Viola has renamed them "Yolanda's mimosas"—but Yolanda here is not the daughter of the Corsair she dressed as last Carnival. It is the Filipino name for Typhoon Haiyan. For days now, devastating news has poured in from the ravaged Asian nation. But one report stuck with Viola: the radio reminded listeners that disabled people face the greatest risk during natural disasters and emergencies.
Disabled children, women, and men struggle to reach shelter because most emergency facilities are not accessible to them. This means they risk being shut out from humanitarian aid and emergency response—cut off from medical care, food, and clean water.
The result is stark: disabled people die at twice the rate of the general population. Yet the radio also reported on those working to help disabled Filipinos in the midst of catastrophe. One such organization is Christian Blind Mission, an NGO founded specifically to assist people with physical and intellectual disabilities in developing countries.
Viola likes to think of these workers as Yolanda's mimosas. Days earlier, she had heard another beautiful story from far away—about Teresa Meng Weina, a Chinese woman and founder of the NGO Huiling, which means "spiritual wisdom." She had just received the International Vittorino Colombo Prize in Monza. On September 1, 1985, Teresa Meng Weina opened the first school for children with intellectual disabilities. Ninety-six children enrolled.
Today, with its doors widened—on March 18, 1990, Huiling began accepting disabled adults as well—and having overcome countless obstacles in nearly three decades of work in a country deeply resistant to mental disability, Huiling now runs more than a hundred centers across thirteen major Chinese cities.
The organization has also created two signature initiatives: La Chiocciola and Emmaus. The first is a network that allows thousands of disabled people to connect via the internet and organize activities together. Nearly a thousand people use the service each day.
The second is a chain of bakeries that employ people with intellectual disabilities, making them self-sufficient. Teresa Meng Weina and Huiling continue their work with relentless focus—their ultimate goal to shift Chinese society's understanding of mental disability. It is no easy task. But Viola has already learned that the word "impossible" has no place here.
Giulia Galeotti, 2013