«Send a disabled child to the summer camp it means paying an extra cost of around 100 euros per day. Now tell me if this is not discrimination,” he declared Sara Balottaone mom of 40 years of Barco di BibbianoIn the Reggio Emilia, who wanted to tell the local edition of Resto del Carlino about his discomfort. «We speak with numbers in hand – he continued -. The average cost of a summer camp in Italy it is between 100 and 150 euros per week. If you are disabled you must have support and therefore an extra cost, paid by the parent, of around 100 euros per day. This becomes 650 euros per week for 5 hours, therefore only for the morning.”
The complaint
Sara is the mother of two children, aged 3 and 5, the latter with level 2 autism with severe hyperactivity. For some time the woman has been fighting on social media to highlight the discrimination of which, even today, many people with disabilities are victims. Especially during childhood. «Summer camps are so beautiful. Places to meet, play, discover and grow. If you are not poor or even disabled – continued Balotta -. But is a summer camp where there are different ethnic groups, different cultures and disabilities really a place of discovery and growth? It’s a shame that colorful summer camps don’t exist in Italy. In addition to their truly excessive cost, they are also discriminatory towards disabilities. Yes because, when you have a disabled child, both parents don’t always work, often only one works and therefore financial resources are inevitably limited.”
In fact, the woman had to leave work to look after her child. «The joke is especially in the summer for us ‘different’ families – she insisted -. Let’s say we’re lucky enough that the local municipality suddenly becomes magnanimous and offers the educator, free of charge: to please everyone, they should only let each child do it for a week. So you will agree with me if the sad conclusion is: my son, just because he is disabled, cannot go to summer camps, ergo he will not have the possibility of socializing or teaching other children about his world.”
Even though there are many municipalities that set up establishments and interactive places for disabled people, there are still many people who find it difficult – especially economic – to socialize their children suffering from pathologies. «Autism, for many, is not a gift – concluded the mother – it is an endless fight against institutions, workplaces and bullies. It will become a gift when an autistic child does not want to be changed, but understood and listened to with the heart.”
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