TONY TALK 托尼嘉宾室

Handicap 1 Helper

Tony: Hello and welcome to Tony Talk! And today we have a special guest with us, Fernando, who is a social worker who works 2 with handicapped 3 people. Welcome, Fernando! How are you?

Fernando: Fine, thank you.

Tony: I just wanted to ask you, where are you from and how did you end up coming to China?

Fernando: I am coming from Italy nearby Venice, a beautiful city. And my life was all the time very lucky and very happy. And one day, I thought maybe I have to go in some other wonderful place like China and try to do something good. So in ’89, I went in Hong Kong and I start to learn Chinese, Cantonese actually. And then I came here in Canton, in Guangzhou, and I start to work with people with mental handicap.

Tony: Mental handicap.

Fernando: Yeah, I am actually a computer expert, and I am specializing 4 in special training. And I use the computer to build up games and programs, special programs that make funny to learn things. At that time, I tried to teach him to use his brain to remember not only numbers, casually 5 numbers, but remember the input 6 method number, the Chinese input method number, so he could start to write, use the computer to write, to write what he thought actually. And I remember that his mother was so happy the first time that she could saw that his child was able to write, write almost in a normal way as we are...

Tony: He would write in Chinese?

Fernando: Yeah, in Chinese, yes. You know this kind of man, he always talk very low voice numbers and nobody know what he think really or what he feel. Nobody was able to talk deeply with this person. For the first time after more than 30 years, the mother and the father could see a piece of paper in which this child started to tell, “I love you. I am very happy that my mother and my father gave me the opportunity to study, to learn to come in this service and to do some works...” and so on.

Tony: Now there are a lot of people who live in communities where there are handicapped people. What are some of the best ways other people can help special needs people in their community? Can you give any suggestions or...

Fernando: Yes. The first thing is to be positive, to have a positive behavior. I mean when you saw people with disabilities, to accept them.

Tony: Right.

Fernando: For instance 7, a lot of people doesn’t have time or money because they are not so rich, to help disables 8. But maybe when a disabled going to take a bus, we can give the place to them or smile, and don’t escape, don’t be afraid, you know? So I feel normal people should have a better, a positive way to, how to say, to stay with disabled people. No?

Tony: Hmm.

Fernando: The second step is to try to think if we have time to offer for these people, so do some voluntary work. I always say, we have to build up a bank of time.

Tony: A bank of time.

Fernando: That means like in my bank, I put up the time of the people. Maybe there is a volunteer that can come on Saturday. Another volunteer maybe can come in the afternoon or Wednesday afternoon. So I try to build up in my computer a file in which I have the time of the people that can offer to us to do some work.

Tony: Well, it’s good to know that there’s definite things that people can do to help out and to reach out to disabled people, because they are a part of our society, too. So we’re very thankful for the work that you do and thank you also for your time to talk to us about this. Very good!

Fernando: Thanks to you and to everybody!

Tony: Thank you again! And again this is another edition of Tony Talk, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Bye bye! CE