On Sunday, December 7, 2009, I attended Funability 2008, which is the annual integrated fun run for children with disabilities and children without disabilities between the ages of 7 and 15. This event is held every year in conjunction with the "Week of Persons with Disabilities" which falls during the first week of December, with December 3 being the official UN International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
Many of my students told me about the event when I went to my class on Saturday morning in Menagesha. Cheshire was organizing a bus to transport the children from Menagesha to Addis on Sunday where the run was to take place. I decided that it would be fun to participate in the Funability Run this year and met my students, the other Cheshire teacher and two of the Cheshire social workers at 8 AM Sunday morning for the event. The run took place close to the European Union delegation in Addis. The children were organized based on age group, with the youngest group wearing read T-Shirts, the middle group wearing yellow T-shirts and the oldest wearing green T-shirts. The groups were staggered with the youngest group starting and completing the race before the next group started and so on. When all of the children were standing at their various starting points for the race, the colours of the T-shirts made up the Ethiopian flag!
The children were so thrilled to participate and it was a beautiful, sunny and warm Sunday! I, along with the other adults, walked beside them on the sidewalks, cheering them on! At the end of the race, there was a musical performance by a local band, the distribution of certificates, and a performance by one of the children at Cheshire who is a musical prodigy. I will never forget the event, the absolute excitement in the crowd, and the sign that one of the children was proudly carrying during the event bearing the words: Disability is Not Inability. Truer words have never been spoken.
