Help post-polio sufferers of the pain and agony
“My trip to Ethiopia with Rotary District 5040 Governor Lyn Stroshin and Alex really changed my life as a person with polio and as a Rotarian. It gave me a lot of energy to try and change the world, which all of us are trying to do as Rotarians.” -- Gabor Gasztonyi
Highlights of a presentation by award-winning professional photographer and author, Gabor Gasztonyi, is a polio survivor who has taken a keen interest in working with children who have recently contracted polio. A member of the Rotary Club of New Westminster, he chaired the Lower Mainland’s 2016 Polio Walk and he is now working on a global grant to provide physiotherapy services for children with polio at two Ethiopian rehabilitation hospitals. Last year Gabor won the Rotary International photographic contest in two categories about children in Ethiopia.
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| Rotarians who traveled with Gaby to Ethiopia, including now District 5040 Governor Lyn and Alex Stroshin | |||
Do the children really know that they are disabled? They only know they are because somebody tells them. When a child finds out that they cannot play with others, they soon learn. As you look at them, they don't care. They are just having fun, until society tells them that they're disabled.
When a disabled child is kept indoors and hidden from others as happens in many African countries including Ethiopia, they soon learn that they are underpriviledged and that, indeed, they are not complete human beings. As a result, the child will suffer from childhood trauma, which extends far into adulthood. The battle for a disabled child will not only be a physical one, it will be a psychological one of wide ranging proportions.
Mother Teresa staid a night in the same room where Gabi stayed at the hospital which was once the home of Haile Selassie's daughter. Canadian theologian Jean Vanier once said that Mother Teresa found Christ in the disparaging eyes of the suffering.
Mother Teresa also once said that being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, and forgotten by everybody, is a much greater hunger, is much greater poverty, than for somebody who has nothing to eat.
I really appreciate Rotary for giving me that opportunity.
50% who get polio get a second onset of polio. We experience neuron degeneration in muscles. The respiratory system gives the first signs of the second onset. Some of the challenges are related to aging, but some of it is related to lack of exercising, so it's important for people with polio get rehabilitation and therapy to be a lifelong process. Children need to understand that so they can become good citizens and make a difference in the world.
Rehabilitation of children with disabilities of any kind, all over the world, is being proposed as a seventh area of focus for Rotary, in addition to the six currently supported. Children who were reached in the early days of the end polio campaign of Rotary have grown up with other physical and mental challenges which could be addressed at an early age.
Children are our hope for the future. I hope every child has access to education, rehabilitation, and an accessible environment free from barriers and obstacles preventing them from being equal to other children. I hope society can find a way to strengthen the resolve and self esteem of disabled children everywhere through rehabilitation.