Young people with special needs have taken part in an exhibition opened Sunday in Abo Remmaneh Cultural Center in Damascus on the occasion of the International Day of People with Disability.
The week-long exhibition included handcrafts made by 30 young persons from the ‘al-Raja’a’ Association for people with special needs plus 18 photographs taken by 8 young persons from the ‘Golden Camera Club’.
Amani Zakkar, a young lady with special needs, exhibited various kinds of handcrafts, including embroidery, pottery, straw and oil painting. She said that she is trying to develop her talent through following up training courses in Adham Ismael Institute for Plastic Arts in Damascus.
Disability does not mean despair for the participants in the exhibition. It is a challenge for them to achieve success and make creativity.
The Artist Do’aa al-Bastati, who had lost her hand, developed her drawing skills with her feet and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts last year. She displayed manual works on pumpkins.
A twin blind girls attracted the visitors when one of them drew a painting with Braille technique, while the other one sang a collection of old songs (Tarabi songs).
The visitors, also, expressed admiration over photographs of the old city of Damascus taken by a young man with special needs, Abdul Rahman Helwani, who is seeking to shoot a film on Syria.
Several activities had been held over the past 3 days in Damascus to mark the International Day of People with Disability to promote awareness and mobilize support for critical issues relating to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in society and development.
The lack of data and information on disability and the situation of persons with disabilities at the national level contribute to the invisibility of persons with disabilities in official statistics. This presents a major obstacle to achieving development planning and implementation that is inclusive of persons with disabilities, according to the United Nations recent statement.
Basma Qaddour