If a guide dog had been there …

There was disconsolate news about a severely disabled person (Ju yung Kim) died because of a big fire. All she needed was to move five steps forward to go to a front door. What could bridge the divide between the front door and five steps? Whether the severely disabled recieve supporting activity can be a matter of life and death. What if she had a guide dog? Would the dog pull her wheelchair only as five steps or bark a lot for letting neighbors know what is happening without waiting 911


 

There are dogs for helping the blind, the deaf and crippled people. The dogs are very helpful for crippled people to have their ordinary life. In the morning, a guide dog can wake up its owner, bring things what the owner want, unload a washing machine, open and close doors and turn on and off the light. If their owner comes off the wheel chair, they will bark a lot to ask other’s help. I interviewed one of crippled people who has a guide dog. He said “This is what life is all about!”

 

The dog can be a psychological support for the disabled. In Korea, many disabled people do not go out well so the dogs can help to keep them from loneliness and isolation. It also improves their social interaction. A study has shown that Non-disabled people greeted a disabled person only one time when the disabled person shopped for groceries but It increased by 8 times when the person was together with a guide dog. The presence of the dog itself let down the bars between the disabled and Non-disabled. Besides, the dogs with full of happiness makes their owner feel better.

 

However, It is still a slow rate of progress about the foster project of guide dogs. There are Korean Society for habilitation of persons with Disabilities and Samsung guide dog center, but Samsung downsized its business 2 years ago. There are only one hundred guide dogs now. It is shameful when we compare it to twenty-five thousand dogs in the world. As for England, the disabled adopted more than twenty thousand guide dogs in England Royal Society for the Guide Dog. In Germany, the government intervene in the business. The business should be managed by nonprofit organizations and supported by government, not by private enterprises.

 

The disabled who I met for interview hesitated to live with a guide dog at the very first. They said, It sounded difficult to live with it, and they had a hard time of taking a bus or entering a company together with it. A guide dog was banned for entering the National Assembly building in Korea. However, It is not a big problem as much as discrimination about the disabled. A blind man said he was walking alone outside, mistakenly brushed up against a woman, and suddenly she screamed so loudly. He decided to adopt a guide dog. After that, he felt he received special treatment.

 

“These day children do not touch guide dogs because they learned information (‘do not touch guide dog’) However, I heard a woman explained her son about my dog. She said, ‘The dog is for a poor person who cannot see.’ The woman had respect only for my guide dog, not for me.”

 

Ju yung Kim shows we still have a long way to go to prejudiceless and unsegregated world. I hope the guide dogs be an assistant for the long way. We pray for the bliss of dead.

 

 

 

 

 

Originl article: http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/environment/559915.html

Intermediate Composition Class #2
English Education

Joo yeon Kang(강주연)