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Nous du Collège - N 299 - Juillet 2023
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How do people live without sight?

Our experience with EQUAL NGO

hen we heard that we were skipping
Wa period to attend a testimony and an
exhibition prepared by the NGO EQUAL, we
just thought of it as something that would save
us some schoolwork. However, when the time
came, and we lived through the experience,
we saw that it was much more than just a way
to skip class. EQUAL was able to make us feel
a fraction of the difficulties and the hardship
people who have lost their sight go through.
First, they showed us how daily chores, which
we do casually without giving it a thought,
seemed impossible without our sight. Trying
to make a bed or to sort socks with a blindfold
made everything much more difficult. Trying to her down. Not only was she able to do everything
analyze our surroundings with just touch, smell and we, with the gift of sight, can, but she did more,
hearing made us think: ’How do people live without going as far as publishing articles and poems for well-
sight?’ It seemed impossible to us, who rely on that known newspapers, after graduating with a degree in
sense so much, to try and do everything without it. literature. She showed us how she truly cared for what
We had never really thought about how the Visually she wrote; she couldn’t see it; she just heard it and
Impaired lived, much less felt it. It made us understand appreciated it. We were flabbergasted, seeing how
that it took real strength to get by every day with a she accomplished her dream with no help, relying on
roadblock this huge getting in the way of every single nothing but God to get what she wanted, seeing it as
task. Then what about the tasks that aren’t so simple? a gift that pushed her to become who she aspired to
What about work, for instance? These questions be. That was the first day we actually thought about
couldn’t be answered by the exhibition, but by the the painful life of the visually impaired. It never really
crossed our minds how difficult their lives could be,
seeing their disability as just something that made
them depend on others, that made us feel pity. But
we were proven wrong. They aren’t weaker than us;
they are much stronger. They can accomplish twice
as much as us with twice as many problems. EQUAL,
through this exhibition and the testimonies, made us
realize that the visually impaired are being refrained
from working, going to school, or being included in
our society, not due to their disability but because
of our prejudice, and if they are just given the right
guidance and our society is made aware of their true
abilities and their rights, only then can true inclusion
testimony of a visually impaired person. Our class, for occur. 230 students were lucky enough to be part of
instance, heard about the life of Kate. She made her this project and understand that, and I hope EQUAL
disability seem like it was nothing, slowly losing sight, can spread the word throughout many more schools
having to put twice as much work as others to get what in Lebanon.
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she wanted. But she also showed us that this obstacle Sebastian-Joseph Bejjani 4 7
that seemed so impossible to get through didn’t slow