Moving Mountains in the Desert

2010

Vladimir Cuk
[email protected]
312-413-1535

Cuk, V. (2009). Moving Mountains in the Desert. Alert! Newsletter of the Institute on Disability and Human Development, UIC. Spring/Summer Issue. - ?I want you to know that we can speak, I want you to know that we can speak,? repeated the Saudi mother of a child with autism from Riyadh, while she patiently fixed her abaya. She was one of 70 participants in the Youth Leadership workshop organized by Victor Pineda of the Victor Pineda Foundation and myself. The workshop was part of the 3rd International Conference on Disability and Rehabilitation in Saudi Arabia. Looking around the room, I was overwhelmed by the excitement as local women, covered in black, passionately discussed the barriers that people with disabilities face in their communities. The room was filled with emotion, enthusiasm, and change in the making. It was so powerful I found it difficult to keep myself from crying. Even though our workshop was scheduled to end four hours earlier, people were still there, and as excited as ever. Throughout the remainder of the conference my mind kept repeating ?we did something special.?

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