Breaking down head barriers

Share now: Action day for the equality of people with disabilities - Warburg. "What kind of society do we want to live in?" This question concerns everyone. Yesterday the residents of the Heilpädagogisches Therapie- und Förderzentrum St. Laurentius (HPZ) gave answers.

A society should be colourful and diverse ...

... - as well as the program for the nationwide protest day for the equality of people with disabilities in the pedestrian zone. Live music from the Lauri school band, interviews on the subject of voluntary work, readings, a hands-on course: plenty of entertainment without the message going down. Why this hustle and bustle? The eleven-year-old Janine Redeker from Rösebeck answers this question in one sentence: "Everyone wants to be equal, get a job, just live a normal life". That is the message.

"Participation now - a society for all", is how organizer Barbara Altemeier from the volunteer team of the institution describes the motto of the action day. A high goal. "It's about breaking down barriers. And I'm not just talking about high kerbstones," says Siegfried Schröder, ombudsman for mentally severely and multiply handicapped people from the Paderborn district administration.

It is about the barriers in the head. "We often think in terms of structures and systems, but every human being is a phenomenon, an individual. He cannot be pushed into a drawer, administered and educated. What counts is the encounter." An encounter at eye level as well as the claim to education and support for all: "Just as we would like to be treated ourselves".

Source: www.nw-news.de, 09.05.2008

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