Derek, carer

I’m a pensioner who has a young wife who is now in a wheel chair.So
being a lifetime carer I need to enable her to be happy and independent
especially when I’m not there, or when I am busy with the charity that
helped us when we suffered exclusion.

They helped us when we lost our child to unwilling adoption. Now in
return we can help others to achieve dignity again. The charity flew me to
Lisbon to have a personal chat with the Dalai Lama, on behave of other
excluded families. I was impressed at how he also overcame exclusion in a
really big way! It made me realise - if he can and I can, you can too!

The local supermarket wanted to make our home into a car park.They
wanted to move us anyway, and take away our home. But we stood up for
our rights; we wanted an acceptable housing replacement.

After a seven year long legal struggle we succeeded, a new block of flats
was built for us and the other residents. My wife cut the ribbon to open the
new flats, together we achieved. No longer excluded, but proud of our new
found dignity. Out of exclusion and into dignity.

Veronica, mother

Life is a journey. As you walk it, your desires begin to take shape. Along the
way, your desires meet challenges that are sometimes beyond your control.
It is during these trying times that your dreams can seem impossible. To
make it through you need determination, good advice and most important of all hope.