Bernardo’s Added Value
For us mere mortals, to adopt a child with only half of their capacities would be unthinkable, especially if you already have four minor kids at home. But nor Carmo nor Rui were afraid to take that risk.
To listen to a father speak publicly about one of his children with a shaky voice, speechless, without knowing how to express all the gratitude for the value that his son adds is something really touching and profoundly interpellant. This moment took place last week, before an audience with plenty of academics and researchers, students and faculty, business people, partners from renowned companies, CEO’s, managers and strategic economists of the corporate world, the startup universe and non-governmental organizations.
Everyone gathered, late in the afternoon, in the big auditorium of the Rectory of the NOVA University Lisbon, at the Campolide campus, to launch the Inclusive Community Forum — Center of Leadership for Impact, the newest project that Nova School of Business & Economics (Nova SBE) embraced with multiple partners. The auditorium was so crowded that there were people sitting on the steps. The crowd demonstrated a huge interest in the cause, which was impressive and self-explanatory when looking at the number of people that crossed town under the pouring rain so that they wouldn’t miss this inaugural moment.
Rui Diniz, economist, consultant, former Director of McKinsey and current Administrator of José de Mello Saúde and father of five children, is also the father of the Inclusive Community Forum. He started the launch by telling how it all started and how the birth of this project intertwines with his personal story. Twice he was speechless, not managing to pronounce his son’s name, the one he adopted and who ended up changing his entire professional and family life.
Bernardo, the baby that the Carmo and Rui adopted five years ago, was three years old when he was handed to them and, on that same day, they became the parents of five children, two of which of the same age. But the thing is that between these two children there were no similarities in capacities, given that Bernardo could not see, talk or walk. He had a serious development disability of 99.5%.
For us mere mortals, to adopt a child with only half of their capacities would be unthinkable, especially if you already have four minor kids at home. But nor Carmo nor Rui were afraid to take that risk, so they decided, first as a couple and then with the entire family, to take a step further. Bernardo came home and no one and nothing was ever going to be the same as it was up until then. A baby who depends on everyone for everything imperatively changes routines but also changes your perspective of life forever.
Five years later and Bernardo still cannot see and can barely speak but he can already walk with the help of others and walking assist devices. At eight years old, he is a happy, easy-going child and nobody is indifferent to him. His evolution and the daily life of these parents and children alike are part of a story that echoes in ours.
“– People say that the added value that children like Bernardo provide is very little but I ask you: who contributes to society the most? The smarter ones? The more competent ones? The ones who are more artistic? The ones who are into sports? Well, I say that Bernardo changes the world and his strength is so big and so extraordinary that it is thanks to him that the Inclusive Community Forum — Center of Leadership for Impact was born.”
If this isn’t contributing to society and having a real impact in the community, then we don’t know how to evaluate who matters and who really adds more. Rui Diniz would, naturally, never say what I just wrote but all I had to do was listen to him and know the circumstances that originated the inclusive project a little better to understand the contribution that human beings like Bernardo make. Despite all his imperfections, incapacities and limitations, we owe to him this initiative that was just now created but that already allows people to foresee the reach and potential it encompasses.
Daniel Traça, the Dean of Nova School of Business & Economics (Nova SBE), believes that it is in the classroom of all universities and schools that you learn and train the ability to create projects with a real impact on society.
“ — All problems are solvable if we come up with ideas to solve them!”
Daniel Traça, alongside Pedro Santa-Clara and the vast team that constitutes Nova SBE and will be responsible for the move to the fabulous new campus in Carcavelos, in September, is taking a chance on involving academia in inclusive projects because he and his team know that we can not sit and wait for graduates to leave university and start making a difference in the real world. It is necessary to train students and trigger in them, while they are still students, the inner hunger that will allow them to become bigger than life through initiatives that promote the development of communities.
This train of thought allows the Inclusive Community Forum to become a way of moving from theory to practice, given that each year will be dedicated to a specific subject that will be explored, analyzed, studied, structured, and documented in order to reach tangible results and inclusive projects that could be replicated and selected.
On this first year, the main subject is the employability of people with disabilities and the challenge is to identify what are the barriers to employability in order to understand why there aren’t more companies willing to hire people with disabilities. And also why these same people and their families don’t actively seek openings in the job market.
Of course that one thing leads to the other but it is important to identify obstacles and challenge organizations and institutions to put all their might at the service of the community, namely by valuing these people’s talents and skills who, due to their disabilities, lead their daily lives always overcoming difficulties. The trials they endure day after day provide endurance and an ability of transcending themselves that others, who live without any handicap, are unable to do so. This attitude deserves to be validated and be put in the service of others, whether in small or big companies.
Lastly, the Inclusive Community Forum — Center of Leadership for Impact was also created to draw an attuned cartography of good solutions. It exists for this reason: to identify barriers and collect good practices so they can be analyzed and worked on to help solve real issues people with disabilities, their families, and caretakers have to deal with.
Nothing is more distressing to a parent of a child with disabilities than knowing that themselves will one day die, because the survival of their children and the years they will live without their support and protection draws terrible questions. Knowing who will take care of them, follow up on them, how will they manage to sustain themselves, and how independent can they be, are radically important worries to these parents but also for all of us.
A better employability rate results in a better chance of independence and fulfilment. No doubt about it. I finish my article with another testimonial that also had us all moved and with a shaky voice. It was provided by Inês Omm de Sousa, Member of the Board of Santander Totta Bank, which is an institution that employs several professionals with disabilities.
“I know the joy they start their work day with in the morning and I am aware of the importance of their professional fulfilment and what it means to each one of them.”
They are extraordinarily competent and I see them arrive really early, escorted by their mothers, fathers, or other caretakers and I remember one of these people telling me that, on the first day, she woke up in the middle of dawn, startled, because she didn’t want to be late. She had so much enthusiasm that she woke her brother and the entire family up saying exactly that: “I know that it is real early but I think it’s best to get going because I don’t want to be late for work!”
To this day, this person was never late for work, but we, on the other hand, are still taking the risk of waking up too late to a reality that is also ours. Thanks to Bernardo, his parents, and those who know them and support the Inclusive Community Forum, we now have this fast train to catch and be on time.
Professor Laurinda Alves has a degree in Social Communication by the UNL, she worked as a columnist in Publico newspaper for 12 years and is currently a columnist in the Observador newspaper. Journalist, interviewer, TV host, blogger and radio analyst, Laurinda Alves is also the author of 7 chronicle and short-story books. She was the Manager of Dialogue Cafe, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and she created and directed XIS Magazine. She teaches Communication, Leadership and Ethics at Nova School of Business and Economics since 2013. Other areas of expertise: She completed ISEP (Social Entrepreneurship course) at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, 2009. She was a candidate to the European Parliament in the last elections and is a volunteer in a palliative care unit since September, 2007.
