“We are glad that they showed without pressure or hesitation what they can do and how important they are to our society,” said Karla Mandić, president of the “ERGO” student club.
On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Educational Rehabilitation Students’ Club “ERGO”, which operates at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Educational Sciences at the University of Mostar, organized the “Employment for a day” project.
This year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities decided to mark it in a slightly different way through joint cooperation with the Association for Down Syndrome and the Bright Smile Association. Their desire and vision is to enable the inclusion they advocate every day through the project “Employment for one day” of users of the Association for Down Syndrome and the Bright Smile Association.
“With this project, we would like to encourage small and large entrepreneurs, as well as all the people around us, to start breaking down existing barriers and provide people with disabilities with more opportunities for greater participation and involvement in everyday life, and give association members the opportunity to show the world their quality and capabilities and to get a chance for a new experience that will encourage them even more not to give up. Unfortunately, we are aware that not everyone is able to participate in this type of project for some reason, but there are also those who are able and whose quality is worth highlighting. One changed opinion or one smile of fulfillment after perhaps the first working day in our life will be enough for us to know that we have done something right and to give the wind at our back for further work, but we sincerely hope that it will not be just employment for one day, she said. is Karla Mandić, president of the club of educational rehabilitation students “ERGO”.
Members of the association tried their hand at various jobs provided by the Mostar employers of Hotel Mostar, Lignum doo, Gastro Pub Gonzales, Nataša Hair Salon and Puppet Theater Mostar. They had the opportunity to learn from the best in their profession, but also to show their skills that they normally have and because of which they were selected for the positions they are employed.
Today’s employees, that is, members of the association, had the opportunity to learn a lot from the best in the profession, but their colleagues today also had enough to learn from themselves.
“There is something for everyone that each of them is happy to do and that they are even more good at. We are glad that they showed without pressure or hesitation what they can do and how important they are to our society, and some of them may soon be part of one of today’s work teams,” said Mandić and emphasized: “With this project, we want to highlight exactly that. , as the great importance of including and employing people with disabilities who have many qualities and abilities that many of us did not even know about. The empathy and love they radiate is special and everyone should experience it, and with this project we tried to give them the opportunity to show it to our small but valuable community”.
Some of the goals and activities of the Educational Rehabilitation Student Club “ERGO” are promoting educational rehabilitation as a profession, actively influencing the improvement of the quality of studies, raising awareness of people with disabilities and children with developmental difficulties, marking dates related to the profession, holding conferences, forums, lectures, workshops and projects, attending conferences, education, workshops and other professional events, encouraging cooperation with institutions and associations whose activity in some segment includes educational rehabilitation.
“The Association for Down Syndrome and the Association “Vedri osmije” were happy to respond and were an immense wind behind us and an incentive in the organization of such a large event. We would like to thank them for the selfless help and trust they gave us, and we hope that we fulfilled their expectations as well as the expectations of their members. The cooperation has existed for many years and is very successful, and we hope that it will remain so, because together we can only do great things”, said Mandić.
This year’s club activities will be under the slogan “We are all included, we all win”, which is a kind of presentation of the way of working through marking the upcoming year through more intensive work, action and connection with children with developmental difficulties and people with disabilities, but also by encouraging inclusion in the society that surrounds us.
The students worked hard on the celebration plan throughout the year. Different workshops will be held every month with the aim of encouraging inclusion and providing a better quality of life for your children with developmental difficulties and people with disabilities.
“Regarding one of the closer celebrations, it will be soon, and the topic will be a Christmas workshop with young people from the parishes of Mostar, which is still being planned. We will also mark important dates in a special way, such as World Down Syndrome Day, World Autism Awareness Day, etc. , you can see all the celebrations on our Instagram and Facebook page”, Mandić pointed out.
The members of the association, after their working day, told us only positive and happy experiences they had during the day, and the smiles we saw could not hide the feeling of satisfaction in both them and the organizers. Satisfied with their work team, they pointed out that they would be happy to return again, which was also confirmed by the employers, so the desire to return is mutual.
Source: bljesak.info
