Who is a person with a mental and/or multiple handicap?

A mentally challenged person differs from the average person by the capability to cope with everyday life on its own. To be more clear and precise about describing a mentally challenged person you can say that they have troubles with communication, taking care of themselves, living at home independently, social skills, self-orientation, guaranteeing their own health care and safety, functional learning abilities, filling their spare time with activities and working. At the same time it is very important to keep in mind the fact that the children, youngsters and adults with a mental handicap are capable of development and operation if the necessary means have been provided. What is more important is that they have a need to develop and wish to feel that they are needed.

How many people with a mental handicap are there in Estonia?

Unfortunately it is not possible to say the exact figure since often there are other handicaps in addition to the mental handicap. For example the mental handicap comes together with a severe handicap of senses and also a physical handicap. Therefore the mental handicaps are viewed together with multiple handicaps. The area of distribution of mental and/or multiple handicaps is thought to be 0,1-1% of the population.

Why is Maarja Village necessary?

The idea of founding Maarja Village has come from Tartu Maarja School and it is like a logical continuation to the work that is done with the children of Tartu Maarja School throughout the school years.

In 2002 the first class of Tartu Maarja School graduated. The fact that today these graduating young people have no prospects for their future development or a meaningful life has pushed us to start building Maarja Village. Until this day there is a situation in Estonia where the majority of youngsters with a mental handicap will stay at home after graduating from school. In most cases the contacts with people of the same age and disabilities will be lost and so will be the opportunity to develop and work according to their abilities. To all of the families with mentally challenged youngsters will such an ordering of ways of life mean that one of the parents has to stay at home or they will have to hire a guardian. As the second choice it is possible to put the young graduate into an institution together with the elderly. In this case they will be staying in a place which provides no developing or work possibilities for disabled people.

Maarja Village is necessary so that the people with mental disability who finish school can live a life that is humane and meaningful. When Maarja Village is completed it will offer its habitants a possibility to develop, work and be a part of cultural events. In the broad perspective it is the founders wish to create a living environment that is as close to real life as possible. The only difference is that the villagers will be supported and assisted in their everyday activities. Places for mentally challenged people similar to Maarja Village have been knowingly created in the world since the 1940s. For the time being, there are 90 communities in the world, that are similar to the Maarja village and altogether there are about 7000 mentally disabled people living in those institutions.

The most important thing about the creation of this village is that the weakest people of our community get to feel sincere happiness from their lives. They feel that someone in this world needs them and this nourishes their souls. Maarja Village is a bridge between people. It is the meeting point of the two worlds that have been living separately so far.