Transformative Praxis Malawi
  • Website Under Renovation
  • Our Story
  • The Campus
  • Research
    • Past Projects
    • Current Projects
  • Soil Remediation
  • Community
  • Donate
  • Blog

6/25/2015

Seeing the Whole Forest Not Just the Trees

0 Comments

Read Now
 
By Katie-Alana Schouten
Picture
Something close to my heart is the affect learning about religion and education has had on me. Two things that are now incredibly important to me and make my life more worthwhile. In secondary school I didn’t apply myself to learning, I find it hard to regret it as at that time it was what I wanted to do and I think I didn’t have enough real life experiences to understand it was important. Moving to college though, whether I became better at listening or started caring less I can’t be certain. But seeing the affect one story has on you about a patient, as a nurse is profound. Both on what you’ve learned from it and how to apply it to the clinical field, and how it makes you feel spiritually.
However, little I got out of my education in school I learned in college education is the essence of a person, the beginning of being human and being it to the full (or so it is in my case anyway). Learning to think critically, to be objective and learning to not put something down just because you can is something I’ve come to feel, and not just have an awareness of. Presently I have never been more grateful for having an understanding of people I meet both as a nurse and as a stranger. Their own opinions and why they do what they do could be wrong to everybody but I have an ability to take aspects such as context into consideration and see both sides of it.
That’s why when we held a meeting for parents with intellectually and physically disabled children it really saddened me when one parent spoke of her young daughter who commenced school and was discriminated against by other pupils and was left on her own. Eventually she stopped going. I asked myself do we still live in that age?
Yes.
If someone has a child with a disability in the region of Kasungu, neighbours in the village look down not only on the child, but also on the family. A child with a disability is seen as negative and a burden to the village. If the child is brought to church on Sunday here, other people in the village are afraid of, in the parent’s words, ‘getting the disability’. If a child with a disability starts school they can be subject to all types of abuse like emotional, mental and social abuse. Do we still live in this age in 2015?
Yes.
I’m sad to say we’ve all been a part of this. I spoke to an elementary school teacher after the meeting with my friend.  He declared that we all have disabilities and likewise we all have abilities, and we are all different. I was happy that the teacher had the same mindset my friend and I had.
I recall Martin Luther King Jr. stated something to the effect of – the one who turns their back on what they see is wrong is the same as the person doing wrong. Both as a student and a 20-year old girl who has faith, I get caught in what I should say to keep everything peaceful or what I can do to make things right. I can either learn from this or be ignorant.
On this journey and from this experience of meeting these parents I can ignore what society thinks or be a weaver of society.
I can be a sheep or a wolf.
I don’t want to be a sheep.

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    About the Blog

    From 2013 to 2017 students participating in Transformative Praxis: Malawi wrote blog posts reflecting on their experiences of participating in action research in Malawi.
    While students continue to participate on campus they now reflect on their experiences through other means. The original blog with the full archive can be found here

    Archives

    June 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    2015
    2016
    2017
    After School
    Arrival
    Challenges
    Comfort
    Compost
    Culture Shock
    Curriculum
    Debate
    Development
    Dialogue
    Disability
    Education
    Engagement
    Farming
    Flag
    Freire
    Garden
    Gender
    Girls
    Growth
    Health
    Inclusion
    Internet
    Introductions
    Kasungu
    Lessons
    Mural
    Personal Narrative
    Poem
    Privilege
    Reading
    Reflection
    Research
    Responsibility
    Sanitation
    School
    Soccer
    Team
    The Campus
    Time
    Tribute
    Tuck Shop
    Water

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Website Under Renovation
  • Our Story
  • The Campus
  • Research
    • Past Projects
    • Current Projects
  • Soil Remediation
  • Community
  • Donate
  • Blog