Last year cbm Canada made a decision to include people with disabilities in our planning and implementation. We have also tried very hard to recruit and hire staff who are skilled and fully capable, and may also have a disability. This is important to us – we need to be accountable to people with disabilities in all we say and do.

Let me give you an example of how this can work.

My last blog was on couples with disabilities who have children. In my first draft of that blog I used the phrase …”couples who have an illness, like Cerebral Palsy….” One of our staff persons, Jaymie, read this. She wrote me an email about my blog saying among other things:

“In my opinion you could have left out the word ‘illness’ because I believe the word sort of has a negative connotation and feel that it implies the need to be taking care of or that one is incapable. It reinforces this preconceived social idea that all people with disabilities are weak and need to be cared for…”

This is why we need to hear from people with disabilities. Yes, Jaymie has a disability and was able to tell me what my words sounded like through her life lens. It helped me to understand better and to communicate better.

Thank you Jaymie.

I changed my blog.

Those of you who follow cbm Canada hear us often speak about disability. The more I see and visit with people around the world who we do say have a “disability”, I think of ability.

You can look at anything from different angles.

Certainly we do work with people with medical impairments – be it disease, a twisted foot, or cataract. The barriers these people do feel in life – their disability – is a combination of the impairment and the norms of society. The disability of not being able to read, for example, because of blindness is “cured” when books and web sites are in digital form which allows it to be audibly read. Our job is not about disability per se, but about ability. We celebrate ability, promote ability, work through medical interventions and with communities to turn the disability to ability. I wonder if we should stop talking about disability all together, and speak of ability.

This is why an article that I received yesterday is so interesting. It concerns parents with Cerebral Palsy, who have children. There is one case in Toronto that is at the forefront of this issue, but the article does a great job of not focussing on one couple, but drawing the issue out further. At the core is society definitions of ability and disability. At the core is our definition of normal. At the core is a celebration of ability over disability – couples who refused to let society’s imposed disabilities stop their ability to have a family of their choice.

What do you think?

In my last post I spoke about the amazing win by Josh Cassidy in the Boston Marathon this year and how pleased I was that the media in Canada covered this so well. I wanted to first congratulate Josh before making my next point – because nothing I say here should take away from Josh’s great achievement.

I recently returned from Uganda. While there I met a number of families with children with disabilities. I was so lucky to spend some time with these families and get to know them a little bit. The one family consisted of a grandmother looking after her mother and aunt, along with 5 orphaned grandchildren. The oldest grandchild had a significant disability and was in our program. I know that Josh and other athletes have courage, dedication, drive, courage, and talent. What struck me was the courage, dedication, drive, courage and talent of these children and their grandmothers in places like Uganda. Every day is a marathon – a marathon of finding food, looking for hope, getting to school, keeping the place clean, and wondering about the future.

Please don’t misunderstand me – Josh Cassidy’s win in Boston is a testament to his dedication and courage, and I am thrilled he is getting good press coverage. I just wish that these grandmothers and children in Uganda, who quietly toil away with their own dedication and courage would get the recognition that they deserve.

Josh Cassidy won the Boston Marathon last Monday. Josh broke the world’s record for a marathon in a wheel chair. What a huge accomplishment! Here is a video of Josh training – amazing how fast he is going. Congratulations Josh!

Two things struck me with Josh’s win. I will give one of those today and then give the other one in my next post.

I was so pleased to see how the Canadian media covered Josh’s win. For too long the media has only focussed on the winners who are perceived as “normal”. It is as if the wheel chair athletes do not have to have the same dedication, hard work, sacrifice, courage, and talent as those who do not have a disability. When it was reported on in the past, it was always done with a caveat – some seen as less valued. Not this year and with Josh. I hope it is not simply because he is a Canadian. I hope that this is because society attitudes have changed.

In my next post I will reflect a bit on another thing that stuck me upon watching the news of Josh’s win.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Today was a hot, humid and emotionally draining day.

Our last day on the build site, and the humidex was well over 40, with absolutely no breeze. Even when we managed to find shade, we could still feel the heat pounding down on us. It’s the first time in my life I can ever remember feeling like my feet were on fire.

And while we were trying to take in all the sights and sounds for the last time – the scenery, the smiling faces, and the animals grazing on the hills – I think most people were also struggling emotionally.

It was going to be hard to say good-bye to Eric and his kids as well as Jacob, Hope and John, the local construction team who had been working patiently with us all week. After laboring on a construction site in the blazing hot South African sun for seven days, most people were physically drained and were ready to call it quits. Some of our hearts had mixed feelings – we were happy to be going home but sad to say good-bye to such a wonderful group of people.

It’s not easy to be dropped into a different world, a different culture and to live with a group of strangers for a couple weeks. Initially, it’s a bit hard to get past the awkwardness and ask questions in order to get to know each other better. Then after only two weeks, you have to say good-bye.

I feel that you can’t come here, meet the people, work hard, and get involved in their life and community and without leaving a little piece of yourself behind. That is the difficult thing. Leaving a community and people you have become attached to, then returning home and landing in a world that has gone on without you – a world that expects you to simply reintegrate.

But it has been well worth it. Getting to know Eric and his story. Getting to meet his kids and play with them a little. Learning the impact safe housing can have on someone’s life, especially someone with a disability. We came to help build a house and to serve, which we did.

Now the real journey begins. What do we do with what we have learned here? We are challenged to either go back home and carry on with life as though we are unaffected by what we have seen and heard, or we share our stories and experiences with others and hope God multiplies the effort.

As we spent our last evening together, everyone wants to go home and use this experience to multiply the impact. No one is sure just how that will happen. There is no cookie-cutter plan we can all simply implement. It will be different for everyone. But one thing will be common. We all know that the Holy Spirit will take our experiences and our hearts and will show us, each in our own way, how we can use this experience for greater good. We aren’t out to change the world; we’re just looking to have a positive impact for as many Eric’s as we can.

It will be interesting to stay in touch, and to see how the Holy Spirit uses each of us and our experiences. The harvest is plentiful, the workers few.

I think this trip has created a few more workers.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

Monday, March 26, 2012

The penultimate build day, hard to believe it’s coming to an end.

After taking Sunday off to go to church and relax for a day, it was back to the build site today.

As we walked up the hill to the site it was great to see the new house and roof rising out of the hillside. Sometimes when you are too close to something you have no perspective. It is only when you step back and take a look at what you have or are doing that you realize what you have done. Well, today, because I could see the house from the roadside, it hit me; we have built a home from the ground up. A home that will remain here after we leave. A home that will house a family, house lives, house memories, and stand for years to come. It was a neat feeling. Not that it will change the world or anything profound. It was just neat to see our toil and sweat transformed into a solid, permanent object set against the backdrop of rolling hills in the South African countryside.

Today was perhaps the hardest day on the build site to date. The heat was relentless and the humidity picked up. By lunchtime, most of us were ready to call it quits, and hit the hay. But we still had three hours yet to go. All the walls and the roof are completed and now we’re working on the finishing touches. Lots of little jobs to do, that don’t always involve everyone, just two or three people at a time, while the rest of us either watch and learn or simply clean up the construction site. So the momentum of the build is also petering out. Hard to believe though that today was the penultimate build day and that tomorrow we will hand the keys to the home over to Eric and his children.

When we first arrived on site, Eric was very shy and seldom left the security of his old home. Understandable when you consider he has mobility issues, trouble speaking and struggles intellectually, let alone the fact that he didn’t know any of us. But as the days passed, he would gradually come out of his house to see how we were doing. And whenever he would come out we would all go up to him and ask if he was happy with our work. We would pat him on the back or put our arm around him and he would smile and try to communicate the best he could.

Then, about four days into the build, we noticed that he would come out of the house to greet us as we arrived on site. We would all line up to shake his hand, give him a hug and ask him how he was doing. He would spend almost all day outside near the build site, watching us work, and we would interact with him anyway we could. Many people said it’s going to be tough for to say goodbye tomorrow. I wonder if Eric will feel the same way.

It’s amazing to me that you take a handful of people from a world away, drop them into the middle of the bush in the heart of Africa, place them in the lap of complete strangers and in a week they are as comfortable with each other as old friends. It just to show me that God really did create us for relationship.

No matter where I have travelled in this world, when I have spoken to people I have always come to the same conclusion, regardless of race, creed, colour, religion, or socio-economic status we all want the same things.

We want our children to be able to go to school, we want them to have an opportunity to grow up and achieve their dreams, we want to be able to earn a living to support our family and we want a safe place live. Eric is no different.

He may have suffered a debilitating attack that has left him with severe disabilities. His first wife may have died, and his second wife may have left him. His children may have to live with his sisters for safety, but ultimately he wants the same things I want. And hopefully this new home will begin the journey to achieving some of that.

Tomorrow, when we hand the keys over to Eric, his kids will be able to move back home, they will have a safe and secure house to live in, they will be able to walk to a local school and his eldest daughter may begin the journey to achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer.

His journey and his family’s journey is no different than mine, it’s just taking place half-a-world away, in a different setting.

We are all connected, whether we know it or not. And the more people we meet and get to know, the more connected and complete we become. We really are one body, rediscovering each other and ourselves.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

Nothing makes you feel as sore as manual labour, especially if you are used to working at a desk all day.

Today was our first day on the build site, and I don’t think very many of us, including myself, had any idea how hard it is to build a house from the ground up.

As we drove 30 kms due west of Durban to the village of Inteke our bus was filled with nervous anticipation as not many of us didn’t really know what to expect.

When we reached the build site it was ready to go. The local Habitat staff had already dug the foundation, poured the cement slab floor and laid the first three courses of brick. They wanted to make sure the site was ready for us to just jump in and start building and hopefully complete the house in five-to-six working days.

After some instructions and demonstrations on how to lay brick the house was handed over the us, 12 volunteers from Canada, many with no experience in home building.

It took us some time to get the hang of mixing cement, mudding the walls and laying brick, but by the afternoon we were flying.

You could literally see the house growing out of the ground hour-by-hour, and by the end of the day we had accomplished our goal of laying five courses of brick all the way around the house.

When we finally stepped back to appreciate our work, we all realized how tired and sore we were.

But despite all the aches and pains you couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces with a shovel. Yes we hurt, but it was a good hurt. We knew the pain was the result of hard work, hard work on behalf of someone who needs assistance.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

Flew from Lilongwe, Malawi on Friday to Durban, South Africa today via Johannesburg. I am now switching gears in the heart of southern Africa. I am going from visiting cbm funded work in Swaziland and Malawi to participating on a joint cbm Canada/Habitat Canada build in Kwa Zulu Natal.

cbm and Habitat have just launched a new partnership to build accessible housing for people living with a disability and their families in South Africa. This is the first joint built of its kind, and hopefully, the first of many not only in South Africa, but around the globe.

It’s a win-win-win for those living with a disability in need of accessible housing, Habitat and cbm. The partnership provides people living with a disability and their families a safe, affordable, sustainable place in which to live. It allows Habitat to include a huge demographic of people in developing countries who, until now, they weren’t serving and it will allow cbm to provide our beneficiaries with accessible, affordable housing throughout the world.

The build team is comprised of cbm donors from across Canada and Habitat donors from Edmonton, Alberta all of whom arrived in Durban today. Over the next two weeks we will work together to build a home from the ground up for a family in the Kwa Zulu Natal region of South Africa.

We begin building on Monday, and will be working side-by-side with members of the recipient family in keeping with the Habitat philosophy requiring the recipient family to invest their own sweat-equity into the house.

It looks like we have a great group of people, some with previous Habitat experience and others with previous Africa experience, and still others with neither.

While I am familiar with Habitat, I have never been involved in a build. I am both excited and a little nervous. I’m not what you’d call ‘a-handyman’ so this will test my limited trade-skills.  I’m also a little leery about how mixing cement, lugging bricks and installing a tin-roof under the 28 degree pounding heat. Our Habitat group leader has been stressing the importance of staying hydrated. While our local logisticians keeps warning us to stay out of the woods to avoid the Black Mamba snakes, scorpions and disease carrying ticks.

It should be memorable experience. I just hope it will be for all the right reasons.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

I learned the true value of volunteers today. Not that I ever thought it wasn’t valuable before, but today it took on a much deeper meaning for me.

We headed to the bush to see an eye-screening clinic. And when I say we drove into the bush, I mean we drove into the bush. We quite literally just turned off the paved road onto a dirt path that wasn’t much wider than a bike path. The brush on either side of us was higher than the car and the road was so twisting and turning that if the car ahead got more than 10 feet ahead, it was gone and we couldn’t see it anymore.

After 40 minutes of driving 25 kms off-the-beaten-path we suddenly drove into an opening where there were about 20 mud-walled/thatched roofed huts. When we drove to the centre of this village, there was a group of about 30 people sitting on woven mats under a shade tree. They had all gathered for the eye-screening clinic.

We were introduced to Crispin, and young medical assistant, and his colleague Gilbert, a community rehab worker. These young men are two of the 14 Community Care Workers (CCWs) employed by MACOHA to travel throughout Salima District and conduct field assessments of people either living with a disability or in need of medical attention.

Crispin and Gilbert may be the trained professionals, but they are quick to point out it is actually the community volunteers who work with them that do the grueling ground work.

Salima District is home to 350,000 residents. 150 volunteers have been trained by MACOHA and cbm to go out into the community on foot and look for people needing help.

When they find them, they do an initial assessment, and then contact the CCWs like Crispin or Gilbert who come out and do a more in-depth assessment and referral. It may involve being referred to Dr. Banza at the Salima District Community Hospital or to another facility such as Nkhoma Eye Hospital – another cbm funded hospital – in Lilongwe.

These people are volunteers in the true sense of the word. They don’t receive any financial reimbursement for their services, they aren’t given bicycles, or any funds to pay for a bus or taxi ride. They are responsible for covering an area roughly 150 square-kilometres and they may visit between 40-60 patients a day.

And if it wasn’t for their volunteer services many people living with a disability or in need of medical attention would probably never get the assistance they desperately need.

Thanks to the initial assessment by the volunteers Crispin and Gilbert knew they needed to examine seven people in this village today. After a few tests and consultation they determine that three people need to have cataract surgery. They are given a form to take to Nkhoma Hospital in Lilongwe and are told their surgery will be scheduled for May.

Before we leave Crispin and Gilbert explain a volunteer will be back to tell them when their surgery has been scheduled and to make sure they have a way of getting to the hospital.

It sounds easy enough, but you have to remember that the volunteer has to walk – or ride if they own a bike – more than 24 kms into the bush, on a path no wider than them, surrounded on either side by thick bush containing disease carrying ticks, cat-sized rodents and the infamous Black Mamba snake, not to mention the intense African sun. And they get to do all this for free.

Volunteers are the back-bone of the Community Care program at MACOHA. Thousands of people a year owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women who put the well-being of others ahead of their own prosperity or safety.

Doctors, surgeons and other healthcare professionals may get all the appreciation and admiration, but it is these volunteers that make the Community Care out-reach program possible.

They are truly invaluable.

Brian Hatchell, cbm Canada
Guest Blogger

We flew from Manzini, Swaziland to Lilongwe, Malawi today and met up with Stefan Dofel, cbm’s Country Coordinator for Malawi.

We hopped in a couple vehicles and drove east from Lilongwe – the capital of Malawi – to the town of Salima on the coast of Lake Malawi.

We arrived at the Salima District Community Hospital and were met by Dr. Leonard Banza – an Orthopaedic doctor. As he leads us through the hospital towards the orthopedic referral clinic taking place this week, it’s hard not to notice the disrepair of the hospital. It is desperately in need of some infrastructure upgrades, but Dr. Banza tells us the hospital – built in the 70’s – is one of the best in the country.

Dr. Bonza works for Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) a cbm funded partner in Malawi.

Today, Dr. Banza is hosting an orthopaedic clinic for the residents of Salima District. MACOHA hosts around 18 to 20 clinics like this yearly for the 350,000 residents of Salima District.

As we walk with Dr. Banza to his assessment room we pass thru a jam-packed hallway. People sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall, others standing looking out the window or staring at the approaching strangers. The people have been waiting patiently for more than three hours already just for a chance to see Dr. Banza.

As we approach the assessment room it’s hard not to notice a little girl waddling up-and-down the hallway-she can’t bend her right knee and drags her right leg as she runs.

In the assessment room Dr. Banza learns from the mother – 22 year old Aisha – that one-and-a-half year old Alima woke up one day in December and was unable to walk or put weight on her right leg, and sometimes cried out in pain.

Dr. Banza rules out Polio as the typical symptoms are not present. Alima doesn’t have a fever and there is no muscle deterioration. He finds out Alima took part in an anti-Malaria campaign and was given a Quinine shot in the back-side.

Dr. Banza says the Quinine injection was probably administered incorrectly and has caused an infection in Alima’s Sciatica, which has caused drop-foot.

He explains to the mother that he will make up a foot split for Alima and that she will have to wear it for a month or two. If that doesn’t improve the situation, he may perform minor surgery to repair a tendon in the foot. But Aisha is reassured that Alima will go on to live a fun-filled life and that she need not worry that her daughter has Polio.

Dr. Banza is only one of two cbm-trained Orthopaedic Surgeons in all of Central and Northern Malawi, a region of more than eight million people.

Not only is Dr. Banza good at his job, he is well known all over Salima District. The people know his work, and like Aisha, will travel more than 15 kms, walk over two hours one way, just for the chance to see him.