Wear Green
Posted on 5th September 2018 at 15:17
World Cerebral Palsy Day takes place Saturday October 6th, so we at Cerebral Palsy Midlands will be wearing green on the Friday 5th October to show our support for the National Day.
We encourage you to get involved and support the day. If nothing else where something Green. Cerebral Palsy needs to be talked about and highlighted. This is our opportunity to raise awareness about a very significant disability that needs more focus and attention.
SO WEAR GREEN
WHY THIS ISSUE IS WORTH OF ATTENTION AND EFFORT
Cerebral palsy is the most common childhood physical disability (affecting an average of one in every 500 people). There are over 17 million people living with CP, tens of millions of family members devoting their lives to the care of their loved ones, and tens of thousands of doctors and therapists involved in the diagnosis and treatment of CP.
When people with CP have the same opportunity as everyone else to live up to their potential, they prove how significant it can be—not just for individuals with CP, but for everyone in the society’s in which they live. One need not look any further than the poets and comedians and computer programmers and writers and activists living with CP to realise what a powerful contribution the community of people living with CP can make around the world.
Yet people living with CP are one of the least understood, and most stigmatised communities in the world.
World CP Day conducted research—from the tribal regions of Pakistan to Poland, from Brazil to Baltimore, from Sydney to Sri Lanka—and found incredibly frustrating realities everywhere.
Too little money is being spent on prevention and supportive tools; too many doctors and therapists lack the knowledge to diagnose and treat people with CP; too many families lack access to basic information and support; too few educators have the training to ensure people with CP get the education they deserve; and, perhaps most importantly, it is still far too easy to keep people with CP out of sight, out of mind and out of options in communities around the world.
This is not just a question of human rights. It has a direct impact on our collective social and economic wellbeing. The artistic, economic, social, scientific and political contribution of 17 million people—and those who commit everything on their behalf—are simply unrealised.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE, VALUES AND BELIEFS
It is time to close the gap between the everyday circumstance and the very real potential of people living with CP.
The community of people living with CP are not asking their society to “give” them a “chance.” This is a mandate. A demand that people living with CP are equal citizens and deserving of the same rights as everyone else.
For more information about World CP Day please visit http://worldcpday.org/
Tagged as: Disability Rights, World CP Day
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