Hold on to the light

Hold on to the light

Some parents feel anxious about the condition of their newborn babies, especially at the first time they have a child, which is why one of the greatest moments in life is the first time that newborn babies open their eyes to communicate with those around them by blinking with their eyes that only see black and white. As they grow, they gradually begin to distinguish colors to release many smiles, which reassure parents about the health of their children's eyesight.

The social life of the blind is full of difficulties and challenges. They suffer from not being able to see things in front of them. Blind people are often exposed to the risks of accidents, which makes them stop living life like other sighted people, which makes them live in great psychological pressure, so parents resort to isolating their blind children from the external environment to avoid social interaction for fear that these children may face embarrassing or dangerous situations.

Tayseer is a 26 years old blind girl, who lives in Taiz Governorate, southwest of Yemen. At the age of nineteen, Tayseer has completely lost sight, thus becoming blind. She does not see things as she used to in her past nineteen years, so the chapter on her suffering begins with darkness.

The conflict in Yemen had a negative impact on the entire population. The armed conflict in Yemen has killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians, in addition to the displacement of thousands of families from their homes fleeing death that threatens their lives. Like these families, Tayseer and her family were forced to leave their home in Taiz city and displace to their village, so that they may preserve their lives which became completely unstable with the outbreak of the first spark of conflict in Yemen.

Tayseer family saved her life, which was taken from her the moment she lost her sight."

As the confrontations reached their neighborhood, Tayseer's family was forced to leave their home and head to their village that is far from Taiz city. The lack of medicines for Tayseer in the area of their displacement, and the far distance between her village and the Taiz city forced Tayseer to stop taking the medicine that relieves her intraocular pressure "a disease that affects the retina of the eye", which caused her to lose her sight.

Tayseer suffered greatly at the beginning of her injury, because she was born with a healthy sight, but recently blindness came to transform her life from light to complete darkness, which ended her small dreams, thus forming a mass of dark feelings.

Tayseer says: "At the beginning of my injury, I decided to engage in life and went to study the holly Qur’an, but I hurt my leg when I kicked one of the chairs accidently. This made me stay at home, trapped in intense sadness and crying, and a feeling of anxiety, tension and fear of the dark future that will confront me, because I was not used to not seeing before.”

Many people with special needs face further marginalization of their roles in society, which may start at home, then school, and then society as a whole, leading them to restrict both their intellectual and physical movement.

Tayseer did not succumb to the situation she was going through, thus declaring the beginning of a new way of her life that came back to light again, as soon as she believed in herself and strength to face her injury with a solid determination. Tayseer has made a ladder to successes of the obstacles she faces.

Tayseer says: I stumbled a lot in my steps, but with each step I stood again to continue my path. “The stumbles were a source of strength for me.

With her firm determination and with the support of her family, who never stopped encouraging her, Tayseer decided to recover what was stolen from her and complete her university education, thus obtaining a bachelor's degree in English from Taiz University, and become a language teacher in one of the schools for the blind.

Tayseer did not give up her desired wishes. Tayseer's wish was to learn the computer and its skills. She dreams of working in the field of administration, but due to the lack of potentials of her family, and the lack of opportunities to teach computers to the blind, Tayseer could not make her dream come true.

In order for Tayseer to fulfill her wish, accompanied by a number of her blind female colleagues, Youth Forum for People with Special Needs presented its project “The Talking Computer”, with the support from GWQ, within the framework of the project “Strengthening Community Participation and Building the Capacity of CSOs and Youth and Women’s Initiatives and Activating Their Roles in Local Communities”, funded by CARE International.

Taiseer says: "I had lost hope in achieving this wish before the intervention of GWQ and the Youth Forum. "I feel now that nothing impossible will face me again."

The project fulfilled the aspirations and wishes of Tayseer in obtaining the skill of dealing with the computer, thus being able to deal with the computer skillfully, just as if she were not blind. The project added a new skill to Tayseer's skills, thus becoming a computer teacher for the blind, in the school where she works.

  
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