Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) - "We care for the lives of disabled children ", says to Fides Fr. John Glynn, an Irish fidei donum missionary in Papua New Guinea, currently serving in the "Jubilee Secondary School" in Port Moresby.
A simple but fundamental solution has been found by raising awareness among the youth and other children on how to improve the lives of children and disabled children belonging to poor families: to give them a wheelchair that, given the high cost, families cannot afford. After nearly a year of waiting, and thanks to a donation from Greg Shepherd’s family, a prominent lawyer from Port Moresby, says the missionary, "we have managed to buy four wheelchairs, one for a young twenty-year-old man, and three smaller ones for children". This, he says, is just the beginning: children, teenagers and young disabled, scattered in families in the villages, are many and other organizations such as "We Care" in Australia and Ireland are trying to provide for at least another 10 of them , all from poor families. There is more: the missionary is dealing with the formation of some young physiotherapists who can then assist disabled people of Papua with simple but appropriate therapies, and improve their lives. Extreme situations, have been found in Papua, he says, where children with disabilities were kept in huts in the dark, alone, abandoned to themselves, while their parents were at work. Donating a wheelchair will allow disabled people to reach assistant groups every day, where they can be cared for, fed, washed, dressed, educated, and will enjoy the company of children and young people of a "Care Group". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 24/7/2012)
