RIYADH, 30 September — Best Buddies International (BBI), a non-profit US organization dedicated to improving the lives of the intellectually handicapped people, is planning to open a chapter in Saudi Arabia.
“We are looking for an opportunity to develop friendships for people with intellectual disabilities in the Kingdom through voluntary spirit and enthusiasm of young people,” Anthony Kennedy Shriver, founder and chairman of BBI, told Arab News.
Shriver, nephew of the late US President John F. Kennedy and son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arrived in Riyadh at the invitation of Prince Sultan ibn Salman, chairman of Prince Salman Center for Disability Research.
His goal is to establish the presence of Best Buddies in Saudi Arabia and help integrate the intellectually disabled group into the mainstream. Prince Sultan has pledged his support to the organization, which hopes to be registered as an independent entity. Till then, it will function from the center’s premises.
Set up in Miami in 1989, it has grown from a modest beginning of one chapter on one college campus to a vibrant international organization involving 40,000 participants this year drawn from 800 middle and high schools as well as college campuses. Besides the US, Best Buddies have proliferated in Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Cuba and Egypt. Shriver sounds upbeat on spreading his message in the Kingdom, since everybody needs a buddy.
Spelling out his concept, Shriver said it is to band together the intellectually disabled in schools and colleges, so that they could emerge from their cocoon of loneliness and isolation and share with someone their hopes and aspirations for living a full life. His message echoed the feelings of one of the female participants — the mother of a handicapped child: “Though my daughter enjoys the comforts and security of living as a member of our extended family, she never gets invited by others.”
And that, says Shriver, is the essence of his message: Creating a network of Best Buddies through volunteers so that children of the same age group with disabilities could be twinned to bring about a qualitative change in their lives. “We seek change through one-to-one friendship involving these disabled children.” What are the criteria and how does one go about with networking for a social change? The criteria, he said, are two-fold. To bring Best Buddies together, the children should have an IQ in the 70-75 range or below. Second, the defining age for this group is reckoned to be 18 years or less. The match-making is done by volunteers. They create buddies on the basis of data supplied in the application form by the handicapped children’s parents.
However, in the Saudi context, Shriver hopes to seek out Best Buddies through the aegis of the Disabled Children’s Association, of which Prince Sultan ibn Salman is the chairman. Once the buddies have been identified and paired off, they embark on a journey of togetherness as they discover the joys of living and sharing, and delving into the meaning of life.
“The peer group has a powerful impact on Best Buddies and helps them boost their self-confidence and self-respect,” observes Shriver, who as the founder of the movement, has rubbed shoulders with boxing legend Mohammed Ali, US Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis (who also sits on the Best Buddies Board of Directors) and a galaxy of other personalities. This social networking, he said, also enables them to land jobs that would have otherwise eluded them. Contacts are important for identifying job opportunities. And Best Buddies create them as they dine out in restaurants, enjoy outings, or attend cultural programs.
Shriver said his organization has another agenda in forging ties with the Kingdom. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for the United States to work with Saudi Arabia. It’s away from politics, economics and oil. We are working for the advancement and development of human beings. Our country spends all the time talking about oil, politics and economics — fighting and arguing. We need to talk about how we can make the life of a human being in Saudi Arabia better by both our countries working together. The peoples in our countries will have a quality of life that they never had before,” he added.
He was speaking to Arab News after delivering a lecture at Prince Salman Center for Disability Research. Dr.Stephen Shroader, executive director of the center, Walid Al-Dweigy, director for media affairs, and volunteers from various hospitals were present.
