<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Thank you for sharing your experience as it teaches many of us out here interested in learning about programs and resources available to persons with disabilities in other countries. <br><br>it starts with one...<div><br></div></div><div><br>On Mar 9, 2014, at 3:29 PM, "Mostafa" <<a href="mailto:mostafa.almahdy@gmail.com">mostafa.almahdy@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<div>Greetings.</div>
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<div>Some of you may have heard about my story regarding me teaching a blind kid
at a private school, and the fact that she was dragged with children who
developed severe mental disabilities.</div>
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<div>I was sacked because I stood by the side of the mother, whilst she wanted
to move her daughter from this abnormal environment.</div>
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<div> The story continues that the parents called me, and they
unfeignedly thanked me for speaking out.</div>
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<div>I told them that this was my duty to do what I have done.</div>
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<div>They decided to move the girl from that school, and we are now touring
different schools seeking for the best.</div>
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<div>I assume that most of you have no specific knowledge about the educational
situations for the blind in Egypt.</div>
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<div>Well in this post, I am willing to give you some impression about what is
it like for blind people here.</div>
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<div>Unfortunately, it is not so good.</div>
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<div>There are many schools for the blind here in Egypt, they are funded by the
public education ministry and of course, that makes it even worse.</div>
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<div>There is only a one school for blind girls, it is called the light and hope
school for blind girls, it is associated with the local light and hope
foundation for the blind, and it is not far from where I live.</div>
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<div>I visited the school twice, it is better than nothing but still, it is not
the best in my humble opinion.</div>
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<div>In the public education system, blind students are not accepted in any
regular schools rather than the ones made for them.</div>
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<div>This is a striking fact, and I am quite sure about it.</div>
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<div>Anyway, that is regarding the mainstream peer.</div>
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<div>What is now left is the public education sector.</div>
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<div>It is not better to be quite fair.</div>
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<div>Blind students are classified as mentally disabled, and they are forcefully
dragged with severe mental disabilities.</div>
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<div>This is something I have experienced myself.</div>
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<div>This is why I was asked to leave the school I worked for, because I basicly
refused to stay silent.</div>
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<div>I did not comply to the preposterous regulations of the school, and I
insisted to move the blind kid from the classroom that was filled with severe
mental disabilities. </div>
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<div>However, after I left the school my fiance substituted me, she taught her
for the past week, and then she chose to leave.</div>
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<div>She was offended because the principal called her a babysitter.</div>
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<div>That was enormously contemptuous to her.</div>
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<div>I could not blame her for the decision she made, she had the right to
express her intense disapproval to this explicit defamation.</div>
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<div>Thereupon, we instantly notified the mother about the lack of Braille
tutors at the school from now on.</div>
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<div>Consequently, she decided not to send her daughter to the school, because
it is insignificant right now.</div>
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<div>This was a sequential update to my story with the school, and an
introduction to the main subject of this post.</div>
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<div>Here in Egypt, we desperately demand to redefine the concept of
cecity.</div>
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<div>According to domestic social standards, cecity has inaccurately been
classified with mental disabilities.</div>
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<div>Blind people are incorrectly treated as handicapped which is of course, a
total deficiency of the proper knowledge and vocational training on that
regard.</div>
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<div>Blind people are not physically handicapped, that is a prejudicial disposal
to be perfectly fair.</div>
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<div>Well some of them are for certain, but that has nothing to do with their
blindness.</div>
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<div>That is relevant to other physical or mental problems.</div>
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<div> Here in Egypt we constantly talk about the gains of the
revolution, but we frankly have not implemented any of the repeatedly chanted
slogans.</div>
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<div>We lack of implementing the social justice, which its elementary factors
advocates for recognizing blind people as just unremarkable members of the
society.</div>
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<div>Our backwardness escalates in radically discriminating against a particular
class of people, segmenting and gravely isolating them.</div>
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<div>Blind people in Egypt ought to speak up for themselves, because noone will
do that on their behalf.</div>
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<div>Our lives here are overwhelmingly occupied with numerous challenges.</div>
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<div>I am seeking for total social equality with others, that is when I will
only feel contented.</div>
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<div>The battle with the predetermined temperament is not over yet, it still has
multiple phases to come.</div>
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<div>Knowledge is a shoreless ocean.</div>
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<div>Thank you for reading, and have a pleasant time.</div>
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