In order to change attitudes, as well as to create and develop an empathic behaviour towards the disabled:
- the students from 3rd, 4th and 8th grades were asked to search for some information about the disabled which they turned into drawings, posters, messages;
- The school psychologist explained to the students the concepts of disability and infirmity;
- an interactive meeting between the students and a disabled person.This person has told the children about the incident which led to his disability and has put him into a wheelchair, his feelings, how his life is today.The children have asked a lot of questions trying to find out what obstacles he has to deal with every day.
M.B.M. has shared a few of the difficulties he had to face: the inability to walk , the depression, the ignorant people, the lack of the access ramp at the entrance of the buildings. With the help of his family and psychologists, he managed to overcome all these obstacles and today he is very proud that he is an active person that can move easily in his wheelchair, he can drive and he also attends different charities for other disabled people.
The students have been challenged to play the part of a disabled person, to use the wheelchair and they have realised that it is not easy to live like this. They have discovered that the disabled people are not different from us, they only do things which we think are normal, a little bit different. Many disabled can fit perfectly in our society, they can learn, they can work, but they need the necessary conditions to do that and it depends on us to provide them.
At the end the students have handed in cards and messages to support and encourage him.