Crossing cultures, changing lives.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

PLEASANT HILL - Salman Al Hamri knows firsthand that the streets of Bahrain can be tough on someone with a disability.

The 16-year-old from the island country in southwest Asia has short legs and stands just over 3 1/2 feet tall. When he walks around his town, "they harass me, make fun of me," Al Hamri said Thursday.

But things are different here in the States, the young man said - everyone is polite and people with disabilities are treated with respect.

Al Hamri will take the message of respect home to other Bahrainian youth with disabilities. He's part of an exchange program meant to empower young people with disabilities to fight for their human rights and strive to get ahead in life.

Fourteen teens from the Bahrain Disabled Sports Federation - some of them blind, deaf or physically disabled - arrived Monday for a three-week program organized by Eugene-based Mobility International USA. The visitors will learn to be leaders while tackling projects, conducting workshops and interacting with local teens with and without disabilities.

Thursday found the Bahrainians at Elijah Bristow State Park, east of Pleasant Hill, where they teamed up with teens from Eugene's Northwest Youth Corps to cut the grass back and clear walking paths.

"Everyone's learning new languages and new cultures while working together to improve the parks," said Susan Sygall, CEO of Mobility International USA. "They're looking at environmental issues - protection of the animals and people using the parks."

Thursday's 90-degree temperatures felt hot for Willamette Valley residents, but perhaps not to the Bahrainians, who are accustomed to 100-degree-plus days from June to September.

Ameera Al Rfiei, a slight 16-year-old who excels at the long jump, wore a black scarf - the Islamic religion requires women to wear head scarves - while she led the 25-strong group through the project.

Al Rfiei is deaf, but she kept the team on task with the help of translators who converted sign language and lip-reading to Arabic, and then Arabic to English.

Al Rfiei, who would like to work with computers or in jewelry design someday, also has lofty goals for Bahrainian youths with disabilities.

"My focus is to enact laws to protect the rights (of people with disabilities)," she said. "They are the decision-makers, they are the ones who say what they want."

Education is free in Bahrain, children are required by law to attend primary school; country boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the Persian Gulf.

But Bahrainian youths with disabilities often dismiss higher education in favor of trying to find work, said Essam Kamal, managing director of the sports federation.

"We want to push them," Kamal said. "We want to give them the rights to fight for themselves, we want them to pursue higher education."

The teens in Kamal's program are long jumpers and javelin throwers, basketball and soccer players. So it's small wonder that Eugene teen Cole Raiter found common ground by talking sports with the visitors.

Raiter, 14 and a member of the youth corps, found himself cutting grass next to a Bahrainian boy who is deaf. Raiter used a little makeshift sign language - he acted out baseball, soccer and football - to learn his co-worker's favorite.

`He nodded his head to baseball, and said, `I like baseball,' ' Raiter said. "They seem to not really care that they have disabilities. They act the same as everybody else does."

The Bahrainians will host a U.S. delegation next year. For now, they're enjoying an itinerary that includes camping on the Oregon Coast and visits to the University of Oregon, the city of Eugene's human rights program and the YMCA.

One highlight, Kamal said, will be a side trip to Mount Hood, where the teens will experience snow for the first time.

"They will eat it, this is what they're saying," Kamal laughed.