Living positively with cerebral palsy

ROMAINE Waldhausen is happy to be living and learning as she does not see cerebral palsy as a setback. The 30-year-old said she has lived her whole life learning and accepting who she is.
Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Waldhausen said it has not been easy for her, and she learns to deal with it everyday.

“One of my biggest challenges is my special wheelchair – the wheelchair cannot be used in a normal vehicle, so I need a bakkie for whenever I travel. Even though this has been my condition from when I was born, dealing with it means dealing with different challenges every other day,” she said.

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Waldhausen said she is grateful to her family who have been very supportive of her as they have ensured that she goes to schools that cater for her needs.
“I started at Browns School, and now I am here at the KZN Cerebral Palsy. These schools have made it easier for me to learn at my own pace. I am always surrounded by my friends who are like me, and the environment has made it easy for me to learn and have fun,” she said.

Before, Waldhausen said she has had trouble accepting that she moves around in a wheelchair. “I used to dislike the wheelchair and saw it in a negative way, but that changed when I started to see it as a device that is meant to help me move around. I learnt that it does not define me,” she said.

Waldhausen is also bilingual – she speaks fluent English and IsiZulu which she learnt from the age of three years.
“We speak English at home, but my grandmother used to speak to me in IsiZulu, and that’s how I was exposed to the language. This has made my life easier as I am able to communicate with different people,” she said.

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In her spare time, Walhausen said she enjoys listening to music and playing games on her tablet.

Waldhausen said she would like to relay to people that disabled people can do things by themselves and do not always need help.
“I am my own person, and being in a wheelchair is not necessarily sad for me so people should not feel sorry for me. It is always appreciated when people treat you like the individual you are and not as someone who is always in need of help,’ she said.

#ShareASmile with Persons with Disabilities

Therina Wentzel, national director of the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities’ (NCPD), said she believes that smiles can trigger a positive chain reaction of wonderfully uncontrollable proportions.

The theme for Casual Day this year is #ShareASmile with Persons with Disabilities.

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“The theme for Casual Day 2023 banks on a phenomenon that has been neglected for too long – one that has been known to mankind from the beginning of time: The smile,” said Wentzel.

“The NCPD has decided to employ that uplifting, comforting and inspiring facial expression as an ally in this year’s campaign.”

She says a smile is indicative of the presence of love, kindness, goodwill, caring and many other positive traits in human hearts. “The most important characteristic of a smile, which the NCPD believes it can utilise, is that it is more infectious than any disease known to man.”

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