Reporter, St. John’s, Antigua
Joshuanette Francis YouTube channel subscribers – are set to document their journey after he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis with only 24 – they did not see tears.
Neither were they directed in the days when she struggled with the most important personal fights, alone behind closed doors.
After being told that she could lose the ability to walk up to the age of 40, Joshuanette was determined to accept life, walk every path of nature in her native Antigva and visit each of the Caribbean island charged 365 beaches while she could still.
Consistently optimistic and smiling in her videos and in the public, her private tears were enhanced when she lost the job of a restaurant supervisor – because of her condition, she says – followed by a mortgage and a dream of building her own home.
Six years later, the Sunny Person of a Young Mother is the one she uses to fight her public battle: the reliance on the rights of others living with disabilities in a country where inequality is full and key resources are in the absence.
It chanks its energy in a pioneering non -profit organization that it founded in 2023, good people 268, which strives for the world future for people with physical challenges.
“Arthritis has changed my life so much, I can only imagine what has to be for someone with great disabilities,” says Joshuanette BBC.
Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that causes pain and stiffness, usually affects older people, but can hit at any age.
“I couldn’t believe it when I was diagnosed. My greatest fear was, what’s going on with life now?” Joshuanette says.
The distant works of good people are starting to encourage a court with equal rights to chair with cited discriminatory practices, to a recycling program that in turn employs local residents with disabilities.
The latter has already been spent in more than 80 local schools, diverting about one million bottles and cans from the national landfill. Eight people have been hired to sort and process and sometimes divert waste.
Good people also launched a national educational program to encourage more residents to recycle, which Kelisha Pigott was employed to help.
He says working with the organization has changed in life.
“There are a lot of people with disabilities out there who have no one to turn on. Joshuanette shaped me to believe in myself more. Because of her, I took the opportunity to apply for the university and go in,” Kelisha ended.
She hopes that her internet diploma in tourism management will help her eventually combine her small tourist company with good people to create additional job opportunities.
“The change starts with us. I was amazed when I saw how much of the plastic we diverted from the landfill in a short time; imagine if everyone did it,” she says.
There were also smaller triumphs. As well as the case of a 10-year-old girl who has not been able to use toilet at school for several years without help because of the lack of facilities adapted to a wheelchair. This resentment mostly overlooked until Joshuanette took over as a personal endeavor, which led to the creation of an affordable bathroom.
“We need to switch the way we do things. People with disabilities must be able to do the same things that everyone else can,” Joshuanette says passionately. “I’m so excited about what I know good people can achieve.”
The plans include the introduction of a recycling scheme with private households and finally the creation of a deliberately built Center for Consolidation of the diverse work of the group.
Still, she is aware of the challenges ahead. Even the walk of the capital, St. John, is full of danger for many with damage, thanks to the ubiquitous open gutters, roughly covered with drains and cracked asphalt.
“Accessibility is serious concern,” says Bernard Warner, head of the country’s disability association. “For starters, there is a lack of access to auxiliary devices that help people live more meaningful.”
Both Bernard’s group and good people invite the legislation adopted in 2017, which seeks to protect the rights of those with disabilities. The tribunal with equal rights was a key part of the law, but it was never created.
“There are a lot of discrimination; people are treated with indifference or turning from employment options,” Bernard says. “And because of poverty, most have no money to hire a lawyer.”
Bernard lost his right leg when a motorcycle hit a drunken driver in 1996. Despite the long court, which ruled in his favor, he never received a fee.
“After years of torture, now I am gathering for a better society,” he explains. “We have to change our way of thinking about looking at people with disabilities. We leave them for too long. Even now, I see that high -rise buildings are increasing without access to disability,” he adds.
Kelly Hedges, Director of the Victory Center for Children with Special Needs, agrees. Her school currently has 27 students between the ages of five and 18.
“The challenge is, when students leave us as young adults, where are they going? People are still careful in employing people with special needs or disabilities. Unless they have personal relationships or they can go to work with the parent, they mostly just stay home,” she says.
The winning center is among the schools that joined the recycling scheme of good people.
“As good people get bigger and need more staff, we hope that our children will be in positions there, become members of society and live more independently,” Kelly adds.
Joshuanette believes that mental health should be a key focus of disability awareness. Despite her mostly positive appearance, she admitted that depression was hit again recently when she turned 30 and still couldn’t afford her own home.
She continues to fight for compensation against a company she says she has been unfairly released.
“The fight is exhausting,” she says. “But change will only happen when more people talk about disability and change of demand.”
