SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

To get up and go to work in the morning, stop at the grocery store on the way home, take your son to football practice and your daughter to music school, cook dinner and fall asleep peacefully knowing that tomorrow you will repeat today's story. For you, it's a routine, a constant, but for someone else it might be an unattainable privilege. What a person in a wheelchair would give to be able to get out of bed in the morning. What would an unemployed person give to be able to go to work in the morning. And finally, ask parents of children with disabilities what they would give to be able to enrol their child in any after-school activity and include him or her among the other little footballers, swimmers, guitarists or drummers. We would be willing to pay a high price just to give a child this opportunity.

And that's where our story begins. I don't have children myself, but as a PE teacher at a school for children with special needs, these stories from parents break my heart on a daily basis. The pupils of the Maribor Hearing and Speech Centre do not even have their own uniform school. One of the units is attached to a mainstream school, which is a great opportunity for networking and opening up new possibilities and opportunities for children with special needs! 

"Tomorrow the gym will be busy because one boy is coming to present Play Basketball," their PE teacher mentioned to me. 

"Really? Can our children join in?", I ask excitedly, already seeing the sparkles in their eyes because they will be there. He tells me that there won't be room for all of them, but maybe I can get in touch with the performer some other way.

The clock struck eleven. I should be at school by now. I have to meet him, I have to try... I knocked on the door of the classroom where all the teachers responsible for the organisation were gathered and recognised him among them.

"Philip? Philip Djeba? Can I talk to you?" We walked out of the classroom. My eyes were glowing and my words barely kept up with my thoughts. 

"We can't pay, but you know, it would mean so much to our children!"

We exchanged contacts and a few hours later, my message was waiting for him in his inbox. We agreed on a date and a week later, our kids were on the basketball court. 

"Look at them glowing. How great it would be if they had the chance to go to basketball practice. They don't have to compete, but they could train. They could have a coach, they could be part of a team...' I started to explain to him, as I explain to many people, but most of them find my wishes fairy-tale-like and unrealistic. I don't know if it was a lucky star that shone in the sky that day or if it was just a coincidence that I bumped into this guy; our thoughts and words started to intertwine, we conceived ideas, we started to build a story... A real basketball story!

A week later I got a call saying, "Nuša, let's give it a try. You can take over the training, right? I'll help you, but I don't know these kids. We start in February. I already have an idea of what to call the programme ..."

I was thrown off my chair. Even today, it is hard to describe that moment. I could not believe what I was hearing. I just didn't get it. But just like that? From today to tomorrow, without a second thought, with complete trust in me? 

"Initially, I can draw on our fund. They will pay the same as our children, nothing more. They will get T-shirts and bottles ..." This cannot be true. Are you joking? 

He wasn't joking. Although, as he admitted to me later, he was scared as hell because he had no previous contact with children with special needs. He didn't know how he was going to talk to them, how he was going to react, how he was going to guide them, but he also didn't put up barriers before they appeared! 

Today marks three months since the Basketball for All Children programme was launched under the auspices of the Borut Besedič - Čiro Basketball Association, which is the same as for all other children. The first in Slovenia! Children with special needs can train basketball! They really train for sport, they belong to a club, they belong to society. Just because someone dared to think differently! 

We were sitting having coffee the other day and I was putting together pieces of the story in my mind that still seem incredible today. I had to ask him bluntly: "Philip, honestly tell me why? You didn't know me, you've never had any contact with these children... How is it possible that you ended up here?" 

He laughed. "You know, Nusha, we are alike in that. We both work with our hearts. We don't make money out of it, I never thought we would. The club is doing well. We don't lose anything by doing this, at most we gain. Look at those smiling faces and that genuine happiness. You don't see something like that at every turn. I am proud of what we have done."

I have always believed that a story like this can happen, that all you have to do is dare. This story is proof that this is true. It is the story of Philip who dared to try. I know that today he still cannot imagine what he has done. He is slowly being brought down to reality by the messages from the parents of these children, who are grateful to the sky and back, and the calls from parents who want to enrol their child in basketball training because they have not been able to get him anywhere. And the handshakes and the hugs... The hugs of those who, until recently, had only watched their peers play basketball... And I hung up with them and shed a tear with their parents more than once because I felt so helpless.

No projects, no municipal funding, no support from the system... Out of a genuine desire and belief that the biggest, strongest and most authentic stories are written by the heart. What germinates within can grow beyond all mental walls.

I know that this seedling will grow into a beautiful tree. A tree that will blossom. And what blooms, the wind spreads ... both into nature and among people. 

Nuša Maver