OPENING OF A CLUB FOR HANDICAPPED AND DISABLED PEOPLE

 Room for 300 hadicaped people 

The Club for Handicapped and Disabled People is intended for around 300 handicapped and disabled people from Debar and its surroundings, to visit it and to socialize among themselves.

On January 31 in Debar formally started to operate the Club for Handicapped and Disabled People. Besides MCIC, the implementation of the project was also supported by the Handicap International, the Oxfam and the UNHCR. The activists of the Humanitarian and Charity Association of Roms Moon – the Debar branch, carried out the largest burden through the implementation of this project.

How was the project implemented
- We have worked on this project for a longer period– says Vjoca Duka, one of the 16 activists directly involved in the implementation of the project. Vjoca is an English language teacher, who views her involvement in the project concerning the handicapped people as a completely normal matter. – They told me that there is an opportunity to help those people and I accepted. To be sincere, it took all my free time, but I don’t regret it at all – adds Vjoca.

Through the implementation of this project the Association of Roms engaged activists of various ethnic backgrounds, that is eight Albanians, seven Roms and one Macedonian. The ethnic backgrounds are no problem for these people; it is a completely normal matter and it doesn’t obstruct the implementation of the project.
The completion of the activities concerning the opening of the Club for handicapped doesn’t also means completion of this project. It has just begun. The goal that was the reason for the reconstruction the building where the 300 handicapped people will socialize, will now be realized.
- We began with the identification of the handicapped people in Debar region – continues Vjoca. – The people were kind, but there was a certain dose of distrust – as much as their good upbringing allowed them. I think that they were surprised that somebody offered them something without asking anything in return. Later on, when we completed the delivery of the equipment (Moon – Debar branch has distributed 40 wheelchairs, 50 crutches, 20 decubated mattresses and over 12,000 diapers), the atmosphere changed – it became much more pleasant. The interviews were not so tense, they simply regarded us as friends – she adds, leaning on Samir Tumeni’s wheelchair – one of the future visitors of the Club.

Who will visit the Club
Samir and his mother Ferica hope that the Club will be a place where he could socialize with other people with same problems as his. The destiny and the bad financial situation of the family prevented any kind of activities in Samir’s eighteen-years–long life. Since he received the wheelchair from Moon last year, he has been able to move around the house and outside of it for the first time in his life.
- Samir was not born with a handicap – says his mother. - When he was six months old, he had a very high temperature. We lived in a village at that time, and I wasn’t able to take him to a doctor immediately. Regretfully, it turned out to be disastrous. Samir never learned to walk. We took him to see doctors for so many times; we even stayed in hospitals for months, but it was all in vain.
The responsibility and the obligation Ferica Tumeni has are too big. She doesn’t hide it. When Samir was seven years old, the doctors asked her if she wants to give him in an institution that takes care of children with a handicap. Even today Ferica is disgusted by the thought that her child could be some place else but their home. The responsibilities in their home have grown in the meantime, but she doesn’t complain. She is aware that she didn’t pay as much attention to the other two sons as she did to Samir, but they are not angry for that – on the contrary, they are trying to help. The Tumeni family recently got another member, when Ferica’s older son got married.
-My daughter in law is very nice to Samir, and she helps me a lot, too – says Ferica, and adds with a joy in her eyes that they are expecting the youngest member of the family in two months.
For the time being, the entire Tumeni family lives together. Although Ferica and her husband planned separate rooms for their sons and daughters in law when they built the house, the financial situation didn’t allow that. The only income they have is Ferica’s husband salary, which amounts to MKD 5,000. She also receives MKD 2,500 as an aid for Samir. Yet, they all hope that things will get better.
The Club also has a room for socializing and a room where a special counselling office for handicapped people will be placed.