Timur And His Mum

This story about Timur was written to by one of the staff working on the Family Support project run by our Partner Organisation in Gomel ‘Supporting Children Together’ and funded by the US Embassy.

Timur Bedarov is 11 years old. Since birth, he has cerebral palsy. Until the age of 8, the boy couldn’t walk. He moved along the street in a wheelchair, crawled at home. After four operations in Tula, Timur began to move with support but for very short distances. Despite his illness, Timur is a bright, and very open and active person. He has a lot of friends. Timur dreams to become a football player.

Caring for a child with cerebral palsy is mainly on the shoulders of her mother, Tatiana Vladimirovna. Dad works in Russia, trying to make the family’s dream of their own home come true.

– I am strong in spirit and grateful to fate for everything that it sends, – says Tatyana Vladimirovna. – But I also have days when help, support and understanding are needed. And then I go to the social service center. Material support, assistance in solving everyday problems and, most importantly, psychological support  I can get in the centre. It is very important for me to communicate with mothers raising children with disabilities in the club of mutual support of parents. In the classroom in the club, we exchange information, experience, do not give each other despair, and we just relax in body and soul.

Timur has lessons at home. Every day the teacher comes to him. They are very good friends. A kind, wise woman, who, by the will of fate, has become practically a member of the Bedarov family. Together with Timur she wrote a poem that the boy liked to recite by heart.

– Now I will recite you a poem about the woman who gave me life, – Timur says when we met, – Just promise that you won’t cry. The promise is hard to keep.

The main lines in the poem:

– … Every step is difficult for me,

… But I’m walking to make you happy, … my mum ..