"VAN" (Europe Bureau - Aleksey Vesyoliy) :: Youth with disabilities are among the most marginalized and poorest of the world’s population and are more likely to face severe social, economic, and civic disparities as compared with those without disabilities, even in developed countries. For many young people with disabilities, exclusion, isolation, depression and abuse as well as lack of educational and economic opportunities are daily experiences.
In many societies, persons with disabilities face with isolation and discrimination and are more likely to live in poverty than persons without disabilities due to barriers in society such as discrimination, limited access to education and employment and lack of inclusion in livelihood and other social programs.
Humans are social beings. The world is facing an epidemic of social isolation affecting people of all ages. Being socially isolated is not synonymous with being lonely. However, there will often be a correlation between social isolation and loneliness. People with few contacts are more often lonelier than people with many contacts. In addition to it being unfortunate that some children and young people feel lonely, studies have also found connections between loneliness and mental health problems. Much empirical research on adults and adolescents shows a link between loneliness and depression. Scientists have long known that loneliness in adults can predispose depressive symptoms later in life. Lately, they have also seen that lonely children are more susceptible to depressive symptoms in youth. In several studies, researchers have found out that prevention of loneliness in childhood may be a protective factor against depression in adulthood.
We must work together to find a solution. The vital purpose is to improve the understanding towards the people with disability issues as well as get together to support them to improve their self-esteem, well-being and rights in the society and promote more active engagement in political, economic, social and cultural activities.
Rihards Strautmanis from Latvia participated in BarCamp which took place in November 2019 in Berlin (Germany). Rihards shares his thoughts and impressions about BarCamp and also about importance providing opportunities for all, paying special emphasize to young people with mental and physical disabilities.
When I was invited to participate in the BarCamp I was actually really nervous, because when it comes to drawing, sometimes I feel like I’m cheating. When I always re-draw a bunch of cartoon characters from the 90’s and mid 2000’s by picking up a bunch of Google images from a bunch of png files and re-draw the characters with pencil and paper. I like drawing, because the life I am having in Latvia wasn’t an easy one. Even nowadays it feels depressing and hopeless. But thanks to animation from the 90’s and mid 2000’s I was able to keep moving forward, despite how people my own age treated me like garbage.
When I arrived in Berlin, I still had some anxiety, because I was afraid that people wouldn’t like my drawings. My biggest challenge when it comes to drawing is drawing characters from my memory and also from imagination. I have 2 animated show ideas that I would love to make with a bunch of people and show the world the ideas I am having with the shows. Despite the fact that one of the show ideas is a prequel to the original series I want to make, but that mostly depends which animated show the people want to make the most from my ideas.
I was impressed with the place, compared to the places I had to stay in the Erasmus + projects in Denmark and Malta, the BarCamp venue was like a 5 star hotel. When I saw the places in Erasmus projects, I said to myself: “It’s not like I was expecting, these places look like they haven’t been used in years.”
When I met my new roommate in Berlin we made a strong connection and also great friendship. I was a little bit scared to talk to him, but because it is much easier for me to talk to people in English, I thought I had nothing to worry about.
When I had to present my drawings I had a help to put the drawings on the wall for display. I was very surprised of how many people actually were interested about my hobbies and how much they liked what I did. I did my best to explain everything about art and why I am doing it. I even explained before leaving the Berlin that with art people can have easier time to express themselves, similarly of how people express themselves in other ways like with music, doing YouTube videos, etc.
I understand English better, then my own language (mostly because I played a lot of video games, watched tons of movies, animated shows and listened a lot of modern rock music that are in English). It was easy to express myself about my art. It was AMAZING!
I felt like finally found place where people accept me for who I am and don’t treat me badly just because I am different. Social skills were never my strongest suit, that is why I barley have any friends and most obviously social interactions/conversations in my own country, because I felt like I never fitted in anywhere no matter where I went.
I even liked talking about the topic of bullying, because let me tell you, being bullied sucks hard. I had my fair share of bullying for god knows how long: 12 or 15 years? Anyways, it was pretty bad and I heard some stories about how other people went through their life of bullying. Not a surprise to me that popular kids always get away with everything, because of their fame and natural born talents and when it comes to bullying they always get away with it. That is very relatable, especially when I went in elementary school or from 5th to 9th grade.
When I shared my story of bullying and told about the incident in 3rd grade, people were in shock and horror and were actually sympathetic towards me of what I’ve been through all the years of suffering from horrible people around. This is kind of surprising, because most people that I told about this kind of stuff, they either just laugh about it, or treat it as a joke or they don’t care how I feel.
My life has always been difficult in Latvia, but when I go to projects and share my interests and see that people like my interests, then it makes me happy.
I want to make my dreams come true. I just worry that I won’t be able to create my animated shows, because of how western entertainment is nowadays, I feel like my best is to create a pilot or show some concept art on YouTube, because Political Correctness is a huge issue in the west. Despite that I just want to make an animated show without caring what the Social Justice Warriors or people from Tumblr or Twitter say.
I would like to participate in more projects like this one on Berlin. It gives a purpose to my life. It is great feeling to realize that there are people in other countries who understand me and accept me for who I am. I would like to draw more as well and maybe if by chance go to animation school or art school so I could improve my art and maybe finally be able to draw characters from my imagination the way I want them to look.
Text above by Rihards Strautmanis.
All people have a right to participate in society and a right to education, independent of handicaps or individual particularities. However, for many young people affected by these particularities a lot of obstacles still exist.
Social inclusion remains an important element of well-being for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Social inclusion is an important goal for persons with disabilities, families, service providers, and policymakers; however, the concept of social inclusion remains unclear, largely due to multiple and conflicting definitions in research and policy. Many countries need to speed up the social inclusion of persons with disabilities and improve the provision of individualised support services. Institutions and organizations also need to change – in addition to individuals and environments – to avoid excluding people with disabilities.
What is BarCamp?
BarCamp is an opportunity to exchange views on different topics. The main topics for discussions in the BarCamp in Berlin for young people were: What do we need for inclusive international encounters and exchanges? How do we enable young people to benefit from and to participate in all these international youth work offers?
"BarCamp: make international youth exchange inclusive" gathered young people from France, Germany, Belgium, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Spain and Hungary. BarCamp took place in November 2019 in Berlin. BarCamp was organized with financial support of German Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend senden. Organizers of the BarCamp was ‘’VISION:INCLUSiON’’ aiming to enable young people with and without handicap to participate equally in international projects and exchanges. BarCamp partner from Latvia was non governmental/ non profit organization "Donum Animus".
#InclusionBarCamp
Please find full article with photos at EUNetwork.lv
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