Paradise Welfare Foundation held a session on parenting for parents with disabled children from

Multi-cultural backgrounds last Saturday, October 18, in collaboration with Seoul City’s Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled.Launched in 2011, this project offers training for parents who are burdened with a double weight of coming from a different cultural background and of having to rear a child with disabilities. This year’s session was conducted with different themes allocated for different stages of the child’s life. Psychology exercises for parents with pre-schoolers were conducted by Jungrye Jung (Head of Child Play Development Center), while sex education for parents with children in senior year grades of elementary school was conducted by Gukhwa Chu (from Taktin Tomorrow).

The family psychology exercise titled ‘Coming Within Contact’offered lessons on how to build intimacy though physical contact between the parent and disabled child. In particular, fathers and siblings with no disabilities also participated to make it a session of communication.

'Sex education from the child’s perspective’offered examples to help parents have a better understanding of their children’s sex issues. Small group discussions offered a chance for the parents to share information and opinions. During sex education, the children were taken care of so that the parents could focus on the session. A total of 35 parents and siblings participated in the day’s training session. One mother commented that "I used to think that all I could do with my child is to play with dolls, but there are many other options." She also added that she "learned a lot and would love to participate in other sessions."