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- Q&A with Tal managing director of ALUTEVA-autistic hotel in Israel
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- Q&A with David Intercontinental Tel Aviv
- Keri Bowers- film producer of 'Normal people scare me'
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- Peter Shears
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- Rose Niehaus Olsen Morris inventor of the safety sleeper bed
- Annette White,counselor for Camp Autism
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- Laura Shumacher-Traveling with autism: a true story
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- Monthly guest's -Travel videos and pictures
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Q&A with Peter Shears of Children's Disability Awareness Trek of Eastern Europe
![Picture](/uploads/4/4/4/8/4448415/4632125.jpg)
As you well know by now, this blog deals with the different aspects of blending travel and autism. In the last few years a new trend has emerged in the travel industry known as Volunteer Travel, which successfully blends the exploring of countries while helping the local population in their fight against poverty, diseases and other socio-economical problems. This interview describes (in their own words) the trek plan of two young English students on a mission .
Peter and his friend David are starting out from Munich in late June, and
will be travelling around the post communist Eastern bloc, to raise
awareness to the plight of over a million special needs minors in
countries such as Romania,Hungary,Kosovo and Serbia. As is described
on their blog page, "...These children are completely dependent on a
minority of extraordinary people who devote their lives to help them, but
for whom acquiring even the most basic provisions is a difficult struggle.
We're taking steps to raise awareness of how these children live and the
effort that goes in to help, and how you can help transform their lives to
give them the quality of life every child has a right to.."
A.G.: What are the reasons that made you decide to go on
your trek?
Peter:. Well, the actual idea started about three months ago. We had
bought tickets to a music festival in Germany and planned to continue
traveling for a few weeks,after the festival. However two days after we
purchased our tickets, my brother, who is severely disabled, was
hospitalized with a stomach bug. Most of us would recover after a day,
but due to his disabilities he couldn't fight it and was hours away from
dying. What ended up saving his life, were the qualified the
medical staff and equipment he received while in hospital. That got me
thinking about children with the same needs and troubles as my brother,
but without access to the treatment and facilities that saved his life. I'd
seen feature films on the troubles facing disabled children in Eastern
Europe before, so I suggested to my friend and partner, Dave that we
visit and work as volunteers at institutions that deal with such
children while documenting our journey so we can bring a message back
about the amazing work done in these places, along with detailing the
hardships these children have to deal with every single day.
A.G.: Why did you chose to include these specific countries?
Peter: The map we have up is only a rough draft. We chose a selection
of some of the poorer countries in Europe, and set about trying to find
institutions to visit. So far, it looks like we'll be spending most of our
time in Romania, Kosovo, and Serbia with brief stops in Bulgaria,
Bosnia, and Hungary.
A.G. How does one prepare for such a journey?
Peter:We've done a bit of physical endurance training, so on average
we walk about 5 miles a day. That's been the easy part. Getting publicity
to our trek, and finding institutions has been the hard part. We decided to
split the roles—I've taken the PR role and tried to advertise the trek as
much as possible including contacting local media sources, the facebook
group, and handing out flyers. Dave has taken on the role of finding
institutions, and has worked incredibly hard, sending countless e-mails
and making countless phone calls. Eventually our persistence and hard
work has paid off, and we're happy with the publicity and contacts
we've gained.A special mention to Amy Brett, Lucy Wallace, and Marija
MJ for all their help with our trek.We could not have done it without
them.
A.G.I understand you are traveling with a partner—could you please introduce him to our readers?
Peter:. David Parlour, like me, has a disabled sibling and his mother
works closely with disabled children, so it's a cause close to both of our
hearts. A student studying at Keele, he's admirably split his time between
his studies and preparing for the trek, as well as bank rolling the majority
of the trip.
A.G. What do you expect to accomplish by your trek, and do you see any others in your future?
Peter:We hope to bring the plight of these children and the amazing
work done by those who help them into the mainstream media's
attention. There are so many charities about, and yet we hear so little
about these people and children. Hopefully, this will spur people on, to
donate and help anyway they can. We've sort of discussed doing treks in
Asia and Africa in years to come, but there's nothing at all being
prepared just yet. All we can say for sure, is this is going to be a life
changing experience, and we hope others will follow in our footsteps.
For more information on Peter and David's trek go to http://europetrek2010.blogspot.com/
Peter has promised to come back with stories and pictures describing the treatment of autistic children in the countries he will be visiting
Peter and his friend David are starting out from Munich in late June, and
will be travelling around the post communist Eastern bloc, to raise
awareness to the plight of over a million special needs minors in
countries such as Romania,Hungary,Kosovo and Serbia. As is described
on their blog page, "...These children are completely dependent on a
minority of extraordinary people who devote their lives to help them, but
for whom acquiring even the most basic provisions is a difficult struggle.
We're taking steps to raise awareness of how these children live and the
effort that goes in to help, and how you can help transform their lives to
give them the quality of life every child has a right to.."
A.G.: What are the reasons that made you decide to go on
your trek?
Peter:. Well, the actual idea started about three months ago. We had
bought tickets to a music festival in Germany and planned to continue
traveling for a few weeks,after the festival. However two days after we
purchased our tickets, my brother, who is severely disabled, was
hospitalized with a stomach bug. Most of us would recover after a day,
but due to his disabilities he couldn't fight it and was hours away from
dying. What ended up saving his life, were the qualified the
medical staff and equipment he received while in hospital. That got me
thinking about children with the same needs and troubles as my brother,
but without access to the treatment and facilities that saved his life. I'd
seen feature films on the troubles facing disabled children in Eastern
Europe before, so I suggested to my friend and partner, Dave that we
visit and work as volunteers at institutions that deal with such
children while documenting our journey so we can bring a message back
about the amazing work done in these places, along with detailing the
hardships these children have to deal with every single day.
A.G.: Why did you chose to include these specific countries?
Peter: The map we have up is only a rough draft. We chose a selection
of some of the poorer countries in Europe, and set about trying to find
institutions to visit. So far, it looks like we'll be spending most of our
time in Romania, Kosovo, and Serbia with brief stops in Bulgaria,
Bosnia, and Hungary.
A.G. How does one prepare for such a journey?
Peter:We've done a bit of physical endurance training, so on average
we walk about 5 miles a day. That's been the easy part. Getting publicity
to our trek, and finding institutions has been the hard part. We decided to
split the roles—I've taken the PR role and tried to advertise the trek as
much as possible including contacting local media sources, the facebook
group, and handing out flyers. Dave has taken on the role of finding
institutions, and has worked incredibly hard, sending countless e-mails
and making countless phone calls. Eventually our persistence and hard
work has paid off, and we're happy with the publicity and contacts
we've gained.A special mention to Amy Brett, Lucy Wallace, and Marija
MJ for all their help with our trek.We could not have done it without
them.
A.G.I understand you are traveling with a partner—could you please introduce him to our readers?
Peter:. David Parlour, like me, has a disabled sibling and his mother
works closely with disabled children, so it's a cause close to both of our
hearts. A student studying at Keele, he's admirably split his time between
his studies and preparing for the trek, as well as bank rolling the majority
of the trip.
A.G. What do you expect to accomplish by your trek, and do you see any others in your future?
Peter:We hope to bring the plight of these children and the amazing
work done by those who help them into the mainstream media's
attention. There are so many charities about, and yet we hear so little
about these people and children. Hopefully, this will spur people on, to
donate and help anyway they can. We've sort of discussed doing treks in
Asia and Africa in years to come, but there's nothing at all being
prepared just yet. All we can say for sure, is this is going to be a life
changing experience, and we hope others will follow in our footsteps.
For more information on Peter and David's trek go to http://europetrek2010.blogspot.com/
Peter has promised to come back with stories and pictures describing the treatment of autistic children in the countries he will be visiting