“I dream of studying law at the university, so I can become a lawyer, achieve greater social justice and defend the rights of blind people,” said Dalia Ayman Hajjaj (11 years old) expressing her hopes for the future. Hajjaj, who had lost her sight at an early age, but never her passion for life, has participated at the recently held event “From a Seeing Child to a Blind Child” – an initiative organized by the AMQF Child Center in Gaza on April 3, 2017.
35 children attended the event, which was held within the framework of a continuing cooperation between CCG and Al-Noor Rehabilitation Center for the Visually Impaired. The initiative aimed to achieve greater integration for visually impaired children, facilitate their interaction and participation within society, and help them discover and express themselves.
In a spirit of initiative and active community participation, CCG children participated at the event by reading stories to the visually impaired children. About this experience, Yafa Rashid (12 years old) said, “I was very happy because I felt the children had a passion for reading… it was very clear through their interaction with me after I had finished telling the story”. She added, “This is my first participation at an initiative with visually impaired children. I was introduced to their world”.
Also commenting on the event, Omar Kloub, a class teacher at the Al-Noor Center, noted, “Such initiatives greatly help bring students out of their usual school environment and into different zones. They add to the students’ experiences and empower them psychologically, thus helping them adapt to unfamiliar contexts and share their experiences, as well as their peers’ and friends’, with their new surroundings.”
In addition to storytelling, the event featured activities by Al-Hakawati, story reading in the braille alphabet and rhythmic drama, which revolves around rhythm-based movement. Throughout these activities, children showed great interaction and participation.