«With us, not in our place». The actor Lillo-breaking latest news is also on stage

With us, not for us or Together with us, not in our place: the message launched this year by the community of people with Down syndromeon the occasion of world day, which occurs on March 21, to turn the spotlight on right to speak without anyone speaking for them, a make your own choices and decide your own futurelike all the others, as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Sometimes, in fact, still prejudices persist and clichés, first of all that of considering people with Down syndrome as eternal children unable to make decisions on their own, at the very least deserving of support from others, who carry out actions or campaigns for them and not with them .

Trisomy 21

It is estimated that one in 1,200 children is born with Down syndrome, the most common genetic (non-hereditary) cause of intellectual disability. It is not a disease but one genetic condition due to the presence of a chromosome in pi – three instead of two – in chromosome pair No. 21 within the cells; hence also the term of trisomy 21. Therefore, the choice of the date for the international appointment, desired by Down Syndrome International and officially sanctioned by a United Nations resolution, to spread awareness of the condition and promote respect and inclusion in society of all people with Down syndrome. People with intellectual disabilities still have to fight against discrimination –
often sneaky – at school, in the world of work, in sport, in everyday life.

Ridiculous excuses

On the occasion of world day, CoorDown – National Coordination of Associations of people with Down syndrome, launches the international awareness campaign Ridiculous excuses for not being inclusive to explain what it means to be excluded and, at the same time, to affirm the right to participate in social life and to include people with intellectual disabilities. In the video of launch they tell each other, with a comical but bitter tone of voice, six real-life scenes from everyday life to people with Down syndrome, which highlight ridiculous excuses to exclude, almost never directly and explicitlyin the world of work, at school, in sport, in social life.

Not your fault

Not your fault, we are the ones who are not prepared to take you on a trip!; We don’t have enough chairs to invite you to the meeting; We closed the registrations just ten minutes ago; We already have a little girl like you in the group

: these are just a few phrases that people with Down syndrome and their families have often had to hear. Other stories can be told on TikTok, using the official hashtag #RidiculousExcuses.
With this global campaign we want to name and make visible a phenomenon experienced daily – says Antonella Falugiani, president of CoorDown ODV -. They may seem like small events, in reality they are real discrimination often made with a smile of circumstance or unawareness
that score for lives and the hearts of those who suffer them. the time has come to tear down this wall too e unmask false “good intentions” of those who out of laziness or lack of understanding still exclude people with intellectual disabilities.

On stage the substitution (with the actor Lillo and Francesco)

Va on stage, in an ironic key, the tendency towards substitution or to take the floor, the decisions or, simply the scene, instead of the person with Down syndrome, in the video launch of the campaign promoted by the Italian Association of Downs (AIPD) whose protagonists are the comedian Lillo Petrolo and Francesco Sisti, a 21 – year – old member of AIPD . I spent a wonderful day at the Garbatella theater with Lillo, we danced, we acted and we laughed a lot together – he says
Francis Sisti
–. I am a boy with Down syndrome, I am capable of doing many things; I want to do it myself and if I can’t do it, I ask for help.
Francesco is a great dancer and we enjoyed dancing together – he says Lillo Oil –. I really hope that the very important theme of this day will reach many people and lead them to join us, in the square, to dance and to voice the rights of people with Down syndrome. The AIPD sections organize events and flash mobs in the main Italian squares based on the dance tutorial filmed with Lillo and Francescoto raise awareness, in particular, on the right to self-determination of people with Down syndrome.

Couple life

There are many goals achieved but the right to self-determinationon which the true and full protagonism depends, still partly to be conquered: still widespread tendency to consider people with Down syndrome “eternal children” e, consequently, to interpret them, rather than to question them – says Gianfranco Salbini, president of the national AIPD, who has been fighting for the rights of people with Down syndrome for over 40 years –

. How many times, often in good faith, teachers, family members, friends, operators cut off the floor, or do they replace themselves in the decisions that these boys and girls, having become adults like everyone else, know and must take firsthand? Autonomy education is the key and the tool for transforming the right to self-determination into real protagonism – underlines Salbini -. Many of the boys and girls of the association they have a married life and plan a life together, yet it is still hard to consider them adults and pretend to speak for them.