.
Over many years, I have been advocating the MOH (Ministry of Health), MSD (Ministry of Social Development), MOE (Ministry of Education) and other Government agencies to listen to people with Disabilities including rural people and they were slow to support and receive minimum awareness of their urgent needs such as support worker in the home, equipments like hearing aid, flashing fire alarm lights and the list go on. However, the gaps between the city and rural have not been in touch with each other. We need more works by closing the gaps and raise more awareness urgently.
Life in Eureka 