-
Are family routines a dynamic concept?
15 November 2022Read more
-
Value diversity
1 April 2021Children with special needs deserve the same education as their peers. ‘Ordinary’ contexts provide children with opportunities, challenges and experiences that can not be provided in ‘disability-related’ environments.
Read more -
Family-based approach of disability management advances family quality of life
18 May 2020As I get an opportunity to write this blog, I want to start by writing a proverb which called as “Health is a hidden treasure; only the sick know its value!” On my reference, it is a Nigerian proverb which I always infer when I come up to talk about health. I have gotten the chance to conduct research with some Dutch researchers on disability management caused by leprosy, podoconiosis, and lymphatic filariasis using the family-based approach.
Read more -
The OtherAbilities festival in Amsterdam
31 August 2019The OtherAbilities is a series of public and semi-public events that have started in Amsterdam in March 2019. So far we have organized a three-day festival, a workshop for creating new music instruments and two public presentations of prototype instruments produced by individuals involved in the workshop as participants or advisors. The various events bring together projects of art, music, design, science and technology that explore and experiment with the diversity of the human body’s physical and sensory abilities.
Read more -
Making space for disabled people in political life
9 July 2019In 2018 and 2019, I was asked to have a closer look at where the people with disabilities were in political life on behalf of Disability Studies in Nederland and the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken). Some of the answers I found were surprising, others were not—but I think that they do show a clear way forward, which is a good outcome.
Read more -
Little big voices
20 February 2019Around six years ago I had the opportunity to support a girl with an intellectual disability (ID) at her home. We used to do some domestic activities and went swimming afterwards twice a week. She enjoyed a lot being in the water and I enjoyed sharing with her those joyful moments. I used to talk with her mother about some concerns and challenges she was facing together with her family because of her daughter’s disability. We talked also about positive and motivating issues related with the development and achievements of the ‘swimmer’. But I started to be curious about what the siblings think, feel or experience because of their family situation. For me, that was the starting point of an exciting and sometimes overwhelming journey that has led me to the Netherlands for the second time in four years.
Read more -
Migrant Mental Health; beyond the medicine chest and the couch
21 December 2018Prologue:
‘’No, I cannot go to their hospital, they say I am mad, but I know I am ok. My problem is not having a job or money to take care of my family. The pain is too much and I cannot go back home now. I am afraid their medicines would make me to forget myself or complete the circle of madness.’’Migration is as old as man and in spite of its many challenges, man has continued to move from ‘present to future dangers’.
Read more -
A dive into the unknown
23 November 2018An orange lion is standing by the side of a pool. He knows how to swim, but doesn’t know the rules of this pool. He’s nervous, but gets ready to make the dive into the unknown water… Accessibility for banks is a bit like jumping into an unknown swimming pool. It’s a new territory in business. You don’t know the rules And you don’t know how deep the impact will be. And just like a swimming pool, you don’t know the depth of the water without warning signs.
Read more -
What makes good quality of life?
12 April 2018When I was a young boy, I sometimes heard people say: “You only have one life, so you might as well enjoy it!” To my young ears and mind, I thought this must mean that I was quite justified in having fun, fun, fun all day long. But even at the time, I realized that this was not possible. Life has rules that you do not always enjoy obeying. Life involves obligations and responsibilities that are not always fun to carry out. This seemed like a contradiction to my young mind. But, I began to realize as the years went by, that the more serious things in life can be good too, and that a person needs not only to have fun and enjoy oneself but also to engage in more serious activities that are based on personal values and goals and that bring satisfaction and fulfillment to your life.
Read more