In the context of the actions carried out in schools aimed at fostering empathy among students for people with disabilities, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Mr. Prodromos Prodromou participated today, at the Agios Georgios Lyceum of Lakatamia, in a basketball match on wheelchairs.
After the end of the match, Mr Prodromou in his statements to journalists said: "A very beautiful and very important event took place today at St. George's High School in Lakatamia with the motto: "I am also disabled", wanting to pass the idea to all children, but also from children to parents, that we need to show empathy, to put ourselves in the shoes of our fellow citizens with a disability.
Empathy is cultivated in schools, but beyond teaching it is very useful to have experiences. Today, in cooperation with the support organisations for people with disabilities and the basketball teams of Hephaestus, Apollo of Nicosia Rollers and APOP, a joint competition was organised in which students from Ayios Georgios High School participated on wheelchairs. It is a very direct way for the children to feel the difficulties that a fellow human being with a disability can face, but also the possibilities that he has and what he can achieve, because of course we have to ensure equal treatment and the rights of people with disabilities in schools and in the State as a whole.
In recent years, steps have been taken, we have a strategy, but we still have a lot to do. In schools we will try to extend such experiential empathy experiences, because the best way to give people with disabilities the place they deserve is for us all to understand their particular circumstances and difficulties, not to make things easier for them, but to allow them to function on an equal basis. The goal for all of us is a school for all children, an inclusive school that leaves no one behind."
IP
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