To mark “World White Cane Day”, the “Al-Hadi Institution for Hearing and Visual Impairment and Language and Communication Disorders” organized a public activity to raise awareness of the rights of people with visual impairment on the Ain Al-Mreisseh - Manara corniche. It covered the stages of a blind child's life from early childhood through to the university stage, and his inclusion in the labour market and in social life, with the participation of the institution's students, who spoke about their own experience relying on a variety of sensory means.
The activity included a presentation of the methods of learning and rehabilitation specific to the blind, beginning with the stage of sensory education, through reading and printing Braille, and on to training them in the skills of independence in daily life, the technique of movement and mobility, and how to use the white cane.
The activity was attended by the representative of the president of the municipal council of the municipality of Beirut Jamal Itani, Yosra Sidani; the deputy president of Ghobeiry municipality Ahmad Al-Khansa; the official in charge of the health and social work section at Ghobeiry municipality Youssef Al-Khalil; the representative of Burj Al-Barajneh municipality Zuhair Hatoum; teaching bodies from various schools in the different Lebanese regions; and students from several universities.
Atwi
After the national anthem and the Al-Hadi anthem, the principal of Al-Nour School for the Blind Fatima Atwi delivered a speech in which she spoke about “the institution's role in taking charge of a broad segment of the blind and in removing the difficulties they face, bringing them to the shore of social life, inclusion and independence”.
Sidani
For her part, Sidani held that “disability is nothing but a physical difference, and it does not mean an inability to give and to excel”, stressing “the necessity of people with disabilities obtaining their rights to education and work, and of adapting the environment around them in accordance with their capacities and their needs”.
She touched on “the future project announced by the president of the municipal council of Beirut, the engineer Jamal Itani, concerning the project of a city of Beirut friendly to people with special needs, and his considering it a goal we keep before our eyes and will work to carry out”. She said: “The Beirut municipality's project includes re-studying the conditions attached to buildings and roads and developing them in a way that suits the facilitation of accessibility for people with special needs, by providing a safe environment free of obstacles - including public spaces, pavements, roads and public gardens - and launching awareness campaigns for those who do not have these needs, on cooperating with the other person and helping him.”
