Special Children to Special People

It's so sad that we are still in the Arab World so judgmental. It's not kind, it's not even human to keep judging people especially people with special needs.

A friend of mine has a special need child. She told me: please write on kindness with special needs kids and adults. Here I am writing...

Where are those little courtesies and sweet gestures? Where are the manners? Where is humanity?

You must be kind to everyone without any exception, or you are a hypocrite who only shows his affection to typical people and feel ashamed when people notice him talking to a homeless or hugging a special need child.

We are so materialistic in the Arab World. We still care about what people will say if we didn't have that fancy car or that new phone. We still feel bothered to look at a special need child in the eye and treat him as a human. If we didn't insult them or made fun of them, the best of us will just ignore their presence. 

We still live in denial and hide the truth about our kids. We don't want to say that our child is different, we don't want to tell our family and friends, we keep it inside because we know very well how everyone's behavior will change when they know you have a special need child in the house.

Even our roads, our restaurants, our public bathrooms, our public transportations... nothing is ready for a special need person on a wheelchair.. Our schools are not ready for a developmental delayed or autistic child.. How we will ever have these things available if our hearts are not yet ready to accept a special need person.

“How would your life be different if…You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day…You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.” ― Steve Maraboli

Let today be the day.. say something nice to a special need person, do a random act of kindness with a special need person. Improve the quality of their lives. Make their parents feel better. Make their parents feel supported in this tremendous responsibility that they have raising a child with special needs. 

And you my friend, remember, "God only gives special children to special people."

By Heidi Shebaro

Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger