Continuing conflict in the Middle East has created a conveyor belt carrying children relentlessly towards disease, despair, displacement, disability and death. Some of these children will already have a disability before any particular traumatising event visited on their family, neighbourhood or city.

When I read of the latest bombing raid on a civilian area, a missile attack on shops and houses or an ethnic cleansing raid on some sector of a community, I try to imagine how it would impact on a child who cannot see what is happening, cannot hear or understand what people are saying and cannot run away from the horror.

I do not take comfort from any delusion that these children are blessed by unawareness and ignorance (any more than I have ever been persuaded that all of 'them' like music). Rather than fooling myself they are in some way cushioned from reality, I believe very few disabled children are immune to the confusion, fear and pain around them.

Their plight is made worse by lacking the abilities that might help them keep themselves safe.  In war zones disability means increased mental trauma and increased physical vulnerability for children.

When I hear of some attack that has killed ten, twenty or numberless children, I know that we can multiply that figure several times to estimate how many children after the attack were left burned, limbless, brain damaged, blind, deaf and orphaned – but alive.

Those of us who work with disabled children in wealthier and more stable countries must in some way take account of the vast numbers of disabled and traumatised children in the Middle East – children who are disabled now and those children who soon will be.

Every disabled child matters. Every child in the Middle East who is burned, blinded, deafened or brain damaged in areas of conflict ought to matter to all of us.

Peter Limbrick, August, 2014.

Your comments are very welcome. Send to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Acknowledgements:

'Eyeless in Gaza' is the title of a novel by Aldous Huxley published in 1936 - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/261004.Eyeless_in_Gaza   

England has an organisation called 'Every Disabled Child Matters' but it would and should be more accurately named 'Every Disabled Child in England Matters'. http://www.edcm.org.uk/latest-news/2014/june-2014/queens-speech-announces-tax-free-childcare-bill

This article was first published in the 'Comment' section of the Interconnections News Service in August 2014.

Page in preparation for 2022

In response to a recent parent led campaign called #Justice for LB bringing hundreds of parents together when a young man with autism needlessly died in an assessment unit (http://107daysofaction.wordpress.com/ ), Bringing Us Together organised a day event for families in the north of England.

One of the hardest hitting comments on the day was:

'What happens to my young disabled adult when I die?'

 - which then led to other comments such as:

'I would feel such relief if they could die before me. But, we carry on fighting for their rights, to be listened to and to have the best healthy life possible – and to have the best opportunities whilst they are alive.'

and: 

'Who will champion our children when we have gone?'

But the fear goes beyond us not being around to being scared that even when we are here, alive and kicking, that decisions will be made by people who don't understand our young people without our involvement.

A new website has been created http://lbbill.wordpress.com/ and a facebook page  with the idea of a new Bill that aims to shift the power into the hands of the disabled person and their families, so in the future, if the State decides the person cannot live in their own home, they must seek court permission to carry out their plan.

We hope this law will also help all those people currently trapped in institutions as a means of being released from their detention, into a home of their own. (See Mark Neary: http://markneary1dotcom1.wordpress.com/ )

Bringing Us Together feels that this area of the Mental Capacity Act, families understanding the law, and preventing the triggers of families going through crisis resulting in inappropriate provision needs to be researched and highlighted.

Bringing Us Together is a parent led organisation working with families with disabled children, young people and adults.  We are passionate about making the world a better place for our children and our children's children. We are an independent and proactive community championing the voices of disabled children, young people and their families

Bringing Us Together believes that doing things together, understanding our rights and listening to family members, carers, and their young people keeps our disabled children safe, near to home and leading purposeful lives.  We don't want disabled young people going into crisis, we don't want them going into assessment units miles away from their families, and we don't want our children growing up in a world full of discrimination and prejudice.

Our children live on the margins of society and the families face isolation.  Instead we want to highlight what good looks like and for that to be the norm.

For more information on Bringing Us Together contact:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.bringingustogether.org.uk

Tel 01422 341578