Abu Dhabi-Gaza-Ma’an- Ten-year-old Palestinian girl Rahaf emerges from her room in the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi in the morning, walking cautiously towards the yard where her peers, children like her, play. They came to the Emirati capital from Gaza after being injured in the war that has been raging there for months, to receive treatment for their wounds here and recover safely away from its horrors.

With the exception of sight, Rahaf conjures up in her mind and senses the mental map that her Emirati teacher, Laila Al-Shukaili, repeatedly trained her on, as she places a gentle hand on her shoulder and leads her with her calm, motherly voice through the corridors, then down the stairs, then towards the open central courtyard, where she meets new friends who also came from Gaza. She gradually got to know them after she began to accept the fact that she had become blind.

It happened when Rahaf woke up a few months ago in a hospital bed crowded with injured people in Gaza, only to realize that pe
ople had helped her after her family’s home had been bombed and destroyed. She tried to look around to see who the voices around her were, only to discover that she had lost her sight, her mother, her father, and her home in the bombing.

The Emirati hospital in Gaza was quick to nominate her to be on the list of the next batch of wounded children and cancer patients who will be evacuated by air from the Egyptian city of Arish after crossing the Rafah crossing to the UAE, before the Palestinian side is destroyed, as part of the initiative of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, to treat 1,000 wounded children from Gaza and 1,000 cancer patients there and receive them in the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi with their companions to receive the urgent and urgent medical care they need.

Rahaf proved early on her high intelligence and quick learning, after her teacher Laila began reminding her of the letters and numbers by using clay to form them with her hands from her memory. She
then moved on to training her through construction games and focusing on the Braille language with Arabic and English letters and numbers to prepare her for the stage of reading school books and other things in Braille.

This record-breaking progress restored Rahaf’s self-confidence, so she decided to participate in a children’s play that was organized in the Emirates Humanitarian City in cooperation with the Family Care Foundation, and she took on the role of a sponsor after memorizing the text that she recited in front of the audience of the play.

‘My ambition is to become a teacher and achieve more in the future. The awards and honors I have received encourage me to continue developing my abilities and excel in my studies,’ says Rahaf.

Teacher Lily says happily that the next stage with Rahaf is to teach her to type in Real on a special Perkins typewriter, which qualifies the little girl Rahaf to write her thoughts and express herself, her ideas and her creativity on paper.

When asked about her and Rahaf
forming an inspiring duo, similar to the teacher Anne Sullivan, who more than 150 years ago in the United States of America trained the blind child Helen Keller to read and learn Braille until she became a brilliant writer, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a social activist who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and an inspiring success story for people of determination, the blind, and school students across America and the world, the teacher Laila avoids the question with great modesty, and speaks passionately about new books that were specially designed to be printed in Braille to enable Rahaf and her colleagues, the blind students who came from Gaza to the Emirates Humanitarian City, to integrate with their peers in regular school classes and regain a life closer to normal.

Emirati teacher Laila Al Shakili, who graduated with a major in mathematics and volunteered and trained for a year and a half to teach the blind Braille language for numbers and letters at the Zayed Higher
Organization for People of Determination in Abu Dhabi, and recently designed two books for numbers and letters in Braille, confirms that the blind focus their other senses and develop their abilities quickly if they are provided with training, rehabilitation, care, attention, motivation and celebration of achievements.

Reminding herself of the play ‘The Miracle Worker’ written by blind American author Helen Keller, which has become a staple in school curricula, Laila says: ‘Anyone who has ambition will achieve it. I am confident in the abilities of Rahaf and all our students who turn challenges into opportunities. We are with them every step of the way until they become independent, self-confident and self-reliant.’

The various entities and institutions in the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi are working to unify efforts, programmes and initiatives to empower children received by the UAE from the Gaza Strip, in order to provide them with all forms of moral support and enable them in the journey of he
aling, recovery and resuming their lives.

Source: Maan News Agency