KUWAIT: With more and more disabilities and health conditions reported every year in Kuwait, it is still possible to find people who, despite their disability , show others what it really means when we hear "Where there is a will, there is a way." Upon first meeting Abdullah Al-Adwani, 23, Poliomyelitis is not the first thing that impresses you. It is rather his self-confidence, determination, and aspiration to inspire others to overcome disability, in whichever form.

The young man missed on learning how to read while at special needs school, which he attended since the age of ten, but now focused his energy on learning the skills on his own. Foregoing the dream to be a teacher, due to his disability, he now dreams of counseling others with disability and serving as role model of overcoming challenge.

Many caregivers and parents of children with special needs share Al-Adwani's discontent with the level of skills and real education at special needs centers and institutions, which care for a patient till the age of 21. The family is often in a spot where it has to fill in for a teacher, a physiotherapist, a social counselor, and protector.

Ibtisam Al-Asfour is mother of 17-year-old autistic Dhari, and her most pressing concern is scarcity of centers to care for people such as her son. "Without much care, conditions are sure to deteriorate. And having to handle things alone is quite a strain on the family without external support.

A mother of two autistic sons, Um Abderrazzaq, shares the wish to see more rehabilitation as well as recreation centers for the autistic and other challenged people. Though admitting there is improvement in state services, she stressed there is a need for a specialized authority to improve conditions of special needs children through a comprehensive approach.

School mistress of Al-Risala and of Kuwait Dream Center, catering to students with special needs, Saniyyah Khattab said it was vital to set up centers and institutions to care for those aged 21 and above and no longer benefit from the existing schools and centers.

Neglecting their needs and the sudden loss of caregivers with parents and family members sometimes unable to carry on the work means such people could well prove to be ticking bombs," she stressed.

There are examples of centers and programs offering psychological, social, as well as health and physical rehabilitation in countries like the UK where these people are even given simple jobs after their training to give them an outlet for their pent up energies and frustrations through giving them a sense of self-worth.

Khattab said Kuwait was first in the region in scope and diversity of services provided to people with special needs, citing allowances, loans to rehabilitate the living quarters, special needs education, and medical support. MP Salwa Al-Jassar for her part noted there is need for more than just health and physical care. "We need establishments that would actually offer life-coaching so that the disabled manage their conditions and learn to overcome them or adjust to them and still be productive and feel accepted and welcome within their society.

Despite her support of law 8/2010 on people with special needs, she said "the text rather only suggests the need for financial support, and the truth is that moral support is more vital." "Establishment of such holistic-approach institutions and centers is a belated and long-awaited step ... and the issue should not be used as a pawn in politics." Furthermore, with the plans all finally approved after this long wait, we still have to wait for the time-consuming bureaucratic processes and the organization and management aspects to be addressed.

All in all, the gaps and defects in text of the law passed in 2010 could actually lead to a crisis and a trade in education and services to those with special needs, which would be a catastrophe," the MP remarked. --- Kuwait Times