Like Michael Ashcroft, she's got a foundation named after her, but Karen Gaffney isn't here to give away money or curry favor from the government. As we told you on Friday, the young woman is an ambassador for down syndrome, the often misunderstood condition that appears in one of every 660 births. She'll be touring schools all this week and this morning we found her at the Stella Maris School with her mother Barbara making a presentation to special education teachers.
Both mother, Barbara and daughter Karen hope to raise awareness about possibilities for children with Down Syndrome.
Barbara Gaffney, Mother
"There are a lot of teachers and families here who want to find better ways to help their children with disabilities learn and live and grow in their communities."
And the message is that children with Down Syndrome don't have to be excluded from regular classrooms. That's the message of 28-year-old Karen Gaffney.
Karen Gaffney,
"We want to be more included, we want to have friends, and we want to learn."
And the message of inclusion was communicated clearly to the teachers.
Barbara Gaffney,
"Most can learn right along with their age mates, with their peers, in the regular classroom."
One teacher who got that point clearly is Keisha Lord, a special education instructor with two students who have Down Syndrome.
Keisha Lord, Teacher
"Hearing the information, as she delivered to us, I will try and use whatever I have from them to make the students understand what I am teaching better because I didn't have an idea of how to go about teaching a child with Down Syndrome. What these children with Down Syndrome need is a lot of encouragement. and if they don't have the encouragement at home, they come to school and get the encouragement from the teachers but when they go home, its finished. So what they need is just encouragement from home and a lot of help."
Jules Vasquez,
Do you think that in the sessions she'll be having this week, that message will come across to parents that it is a three way partnership between the child, the parent, and the teacher?
Keisha Lord,
"Well we just hope that the parents show up because that is one of the big problems here, the parents do not show up for their kids."
One parent who did show up - even for the teachers session is Yvette Ramirez, a single mother of three from Georgeville in the Cayo District. Her son Glenford Sampson is in standard two in a regular school environment and she says she's been inspired by Karen's example.
Yvette Ramirez, Parent
"It gives me a lot of courage that my son could learn more. I will try my best to work harder and to teach him more things so that he can learn because we have a close relationship, me and him, so I think he will could always learn."
And that's the kind of feeling, this ambassador of hope inspires. Apart from traveling widely to spread her message for children with Down Syndrome, she's accomplished a great deal, including swimming the English Channel.
Karen Gaffney,
"I know it makes them inspired after hearing my story about the English Channel, 5 years ago, and just my story in general. A lot of parents come up to me and tell me their child wants to swim too and to me it feels great because I've touched so many lives in the past and I want to keep doing that."
And that's just what she plans to do for the next three days as she tours education facilities spreading that message of hope.
At this hour, the Gaffneys are meeting parents of children who have Down Syndrome.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
