See me as equal!

In Simferopol on Saturday more than 300 adults and children with disabilities took part in a march – demonstration under the banner “See me as equal!”

The participants carried banners and balloons with the words “We’re like you”, “Look at what I can do, not what I can’t”, as well as “See me as equal!” and moved in procession down the central streets of the Crimean capital.

In the city’s main square, both people with disabilities and others, representing 25 difficult Crimean civic organizations, held a rally and concert.  The concert was given by people with impaired physical possibilities. Children from a school for those with impaired vision read poems.  Others danced a wheelchair waltz and presented various numbers showing how people could be independent in wheelchairs.

The event was aimed at drawing the public’s attention to the problems people with disabilities face and to develop a positive attitude to those with limited possibilities. It was run with the support of the Canadian Foundation “Children of Chernobyl”.

There are around 120 thousand people with limited physical possibilities in the Crimea.  There are 59 disabled people per thousand head of population which is higher than the national average.