Project: Rubinho is connected
(For all updates on this project click here)
For years I have known Ruben and his family. Ruben is a 15 year old boy with cerebral palsy and a 98% damaged brain. When I attended high school, I had some curiosity about the challenges that his family had to overcome every day when pushing his wheelchair around our town. That led me to do a project on it.
(For all updates on this project click here)
For years I have known Ruben and his family. Ruben is a 15 year old boy with cerebral palsy and a 98% damaged brain. When I attended high school, I had some curiosity about the challenges that his family had to overcome every day when pushing his wheelchair around our town. That led me to do a project on it.
For a few weeks I went to different public and private buildings in Ovar and surveyed them on how well prepared they were in case Ruben went to visit. I collected measurements, statements, photos and opinions that helped me write a furious paper on a how-the-hell-is-this-possible tone. But what really amazes me is how long it took me to actually turn myself to Ruben and try to work with him, instead of working with things around him.
Last week, as I was next to the bed where he spends 95% of his time, and as I was speaking to his mother, I told her about this amazing girl I saw on Youtube, Carly.
As I showed her this, she turned to me and said she felt exactly like Carly's father. Through these 15 years she had wished countless times for her son to tell her how she can help him. And she believes that he has the answers to this question but fails to find a way to communicate it.
I went home that night and the event stayed with me.
Before I went to bed the idea was born.
We were going to find Rúben's voice.
