eyes on the future
Feb 2023
Lara (Alias) is a 12-year-old student attending BLN (Basic Literacy and Numeracy) classes at “Association Nabad for Development” in Ghazze (Bekaa), where she lives in an informal tent settlement with her parents and siblings.
Lara was born with a severe visual impairment. Her disability made it very challenging to participate in class, and complete academic activities independently. Thanks to the capacity building trainings of the teachers, her teacher was able to identification and refer her case, and a consultation appointment with an ophthalmologist was later scheduled as part of the screening process to better support Lara. The doctor was surprised that Lara had not expressed any challenges earlier, given that she was found to be living with profound visual impairment.
Lara picked out the frames for her new corrective eyeglasses, and significant improvement quickly followed. “She’s always wearing her eyeglasses and she is very happy” says Lara’s mother.
“Lara was a very shy person, she couldn’t even express her feelings; she rarely answered questions in class, probably because of her sight problems”, said her teacher, Sara. The priority of the teacher was to encourage Lara to be more engaged in the classroom activities and help her express her feelings and emotions. “During the cycle, I realized that she enjoys drawing and painting, so at the end of each lesson I always asked the students to draw. Lara’s drawings were really nice, and once she told me: “when I grow up, I want to be an artist”.
During the last months, Lara showed great progress, at school and at home. “My daughter is an extremely shy girl, but during these months I saw a different person; now she can solve math problems, read, and see clearly during the class”” added Lara’s mother. “I am very happy for this change, we really appreciate your work; I know how important education is and I want my children to learn, maybe they will have a better future than ours”.
”Back to the Future IV” is implemented by AVSI Middle East, and Terre des hommes Italy in Lebanon, and Funded by EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid.
