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by Joy Jamaleddine, sixth secondary,
College Preparatory Program
H
ere is an email that I actually received from a classmate:
“You can’t stop me from using the “retard” word! It is
in the dictionary! You’re really rude to believe that you
can come up to me and tell me what to say, and what not to say!
I advice you to leave me alone, or else you will be looking for a
problem!”
I received this email because I asked this classmate not to use
the “R” (retard) word.
It hurts me to hear classmates refer to each other as “retards”.
The R- word is a very common word that is used very often in
our daily conversations. However when people use the R- word
they use it as another adjective for dumb, stupid, or weird.
The dictionary defines the word “retard” as: “
slow or limited in
intellectual or emotional devel-
opment or academic progress,
a slowing down or hindering
of progress; a delay”. It does not
describe it as “stupid”. If only I
had my classmates with me at
the Global Youth Summit, they
too would have been touched
by the pain caused each time
the ‘R’ word is used.
At the Special Olympics, I
spent two weeks with youth
representatives (with and with-
out intellectual disabilities)
from 16 different countries. My
time with them changed my
views about different things in
life.
At the Youth summit, we tackled four important themes: Vol-
unteer, Join, Share, and Give. We discussed what we have done
before the summit, and what we were planning to do after it. We
discussed ways to increase awareness, how to get others to ac-
cept people with intellectual disabilities, and the Special Olym-
pics itself.
The main goal of the summit was to ban the use of the R- word
from our everyday language because it is very insulting to intel-
lectually disabled people, to their relatives and to their support-
ive friends.
I am planning to help ban the R- word in my school and hope-
fully in the community with the help of IC, through seminars,
presentations, movies. I will also be helping in fundraising for
the Special Olympics.
As a global youth representative I was accompanied by an ath-
lete Marwa Warde and a chaperone Rima Al Zaazaa to China.
At the conference we had many conversations where the athletes
who talked about their past experiences. “My mother left me
when I was young” an athlete from China said. “When I walk
in my neighborhood some kids come up to me and tease me by
saying that my mother left me because I am stupid.”
Just hearing that and many others stories really touched my
heart. It makes me want to do something. Unfortunately it re-
ally is a hard goal when you have so much resistance and stereo-
typical attitudes around you. The challenge is great and yet I feel
obliged to do my part.
Now that I have come back, I really am excited to share with
everyone what I did, what I learned, and what I want to do. How-
ever there are always obstacles that stand in my way. For example,
the first day I returned to school, someone came up to me and
said: “Why did you spend two
weeks with retards? Don’t you
have anything better to do?”
I admit that this puts me
down. But even though I have
and am still being harassed,
teased, and made fun of by my
classmates and others, I truly
believe in the Special Olym-
pics. I believe in acceptance. I
believe in respect. I believe in
myself and I believe that I can
make a difference despite the
putdowns around me. I know
that I will always have the
strength, and courage to pull
myself back up. I am but six-
teen years old and I still have
many stairs to climb. In life some stairs will be smooth and easy
while others will be rough, slippery, and steep. One needs to
work hard, one step at a time, to get to the top of the stairs.
And this is exactly what I will do.
Joy Jamaleddine
was chosen to represent Lebanon and the
Middle East – North Africa Region at the 2007 Special Olym-
pics World Summer Games in Shanghai (Oct 2 – 11) where over
7,000 athletes met from 169 countries. Lebanon was represented
by 35 athletes. Joy and 58 international youth leaders were se-
lected so they can learn what they can from the athletes and later
teach their own peers back home about people with intellectual
disabilities.
Ignorance and the “R” word
IC Reaches Out
MarwaWarde, Joy Jamaleddine and a fellow athlete