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Samira’s journey.
“My first meeting was the most hopeless day in my life. All my dreams were shattered because I had to use a cane. I never imagined that someday I would use one of those sticks to walk around,” says Guide Dogs NSW/ACT Client, Samira.
19-year-old Samira has glaucoma, an eye condition where the optic nerve that sends visual information from your eye to your brain, is damaged. When she came to Australia with only the English she learned from watching YouTube, she wasn’t expecting to be met with the almost immediate support she received from Guide Dogs.
Samira left her home country of Afghanistan around four years ago to immigrate to Australia. She spent three years living in India with her uncle’s friend’s family before the United Nations brought her to Australia as a refugee.
After a week of living in Australia, Samira was put in touch with Guide Dogs and shortly after that, she received her first Orientation and Mobility (O&M) session with O&M Specialist, Ying Wah Wan. “Before that time, I had never held a cane,” said Samira. “When I held the cane, it was a strange feeling. I don’t know how to explain it. I couldn’t hold back my tears.” Samira had to excuse herself to her room and told Ying Wah Wan that she would be back in a few minutes. Holding a cane in her hand for the first time was confronting because it meant she had to accept her current situation and she felt helpless. Before her O&M training, Samira couldn’t leave the house, not just in Australia, but in India as well.
Her auntie was the one to comfort her and tell her to be strong, and Ying Wah showed her that using a cane means breaking the barriers to access and providing her with more opportunities. With just a few months of O&M training, Samira could go grocery shopping and attend her English classes at TAFE by herself. She now lives on her own and is becoming more independent with each session. “I can attend my English classes without any help. Using a cane doesn’t mean I’m giving up my dream of being able to see. It motivates me to work harder than before,” says Samira.
Samira has adopted the same attitude of perseverance towards her Assistive Technology training sessions with Assistive Technology Specialist, Abby. She’s learning how to use the “VoiceOver” and “Talkback” features on her phone, and recently started using a screen reader on her laptop. “If I practice, it will become easy and after a while, I’ll get used to it,” says Samira.
Coming to Australia and learning new skills has shifted Samira’s perspective about what kind of life she wants to pursue. “Before I came to Australia, I thought I had to have a very good job and good income that can help others”, she says. However, now that she’s met lovely people who support her, she feels like all she needs to aspire to be is a “kind and good person. It’s about who you are, not what you do. I’m going to find subjects that I’m interested in and a job that I love so I can help people.”
Samira has already come so far with her O&M training and Assistive Technology sessions, and is determined to achieve her goals of studying and pursuing a career she loves.
