Awake early this morning anticipating my Fifth Estate Interview today. Feeling anxious and experiencing some anxiety. I'm thinking positive because often when I do ....the results ARE positive.
Thank you to all of my friends on and off facebook who supported me and my family during the last couple of years. Nichele would not be in such a kind loving home of her own, working as a housekeeper, and being an advocate and spokesperson to students at Junior High Schools in Nova Scotia. She speaks to students about not using the "R" word (retarded) and it's effect on people when it's used. She also speaks to her personal experiences of being forced to move into a large psychiatric institution and living in pure hell. Junior high schools learn about civil rights and she tells them how her civil rights were taken away and what that felt like. We all, by law, have choice on where and with whom we live.
The abuse she experienced while living in an institution was the hardest thing of all. The very people hired to care and protect are the very people who would almost destroy her.
Nichele is NOW in HER OWN home surrounded by caregivers that actually care.
So today I share our story with Canadians, hoping that in doing so, will promote change in Nova Scotia, close the 6 horrific Institutions and follow the roadmap for change. It is our hope that no other human being will be exposed to experience what our family was forced to experience .
Rather than waking up in a warm bed in her own home, Nichele could very well have been waking up, cold, in a different institution called jail, following in the footsteps of poor Ashley Smith.
I'm grateful for all of you. Xoxo
The launch of The Freedom BikeTour is July 31, 2014 in Yarmouth Nova Scotia!
Brad Rivers and Alex Nemet are going to bike across Nova Scotia from Yarmouth to Sydney raising awareness for community living for people with an intellectual disability. This tour will promote the documentary made by Flow Productions and People First Nova Scotia about the institutionalization of people labelled with an intellectual disability called The Freedom Tour.
During the bike tour an indiegogo campaign is going to be set up to raise funds for an education program teaching the civil rights of people labelled with an intellectual disability in grade 7 civics classes. As part of the perks of that campaign the Freedom Tour DVD will be available.
DONATE HERE People
First Nova Scotiais the official voice of
people who have been labelled with an intellectual disability. The vision for
People First is to raise public awareness around full inclusion for people with
disabilities and to empower self-advocates to know that they have the same
rights as everyone else: human rights, accommodations rights, language rights,
the right to full citizenship in an inclusive country, and the right to speak
for ourselves.
For more
information contact Cindy Carruthers, Admin. Support Coordinator, People First
Nova Scotia, 902-305-0423 or pfns2014@gmail.com
