BEING disabled is not a problem. But what makes things so hard for the disabled is that people treat them as if they were ‘secondhand'. They look on them with pity. Some people forget that they are human beings with the same rights as everyone else. In a bid to change this attitude, the German University in Cairo (GUC) recently hosted German specialists in special needs, who gave courses on how to deal with these people. Not just that, but also how to make the most of their potential. This ten-day workshop was held three months ago, after which the Germans returned home, while the GUC carried on their good work by constructing carpentry and agricultural workshops. The GUC, located in New Cairo's Fifth Tagmuh area, invited nine young, mentally disabled people from ‘Right in Life' and ‘Barr el-Aman', two NGOs specialising in special needs, to participate in the workshop last November. "I learnt how to make sandwiches and cakes, how to wash the dishes and clean the table," says Soha Kamal, one of the nine who benefited from the GUC project. Soha, with soft, brown, shoulder-length hair, dreams of getting a job just like anyone else. "This work is so easy, I love it. I'm very happy," The 24-year- old girl told The Egyptian Gazette. For Soha, job training is a million times better than staying at home all day, while the rest of her family are all out at work. When she started the workshop at university, she soon made lots of ‘normal' friends. She takes the bus with them to sessions and talks to them on the phone. They share the good times and the bad times together. "Her life turned round 180º when she went to the university," says Souad Taha, Soha's mother. "Now there are interests that fill her spare time. She's learnt many things. I never feel that she's a special needs person. She loves the kitchen and helps me do the meals. She washes the dishes and we clean the apartment together," adds her mother, who works as a general manager at the national carrier EgyptAir. Ahmed Shaarawi has also benefited from the project. He enrolled in the carpentry workshop and also learnt how to play the piano. "I've been taught how to cut and shape wood, in order to make boxes. I love university. I've made a lot of friends here," Ahmed, 23, told this newspaper. Aya el-Barbary, 29, is one of the special needs leaders on the project. She did a three-month training course beforehand, to prepare her for this. She worked in the agricultural workshop. “I was taught by agricultural specialists and in turn passed on my knowledge to the mentally disabled in the workshop,” Aya told The Egyptian Gazette. “After the workshop ended, the students began to apply what they'd learnt from me by themselves. All we had to do was to help them with the final touches,” she said. This unique project hasn't just benefited special needs people, but also normal people who come to the GUC for training or work, according to Samia Badie, a board member of Barr el-Aman Association that cares for the mentally disabled. "The only way to solve the problems of people with special needs is to integrate them into society," she said. Since the establishment of the German University in Cairo five years ago, Samia's association has been working with the GUC to raise awareness about dealing with special needs people. The GUC organises fund-raising events for charity, in which her aassociation participates. “The university campus is ideal for these special needs people, as it allows them to mix with normal people of a similar age,” she told this newspaper. “The students here respect and encourage them, giving them the confidence to work in any kind of job. I hope people change their minds about them," she said. " Disabled children are really allowed to be human beings,” added Samia, who herself has a mentally disabled son.
