Struggling to have fun

Safia Bari, director of SNF, talks about how the group is trying to establish a special recreational facility in Dubai.

Parents of children with special needs have joined forces to raise awareness about the life of disabled children in the UAE.

The Special Needs Families (SNF) Support Centre is striving for a facility to give these children the chance to simply have fun.

The fund raiser

But for Safia Bari, director of SNF, this simple goal has proved almost impossible to achieve.

For more than 7 years, Safia, who has a 21-year-old slow-to-learn daughter, has tried to raise enough money to open a recreation centre for the disabled following calls from parents and children across the region.

She said: "There is very little awareness about the disabled in Dubai and the UAE. And it is heartbreaking to see the children upset because they have nowhere to go. Many parents are turned away from facilities for children because they claim the children need full supervision. Parents of disabled children also struggle with worries about their child playing up in public and causing a scene."

"A recreation centre would provide a safe environment for disabled children to play, have fun and interact with other youngsters. SNF already provides a strong network and support system for children and parents but a dedicated centre would just bring us all closer together and give us a central point of contact."

"We started as a small group with a handful of families wanting to support each other in getting their children into the mainstream as individually we found it hard to take our kids out. But when we started going out together we were all empowered with a sense of courage and belonging."

"My daughter Nusrat is 21. And even though she attends a school for children with special needs, we have no idea when they will ask her to leave. School is the only place she has the chance to interact with other children which is healthy for her."

"Today we have around 130 families and we make frequent recreational trips to make these children feel wanted. This recognition helps fuel the fire of dedication to the cause as we now have more supporters and better plans for the future."

Safia says she will not give up and will continue to raise money for a dedicated facility as soon as possible.

She added: "Many of the people I have contacted about renting a building or villa are very positive until they discover what the facility will be used for. If you want to open a salon then no problem, but a centre for disabled kids and all of a sudden it's not available."

"It's the family which needs support as a whole so that they can share their problems with one another."

Therefore, as a group, we discuss individual problems and try to solve them jointly. Like for example, if a child has a learning disability we look out for a good school for him/her and if there are borderline cases as seen in slow learners we try to rehabilitate them in a regular school."

"The centre would also focus on trying to integrate disabled children back into the community. We plan to look at vocational education specifically."

Safia aims to raise Dh500,000 and admits that she has a long way to go. "I know we have a long way to go but we won't give up. We are relying on people like Abbas and his team who are raising cash for us, to make our dream become a reality."

Safia Bari's care for these children, her belief in a better world for them and her dreams for them, has given the group a unique sense of love and hope.

She has been in the UAE, since 1981 and admits that life was not easy and felt she had help, support or a place to turn to.

It was only when she attended a school function that Safia realised she was certainly not alone. She came in contact with other parents who felt the same sense of loneliness and started to form an informal support group.

The group grew in popularity and in 2003, SNF was finally recognised by Dubai Humanitarian City.