Jobs for People w/disAbility Creates Independence

There are times that our staff lose sleep thinking “What job can this young person do? where will they be successful?  Where can they use their unique abilities?” Even though we toss and turn with these questions they are better than not being able to sleep knowing that there are young people entering into gangs or just sitting at home hopeless because they have no one to help them find or create work programs that can improve their lives.

This is a priority for Familias Especiales to find the right job for the young person with a disAbility.  We write the word disAbility with a capital in the middle to emphasize that they have abilities that there whole life is not just about the dis ( I am creating this word dis) but about their abilities. But we often bump into obstacles in our society where only the dis is emphasized not only in those who can offer jobs but also in the young person themselves.  What do we do in these cases?  Special Families works with both those who have jobs to offer and young people to discover their abilities and to share this information with others.  The Social Staff was reflecting on the people who are motivated in their jobs.  They came to the conclusion that those young people who saw their work making a difference in general for other people were happier.  And the area where they are having the biggest affect is in the work with things that are more natural: work with the natural environment, work in  our programs to recycle paper, to do artwork with recycled materials, to do artwork to depict the animals in danger of extinction in Nicaragua (and the world) to make bags out of recycled kraft paper and cloth to try to eliminate plastic bags, to work in our small accessible park with the plants and care of orphaned turtles, to make natural yogurt and granola. As a staff we have decided that these are our priorities for the young people working as we close this year and plan for 2020.

We have young people with many different abilities and also dis.  Those young people who are deaf and mute have found creative work with us in our programs for the environment.  We have also placed several young people in a local environmental reserve and they are being able to show others that their dis is small compared to their abilities and creativity. Recently we had a meeting of those young people who are deaf and mute and they shared through their  own language of signs that if they were not working  with us that they might be at home dong nothing or they might be entering a gang who have recently formed in the midst of the crisis in Nicaragua.  This gang who are young people who are deaf and mute has been responsible for several robberies and threats to other people.  The police are searching for them.  But in their search the police have not had to worry about checking on those who have jobs with us.  Working has helped them make positive life decisions against situations which otherwise they would feel compelled to follow.  In our meeting the young people shared about their abilities and saw that if they were not working they would be falling only into their dis.  We are grateful to all who are helping us in this project  “Jobs Make A Difference For Young People With Disability”.  And we want to work with you to practically make the dis disappear as they become people with natural Abilities.

Links:

• artists working
• day of reflection with workers