World Down Syndrome Day: A fight against loneliness
Regan Kelly
This Saturday (March 21) is World Down Syndrome Day, and as is the case every year, it is set to be a day filled with colour and celebration, and with the help of Down Syndrome Ireland, it will be the same here.
This year's theme for World Down Syndrome Day is “Together Against Loneliness”, and groups across the world are aiming to shed light on loneliness among the Down Syndrome Community.
World Down Syndrome Day was founded to celebrate the lives of people with Down Syndrome to make sure that they have the same opportunities as everyone else.
The reason that it is held on March 21 is because of the date (21/3), this matches the three copious of chromosome 21, which is unique to those with Down Syndrome.
Although times are changing, and people with Down Syndrome are gaining the equality they deserve, the battle is not over yet, and awareness and education remain key.
Here in Ireland, one charity that has been at the forefront of this battle is Down Syndrome Ireland, and they work tirelessly to do so.
Down Syndrome Ireland helps people with the condition throughout all stages of their lives, from birth right up to adulthood, and with that, they see real benefits to the work they do.
We spoke to Sinéad Flynn, the Head of Adult Education, Self Advocacy and Community Engagement with Down Syndrome Ireland, and she told us about the benefits she sees when people avail of their services.
“We see so many benefits to the work that we do, when a person with Down Syndrome has been a member from childhood through to adulthood, you notice it.
“Some of these services include things like speech and language services, as well as therapy and by the time they get to adulthood, you can see the benefits from it.”
There are multiple initiatives that Down Syndrome Ireland promotes, and they often help with the battle against loneliness.
The National Advisory Council helps with these initiatives, asking around and finding out what is best needed for people with Down Syndrome.
Many events take place across the country, and sinead lists some of the ones that have been beneficial for helping to combat loneliness.
“We actually went to our members and asked them what they think is the best thing to help combat loneliness, across our 25 branches.
“Since then, there have been things like book clubs, library clubs, and culture clubs, but they are a means for our members to be out there in the community.”
Sinead spends a lot of time with their members and also co-facilitates the National Advisory Council.
From this, she gave an insight into how resilient and supportive the members are for eachother.
“We ask them what the most important things are for them, they have lots of priorities, things like housing, independence, but mostly it's their social lives.
“Peer learning is particularly strong among people with Down Syndrome, and generally, people with Down Syndrome have great support for one another.
“During COVID, a lot of our members became very comfortable with IT, and so now a lot of them communicate with eachother through WhatsApp.”
We also spoke with an important member of Down Syndrome Ireland, Monica O’Gorman, from Westmeath.
It's impressive how Monica finds the time to be involved in so many projects, but she does find time to socialise.
Monica works at her old school, St. Kenny’s and loves it there. She said: “I love doing my work at St Kenny’s School, I do different classes and help with photocopying and shredding.”
When she was asked what her favourite thing about working in St Kenny’s was, she said: “My favourite thing is doing art with the kids at the school. I love doing it and am excited to do it.”
Monica is also a founding member of the All Stars Book Club in Mullingar Library; this is something she loves doing. She said: “The book club is very good. We discuss books, and recently we read David Williams, it's a very good book, it's very funny.”
Along with the National Advisory Council, Down Syndrome Ireland helps faciliate Regional Advisory Councils as well, which Monica is a part of.
Speaking on the RAC, she said: “We talk about things that we might do, like parties and events, we do a lot of dancing as well. It's a brilliant group.”
Monica loves all things dancing and has a vibrant social life. When it comes to this, having recently got to go to Dancing With The Stars, and she said this was “like a dream for me.”
Monica also worked on a poster for World Down Syndrome Day, with the message “Pop On Your Socks”.
She said, “I think this is a brilliant message. I did a big poster with Pop on Your Socks on it, and some of the children coloured the socks in. It's a celebration for dancing.”
Monica is just one of the fantastic members of Down Syndrome Ireland who do everything they can to make sure they can help others.
There are multiple initiatives throughout the year, as well as events where anyone can get involved.
Down Syndrome Ireland are a charity, and only 18% of their income is received through State funding, so they really heavily on fundraising activities and the generosity of the public. If you are interested in donating, you can do so here https://downsyndrome.ie/about/about-down-syndrome-ireland/?form=donate