The Insight’s Eyes

The blind are guided by God’s light, a light that grants them spiritual insight to compensate them for the loss of the gift of eye sight. It is the light that distinguishes the blind and makes them smarter than others, as many talented blind people gave the world  the sweetest  poetry and the most beautiful melodies, in addition to unforgettable literary and artistic masterpieces

People with sight disability needed others to read or write for them and waited a long time for Louise Braille, the world inventor,  to produce a tool that helps them write and read. This great invention enabled many of them to break the darkness around their hearts and minds, so they don’t need others anymore. 

Among most renowned blind Arab personalities, who challenged their blindness and left remarkable imprints in ancient and contemporary history, were great poet Bashar bin Burd, Abbasid-era philosopher poet  Abu al-Alaa al- Ma’arri, novelist Taha Hussein and musicians Sayed Makkawi and Ammar al-Share’i.

Highlighting the situation of the blind in Syria, Syria Times visited the headquarters of the Blind Association in Lattakia and met its Chairman, Mr. Rami Qudsi who talked about the association’s activities which aim to make the lives of the blind easier.
Qudsi said that the association was established in 1995 as a branch of the Blind Welfare Society in Damascus. The then twelve- member association was declared in 2009 as an independent body.”

Since then, Qudsi added, the association has striven to achieve its main objective which is to enhance the educational, social and mobility skills of those with visual vulnerability.

“The association carries out several activities in the service of its members who are currently 160. Such activities include holding training courses on computer skills, on playing various musical instruments, on singing and on writing and reading in Braille way,” Qudsi stressed, pointing out that the association has a huge audio library containing 175 thousand books.

“We also help qualified blind people have jobs in different  government institutions,” he stressed.

In addition, he said, the association holds advanced courses on walking and movement by the use of the white cane.

According to him, children are also accorded special attention, as the association had purchased a kindergarten to teach and help blind children.

Talking about the association’s main financial resources, Mr. Qudsi stressed: “The association carries out several activities to support its financial resources, including printing calendars to be sold to different government offices and holding a number of concerts.” Many almsgivers also offer generous donations to help members of the association carry out their humanitarian activities. These subsidies are distributed to poor families of the blind.”

“Keeping this association a success and achieving its hoped-for goals require exerting all possible efforts and providing material and moral support by other institutions so as to serve this category of society and to help alleviate the suffering, which may be caused to the blind’s families as a result of their special need,” Qudsi concluded.

Amal Farhat