Every morning from 7 am until 8 am I tune into the local radio station here in my site. When I first got here I never tuned in, but lucky for me my neighbors on every side of my apartment did so I still got to hear everything. Now, I´ve found myself to be a morning new radio show addict as well. There is nothing like waking up to Don Telmo, the radio broadcaster here, talk about the local football team, whose birthday it is today, and of course hear the many complaints called in for the mayor as Don Telmo patiently listens and then changes the topic on them. And of course it is the best clock around as you’re getting ready for work since the time is announced every 5 to 10 minutes maximum.
Today´s morning show especially caught my attention. I had to actually sit and listen to make sure I was hearing all this correctly.
Apparently there is a new campaign to help people with disabilities in our providence, they are using a model from Cuba and sending three doctors to Cuba to receive training in treating people with disabilities. It is evident that there are plenty of cases of disabilities (I mean from working in schools I can say way too many have what I would call attention deficit disorder but I´m no psychologist) but unfortunately there are no special programs, treatments, help, anything really for this group. And although you can see the cases if you walk around in the different communities, the local government apparently has no track of how many cases exist.
So this morning’s radio show aimed to promote the new campaign to help people with disabilities. It started with a long spiel about how this sector of the population needs to receive government assistance and special care along with community interventions. Sounds like a great idea and the passion transferred on the radio was empowering.
Now, the daunting task is how do they find all these people in our providence with a disability in order to begin their work. Now, call me crazy but I would say if there is no current tracking the best way would be to use these means of communication, like the radio, to tell people that If you have a family member or know someone with a disability to please come register them at the social workers office in the municipio, that´s like a city hall in the US. Then from that they could go visit those homes and give the necessary attention.
But the director of the campaign had a different take on this. So on the radio they informed everyone in Arenillas that if you have someone in your household with a disability to please put a whit flag in a high visible area outside your house, and if your don’t have a white flag you can put a white piece of cloth or a white tee-shirt. Then the red cross workers are going to drive around in every community, supposedly on every street (even though many are not accessible by car… hmm), in every part of the providence (probably about the size of the panhandle of Florida) and look for those white flags. When they see a white flag they’ll come into your house to investigate the case and give the necessary assistance. So as the radio said today put up those white flags or shirts in a place clear and high if you know someone with a disability. Call me crazy but that seems like a daunting task to find and assist these people. Granted I believe this is coming from the same group that held a disability assistance day at the city hall, and offered diagnostics and free medicines. Probably about an hour into their day they realized a big mistake…they put the doctors on the second floor of the city hall… you can’t treat patients in wheelchairs on the second story when that would require climbing stairs….
I was walking through a community this afternoon and I did see a white wash cloth and a white tee-shirt outside of two houses… but I’m not sure if they were laid out to dry or if that is a signal that someone with a disability lives in the house…
picture caption: i did find one clearly marked house, she really has a white flag!
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