Dili, March 5, 2025 (Média Democracia) – António Viana, 30 years old from Viqueque, currently lives in Villa-Verde. He lives as a person with a disability but he is never inferior to people who are not disabled.
According to António, even though he is a person with disabilities, he cannot be inferior to people who are not disabled. He must try hard to gain experience so that his insight will increase so that in the future he can have good abilities.
“I am a person with disabilities but my brain is not disabled because so far I want to learn together with people who are in good condition, because if I want to be smart I have to try hard, so I can get various experiences so that my mental condition does not kill my disability.” He said.
He continued, during college he always faced various challenges but he kept trying, even though he experienced discrimination from his family and other people, but he used words and challenges as a guideline so as not to lose his confidence in studying.
“So far, I have always received discrimination from family and friends by communicating without using good and correct terms, such as them calling me a disabled person, but I accept all those words because I still do not understand how to use terms for disabled people.” He added.
He added that he had even experienced discrimination from his family because they kept calling him disabled, which made him feel hurt, including his friends, because they still lacked information.
“Seeing the problems that I have faced in my life, I feel burdened, but as a person with disabilities I have the strength to be competent with people who do not have disabilities,” he added.
He emphasized that he is currently undergoing training and activities through various NGOs to increase his insight and capacity, even though he is disabled, he continues to learn to fight for the future.
“So far I have studied junior high school in Kaizu-laran Buikarin, graduated in 2011 and continued high school in 2013 at Eskola Teniku Vokasional Santu António Metinaru Dili and graduated in 2015. I continued my studies in Tinan in 2015 and continued my studies at Universidade Nasional Timor-Lorosa’e UNTL majoring in Community Development. I graduated D1 in 2017,” he said.
He explained that even though he had faced many challenges during his studies, he continued to try to change his life in the future. If he did not face challenges, he would not be able to achieve success and would only depend on other people.
He further explained that the success he achieved was like working as a staff at the ETDA Hotel as a park ranger, even though the salary was sufficient but it could be used to meet daily needs. If he just stayed at home he would not get an income to meet his needs.
Reported by : Nelfiano
Picture by : Nelfiano