Raising disability awareness in Lebanon (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
This week-end, Al Amal Institute for the Disabled in Beirut invited me to conduct a disability awareness workshop for high school students in Lebanon. It was very humbling and inspiring to speak with young compassionate students interested in becoming vocal advocates for the rights of people with disabilities in Lebanon and the region. After my lecture, the students enthusiastically participated in a “blindfold” exercise I created with the help of my friend Laila Atshan, a blind Palestinian psychosocial therapist and activist educated at Harvard who does trauma therapy in war zones (including with Yazidi victims of ISIS). When the exercise concluded, the students said that they felt even more passionate about making Lebanon an accessible and accepting place for people with disabilities. At the end of our workshop, I was very touched to receive a small bag decorated with a beautiful Palestinian design, which was sewn together by young people with disabilities in Lebanon.
Young disability advocates from Lebanon (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
