Dangerous

"Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow.
If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living."
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

In a society that is just beginning to emerge from the broken rubble that the Soviet legacy left behind, people with disabilities and their families living in Ukraine continue to live with the aftermath of this dark regime.  Instead of integrating children into society, many continue to employ a policy of "defectology," a leftover Soviet discipline in which children with disabilities and their families are socially marginalized from civil society.  

The fact is: In Ukraine, the realities of having a child with a disability are heart-breaking.  Husbands leave.  Families are broken.  Survival becomes a daily struggle.  At the urging from their own doctors and family members, many mothers who give birth to a child with a disability are often shamed into abandoning their children to institutions just like Romaniv.  Some new mothers are even encouraged by the doctors to "accidentally" drop their disabled baby on their head so that they would not have the hope of surviving.

But in the city of Zhitomir - in the heart of Ukraine - there is a small army of mothers who refused to succumb to such harsh and brutal acts.  They each made the decision to raise their children at home, no matter what the difficulties and hardship they might endure.

Now, as these children are growing older and becoming adults, Mission to Ukraine has stepped up to do the unthinkable - equip these special people with the skills they need to be successful adults.  Never before have these young adults with special needs been supported in this way.  How do you wash your hands properly?  What are table manners?  How to do you make friends?  What do you do if there is a fire or emergency?  What is sexual abuse and how do you protect yourself from it?  These are all critical topics and skills that every adult must know to become visible, thriving members of the community.  Embarking upon this revolutionary concept, MTU is cutting dangerously deep into the very heart of Ukraine's "defectology" by empowering the vulnerable and giving a voice to oppressed.

Sometimes I look at the faces of these young adults, and I can't help but see myself in them.  I see my own heart in their desire to feel loved, productive, and useful.  And isn't that true for all of humanity?  Don't we all have an inner hunger to be valued?  I am not motivated by guilt or pity, but by our similarities.  And it is in this motivation - this potent force within my own human heart - to be a threat to those who oppress these individuals simply because they are different.  I cannot do anything but be dangerous, with the ultimate goal of forging a future for those who have none.