Fighting Chance blog 1

Fighting Chance is extremely excited to publish the first blog by Maria Makhoul, our in-house blog writer. Maria has cerebral palsy and has been working with us for the last four months. Maria will be writing regular blogs about her experiences as a young person with disabilities, to give us all an insight into her experiences, and the challenges she faces as a person with a disability.

My name is Maria Makhoul. I’m a freelance writer, student and aspiring journalist and interviewer. I have mild cerebral palsy.

From now on I will be writing this blog for Fighting Chance, and of course, I would greatly welcome any comments and contributions from others who read this blog.

Growing up, I kept my own journals from age eight to 16 and have always loved writing. As for interviewing, I’m quite a “social butterfly” and a confident conversationalist, and I’m currently doing a journalistic creative writing course to help me improve my writing skills for journalism.

“Employment” means different things to different people. To many, it’s simply about getting any sort of job that pays enough money to cover the bills and day-to-day living costs. But to me, it has to be something that you love to do and are passionate about, and that – ideally – is meaningful, fulfilling and rewarding all at the same time.

So I’m thrilled to be working with Fighting Chance and the O’Reilly family, as both Laura and Jordan O’Reilly are so driven to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. At the moment - as many of us with disabilities know only too well - it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get a job because of discriminatory attitudes and stupid prejudice. Society needs to give people with disabilities a chance! 

For myself, my dream is to get a job as a journalist in a mainstream newsroom, but I’ve learnt that I don’t work all that well under pressure, because I like to do things at my own pace. So, to start with at least, I need a work environment where I can learn and develop my writing skills and confidence, at my own pace. And Fighting Chance is giving me that opportunity, by employing me to help manage, publicise and promote its “Kairos Project”, which is basically about developing innovative, computer-based work opportunities for people who have physical disabilities, but who are bright, smart and ambitious – like me!

Many “ordinary/normal” people look at people with physical disabilities and just automatically assume they are cognitively impaired as well. That’s certainly the case when most “ordinary people” encounter a person with a physical disability who can’t speak, or whose speech is severely impaired. But spend just a few minutes with a person with physical disabilities, no matter how severe, and you realise there is a smart, bright person inside that disabled body.

Personally, I see myself as a strong, assertive, independent woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to fight for it if necessary.

Which, for anyone with a disability, too often it is.