VATICAN - Proclamation and Dialogue truly missionary work: inclusive school for children with disabilities

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On a visit to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, spoke to Fides about a school programme in Djibouti for children with disabilities. “The programme consists of an inclusive model of school in a territory with a mainly Muslim population and where persons with disabilities are seen with shame, stigmatised, hidden away, locked up and excluded from all social context”, said Mgr. Bertin. The Bishop just returned from Milan where he took part in a Congress 19 - 21 October with the title ‘Difficulties, Equalities and Worlds of Disability’. “Some years ago in Djibouti I was approached by a group of disabled people who asked for help”. The goal of Bishop Bertin was to export to Djibouti the plan for “school for all” also in Somalia, devastated by anarchy and torn by warfare which continues to leave many disabled persons. “Our aim is to combine proclamation and dialogue by means of this service which is truly a missionary activity in a Muslim country. Thanks to an encounter with the Guanelliana organization Mediterraneo Senza Handicap, (Mediterranean Handicap Free) which provides in various countries for persons with disabilities, we opened two Catholic schools, one in Djibouti and the other at Ali Sabieh, 100 km south of the capital, to children with handicaps: now we have 22 disabled children perfectly integrated with the other pupils”. “Following an inspection and censure together with the Sisters of Saint Luigi Guanella’ whose feast-day we mark today’ and other experts, we tackled the difficulties posed by children with handicaps and are now training teachers for private schools. We hope that very soon state run schools will also respond to this need”, Bishop Bertin concluded. (AP) (24/10/2015 Agenzia Fides)

Share:

discrimination

---

---

disabled

---

---