Residents object to plans for special needs centre

SOME residents of Polemidhia near Limassol are objecting to the creation of a centre for people with special needs in their area, it emerged yesterday.

The issue came to light after the publication of a report by the Ombudswoman’s office, chastising the Welfare Department for failing to discuss the move with local residents.

According to sources in Ombudswoman Iliana Nicolaou’s office, the complaint was made by an individual in Polemidhia in September 2004.

“Someone made a complaint that they had written to the Welfare Department saying they were against the decision to bring people with special needs into the area and that they had not received an answer to their letter,” said the source.

Although the Ombudswoman in her report did not recommend any course of action in the case, she found that the Welfare Department had not acted correctly by ignoring the concerns of residents, and should have held prior discussions with them.

Nicolaou said in her report that the Welfare Department had told her they had carried out research in the community and that there had been a “general acceptance” of the move, with the exception of the complainant and two other letters of protest. No details of the research, was supplied, Nicolaou’s report said.

She also said it was “unjustifiable” for the Welfare Department not to respond to those who complained or try to discuss the issue to ease their concerns, even if the reactions seemed inexplicable. In this case, she said, some residents felt the centre was being imposed on them without their having any say in the matter.

The report said that despite growing recognition of the necessity of integrating people with special needs into the community, such moves still caused reactions among some local residents, which spring from ignorance, fear and bias.

One campaigner for people with special needs told the Cyprus Mail he wasn’t surprised by the reaction by residents. He said it was typical of how people with handicaps and special needs were viewed in general.

“Once every year we have the Radiomarathon and everyone is giving money for children with special needs, but when they are asked to live among these children no one wants to do it,” he said.

“It’s not about money. It’s about acceptance. It’s about taking them to live in the community.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.