INCLUSION
CAN ENRICH US ALL
July 2, 2005
Helen Henderson, Life Section, Toronto Star
While today's Live 8 performers strut
their stuff in the battle against world poverty,
a young Toronto woman is getting ready to go to
the United Nations with an equally important message.
Rebecca Beayni has cerebral palsy. She cannot walk
or talk. But at age 23, she has already had a profound
influence on family, friends, the kids she went
to school with and the whole community in which
she grew up.
Beayni's needs were considered too great for the
special schools her parents initially thought of
for their daughter's education. So, almost by default,
she ended up in the public system.
Her family was uncertain how that would work. As
her mother Susan puts it in a 12-minute film celebrating
Rebecca's life: "At that point, I don't think
we could dream big enough,"
It turned out to be the best thing that could have
happened.
Everyone has gained through Beayni's inclusion in
every part of community life. That much is evident
in Revel
in the Light: A Quiet Life Will Shine, written,
produced and directed by Deiren
Masterson.
A friend talks about travelling the subway with
Beayni, about the thrill experienced when the train
burst from darkness to daylight on a short stretch
of track above ground. Everyone else just continued
to read or talk or stare blankly into the near distance.
"No one else saw what Rebecca saw," she
says.
The film is also testament to the Ubuntu Initiative,
a group of people with developmental disabilities,
their families and friends who have banded together
to create "a different more hopeful future,
rooted in gentleness, interdependence and deep friendship."
Ubuntu is a Zulu word that may be roughly translated
as: "My humanity is inextricably bound up in
your humanity."
Gentleness, interdependence and friendship. These
are the messages Beayni will be taking to New York
City next month.
Inclusion International and the Canadian Association
for Community Living have asked her to appear before
the United Nations as part of a movement to develop
an international protocol to promote and protect
the rights and dignity of people with disabilities.
"As wonderful as Rebecca's life is, there are
so many people who do not have such a happy story
and who continue to be held captive by society's
fears, misunderstandings and prejudices," says
Susan Beayni.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write: Helen Henderson, Life Section, Toronto Star,
One Yonge St., Toronto, Ont. M5E 1E6. Email: hhenderson@thestar.ca |
