Awesome Quotes: 8 Best Moments in LIFE

Awesome Quotes: 8 Best Moments in LIFE: 8 Best Moments in LIFE... ♥ 1) Giving the 1st salary to your Parents. 2) Thinking Your LOVE with tears. 3) Looking Old photos an...

spreading sunshine.

Greetings

I am Shazia Hasan. I am a computer teacher for the blind, provide

counselling to the visually impaired and their parents. have written

several articles

in Dawn, News, Spider etc. I am a member of lions club international.

my blog address is

shaziahasan.blogspot.com

with large local and international traffic.

today I am going to share the story of my journey so far and share

with you my vision to support the visually impaired persons lead

independent

life with dignity.

I was born with chronic glaucoma. I lost the sight of the left eye

when I was two days old. I kept on having operations and treatment

here in Pakistan

and abroad to save the sight of my right eye. Time passed, nature

prevailed over the Doctors and around eight years of age I had lost my

sight. A trauma

at its height for me and my family.

With diminishing sight, it was becoming dark all around me. For eight

years I could see the faces of my parents, sister, brother, cousins

and friends.

Enjoy my

own colourful cloths, flowery shoes and ribbons in my hair. I enjoyed

the colors of rainbow, beautiful flowers. vast blue ocean, glittering

sky, flying

butterflies in my garden. All the colours and light were gone. As a

young girl of eight the thought that I will no more be able to see

these things again

was very depressing.

Kindness of Allah and support of family and friends that I could have

the courage to overcome this trauma. I had lost the physical ability

of seeing

but my vision was very much intact.

My best pastime became reading books in Braille mostly from Libraries

in Holland. They proved to be my best mentor. I realised that the

greatest things

that happened to this world was the result of the visionaries whether

it was poetry, literature, scientific inventions, architecture or any

other field.

Seeing has limitations vision has no limitations. A miracle had

happened for which I was praying. A new Shazia Hasan was in the

making. A more confident

courageous.self reliant having perseverance and passion to go ahead to

make her dreams a reality.

The pace of advancement of Medical science and technology is mind

boggling.every day new products and services are coming at the market

place. I used to

get many electronic aids and toys, which more than playing was a

source of wonderment. Reading about computer it its ability would

greatly fascinate me.

My father who is a computer professional would narrate me the powers

of computer which interested me more than Ali Baba stories.

I was highly motivated and inspired girl. I knew the first priority

for me is the education . I focused my attention to education.I

completed my education

from the ida Rieu. While i was having education I was enjoying life as

any body else. My abilities and senses increased in geometrical

proportion.I could

listen very well and visualize very easily what is happening. I would

enjoy walking barefoot on cool grass, sitting in my garden and feeling

the smell

flowers and flutter of birds.

When an RNIB trained Doctor who had become visually impaired started

computer classes in Karachi I was the first one to enroll as a

students. This was

a turning point in my life. My parents presented me a computer with

special software (called JAWS, which is abbreviation of, Job Access

with Speech)

which is a sophisticated screen reading software. This facility opened

flood gate of knowledge for me I could work on ms word, ms

office,spreadsheet,

Power Points. use internet, participate in social networks, use mails,

chats, facebook etc. All this was so involving and interesting that it

left me

no time to worry about my limitation.

Once visiting the Royal National Institute for the Blind, London I saw

boys and girls busy in their daily chore of life including washing

their clothes,

mending if necessary, cooking etc. They lived an independent life,

largely unaided, I used to wonder why in Pakistan we cannot live like

them......with

least dependence. There were lot of social and family hurdles in our

way. I pledged to myself to bring freedom to some of

them...........and let that

be the beginning of dawn before sunshine.

All my life I had the dream to help the people like me.To give hands

and feet to my dream and making it reality. I took the first step and

became a teacher

of computer in Ida Rieu.The step proved to be very exhilarating and satisfying.

For parents of such child, it was a trauma too and they did not know

how to cope with a disabled child.

At Ida Rieu, where I worked as Teacher I started counselling parents

of such students. With guidance these families became happier units

and children demonstrated

positive attitude.

So far over 200 boys and girls have learned computer from me.This has

revolutionized the life of these students. They are now an active

member of their

family. Many students are now doing their own business. Some major

employers of computer trained students are Standard Chartered Bank,

United Bank and

Karachi Electric Supply Company. I am sure these employers will

encourage other companies to absorb such students.

The smile and happiness on student faces which I can visualize and

feel was very rewarding. The gratitude they show makes me happy.This

motivate and inspires

me to do more about blind people in Pakistan.

My work was slowly getting noticed by the civil society and media.

Several TV channels aired special programs about my work which

increased awareness.

I am also thankful to following organisations whose recognition

strengthened me in my mission:

1.K.F.C. for Best Teacher Awards 2007

2.Rotary Club Karachi for Best Teacher Award 2008

3 Ida Rieu for best teacher award 2009

4 Aga Khan University for Business English Certificate 2010

My real award is my ability to bring change in the life of students

and bring back smiles on their faces.

I will repeat my appreciation and thanks to media for disseminating

knowledge about the new opportunities through giving coverage to my

interviews and

appearances in specially tailored programs. The task is gigantic and

needs collective efforts of the society.We have to work on the parents

of such children.We

have to change the basic paradigm that if you don't have seeing

ability life is doomed.The only knowledge they have is to get them

learn music,weaving

or things of the sort.This attitude is not true for illiterate or semi

literate population but even educated families. Entire civil society,

particularly

parents and elders of families with special child needs to be imparted

the education how to ensure and better and independent living for

their children.This

needs collective efforts of the society.The pioneers should come

forward with proposals to create awareness to parents how go about

training such children.In

my opinion parents attitude is key to success in educating the blinds

and making them equally useful member of the society.

Lastly i will touch upon the blindness of old age, accident, diabetes,

retina detachment etc. which often strikes at an advanced age and a

time when the

person is an active earning member of the family. I have handled

several such cases and they have been rehabilitated to continue with

their legal or medical

profession. There is a need to educate these people also. The leaders

of civil society should come forward and work to help the victims of

this group also..I

am of the opinion this is as important as opening eye hospitals. There

should be rehabilitation center to guide the parents and blind person

in a very

friendly environment. Major eye hospitals should have rehab centres to

guide such cases and provide alternate ways to pursue their

profession.

I am thankful to all institutions who recognized my work.This

recognition gives more vigor to do more.I am an optimist and I know

new technologies and

advancement of medical science will bring new opportunities for blind

people to live as normal life as far possible.This means I have to

keep my eyes and

ears open to learn more and pass on to others.I am thankful to

empowering the differetly abled persons Forum to gave me an

opportunity to share with all

of learned audience. Please help

propogate this message reach the needy.

shazia hasan

e-mail: shaziarizvi@gmail.com

The Game Changer’s Protocol

The Game Changer’s Protocol

my vision my dream is to empower the differently abled person of my lovely country. I started my journey of empowerment from 2001 by introducing jaws based computer training to the visually impaired person at idarieu school. Since then I have trained many visually impaired person. most of my students are now independently working in banks, companies, kesc and pizza hut etc. The modern day technology is a boon for reducing the limitations of differently abled persons. Unfortunately many in the less developed countries like Pakistan are not aware of these developments and where they are aware, these technolgies are not within their reach. I have gathered my thoughts regarding special children and how to make their life's easier in our country, and how to make use of these technologies with out given limitations. special children need special care. special education means to provide friendly environment, accessible setting and friendly approach. For differently abled children it is difficult to make a standard education plan and administer them uniformly. Each special child needs to be carefully assessed for his/her limitations and an individual educational plan documented. These individual plans have to be jointly developed by interacting with the child by the class teacher, parents, resource teacher school principal or any psychologist or therapist if required. the purpose of education is to produce healthy, gentle, knowledgeable, helpful, kind and enthusiastic citizen. Unfortunately our present system mostly produces pity and help seeking, complexed individuals full of frustration and lacking initiative and positive thinking. a teacher is like a candle which beam and lightens the small candles. a teacher not only transfer his / her knowledge to students also reflect his / her character / behaviour towards the students. there are many teachers in children's' life. parents, school teachers, siblings, friends, society and media. there are 2 main types of learning, deliberate learning and incidental learning. both happen in a class room as well. incidental learning starts when a child born. there are different kinds of incidental learning. observational learning. accidental learning. exploring learning. a child weather normal or challenged is a child first. have same curiosity level to learning and exploring the world. according to Dr. Montisorri a child is a scientist and the world is a place for him to explore. in the case of challenged child there are many limitations in our country Pakistan. most of the times these children are isolated in a restricted environment. there are some major problems. 1. there is no concept of parents support centre. when parents hear that their child is challenged they suffer from seven emotional phases e.g. 1. shock. feeling like the doctor is telling false. 2. denial like this is normal! I also have large eyes, or I often ignore the sounds around me. 3. depression. feeling unhappy, hiding the child from public, taking no care of family chores. 4. aggression, this is a most critical stage in which parents often blame the child, their selves and often become aggressive. 5. chronic depression. don't eat, can't sleep, unable to provide proper medical care to the child, unable to justify with all children. 6. bargaining. in this stage parents accept that the child is challenged but they believe that our child is challenged, now God will do anything for him. our responsibility is just to provide him / her food and dress. 7. acceptance. in this stage parents start thinking about the child and how to start his / her education. if the above problems are not treated they live longer, sometimes always. due to lack of emotional support challenged children and their families suffer. in our Country. 2. learning problems. although the learning process start from the birth. if the child is visually impaired then what could be his feelings. most of the children confront with emotional and psychological issues. the emotionally disturbed parents often discourage the children to explore the world and learn. that is why the sensorial learning and motor learning become slow. usually there is a big communicational gap between these children and their parents. that is why these children also confront with behavioural issues. the third problem in our Country is educational system for challenged children. these children not only need curriculum education. also they need emotional support, physical training, mobility training, rehabilitation training. their parents also need guidance. only a qualified and honest teacher can handle such issues. in many countries challenged children are receiving quality education with mainstream. although this is a better approach but not established in our country, the reason is lack of awareness. most of the people are totally unaware regarding challenged people, their needs, their feelings, although we all have read about Helen keler but sadly we have never thought about the noble society which produce such a role model. we have separate charity based schools for challenged children. that is why these children are isolated in a typical environment. where children from different backgrounds are gathered in a same platform. if we do some effort surely we can bring a solution. there should be kind hearted and committed teachers to deal with the challenged children with emotional / behaviour problems. the fourth problem is social / communicational gap between challenged person and mainstream. in our lovely society we rarely think about making public places accessible for challenged person. challenged children also wish to go parks and to play with their siblings equally. they are just bound in special schools and homes. they need acceptance not only from their parents also from society. let us brake these barriers. according to my view if we want we can easily make the life's of challenged children easier and independent in our country. * proper educational system for challenged children parents should provide them chance to do little chores like shopping, cooking. * all teachers should receive trainings before entering the class. * there should be a board of special education who monitor the progress of all special schools and should have right to cancel the license. * parents support centre. * all ophthalmologists and other doctors should be aware from parents support centres. if they meet with a challenged child they must refer them there to get proper emotional support, and to learn how to brought up challenged children. * teachers support centre. * to trained the kind hearted people to become a mentor of challenged children. * allow challenged children to often attend regular schools as a guest. so it could be benefit for challenged children and their regular friends. * media should play active role. * all special schools should also teach art of daily living to these children. all above is possible if all decision makers like school managements, media personnel, education ministers, board of education, and parents sit together and design a resolution. as technology has open the doors of success for everyone including challenged person. this is a right time to pay heat towards such issues. Although This is my dire dream to empower the challenged person of Pakistan. make their lifes easier and produce successful, independent future heros from Pakistan. I have started my journey of empowerment from 2001. I understand that this is a difficult task. but I am convinced that Like SIUT, LRBT, TCF and aman foundation if a person is dedcated to achief he can achieve anything. our Country is full of kind hearted people. the first step is to create awareness. project name: empowering the differently abled people. project description: raising awareness regarding visually impaired person and their needs, how to communicate with visually impaired person, how to improve their integration with mainstream, how to create a barriar free society for visually impaired person. our vision Rarely any human being is blessed with every ability. Some have deficiency in ability to paint or sing, or dance or swim. Some have behavioral issues, some can not see, some can not hear and some can not speak. We consider every person as equally important equal citizen deserving equal opportunities to survive benefit from natural and social facilities. our mission to spread awareness regarding visually impaired people in our society. to make people understand their needs and welcome them in mainstream. As a first step we will design some awareness raising programs which could be given in selected schools, hospitals, organisations and media. for further information visit www.facebook.com/empowering.tdp or email me at shaziarizvi@gmail.com

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spread the word please!

sharing time with special children is more important then donating a large amount of cash! these children need your attention those who are willing to spent their time with visually impaired children kindly send an email at shaziarizvi@gmail.com