All over the world, people with disabilities make up about 15% of the population, and in Belarus they are only 5.8% of the population.
According to Alena Tsitova from the ‘Belarusian Association for Assistance to Disabled Children and Young Disabled People’, there is an “unofficial order” in our country to keep the number of people with disabilities from growing.
As a result, we have not only pretty statistics, but also a restricted spending on this category of the population. But disabled people don’t actually disappear. Although we have a “fully-fledged” state program of assistance, more often people with disabilities have to take their fate into their own hands.
It even happens that officials not only do not help, but also become an obstacle on the way to solving a dream. There is another unofficial prohibition: on access for disabled people to some professions and even to education in the HEIs.
Inna Vyacherka from Pinsk, who has a rare disease and very fragile bones, received a gift of expensive Swiss wheelchair from an unknown Swiss woman. But she cannot leave the apartment, because there is no ramp in her house. The authorities have been promising to put it there for years. There is no money. they said.
Masha Lubneuskaya, although with difficulties, but is able move on her own feet. The girl dreams of finishing a medical college. But the medical and rehabilitation commission has forbidden it, having decided that she would study at the college of electronics, even though the medical school was ready to accept her, and the parents were ready to pay for the training. But Masha did not give up on her dreams and is ready to do everything to realize them.
Alyaksandr Makarchuk, who creates websites, has succeeded, despite being completely paralyzed. And so did Sasha Avdzeychyk, who moves around in a wheelchair, while regularly driving a quad bike.
