Dawood despite odds is very optimistic, wants to do his PhD
Staff Report
Muhammad Dawood is doing computer course from Hasna Welfare Centre, Rawalpindi. Dawood is partially blind young man. He belongs to Lahore and is doing masters in Special Education. As a success story a detailed interview was conducted to know about his personal life, education and future plans.
Asslam-O-Alaikum
Q: How are you Mr Dawood?
A: Alhamdulillah I am fine.
Q: Dawood! Tell me about your family background?
A: I belong to Lahore. My father owned a small business. He died in 2016. We are five siblings. A portion of my house is rented out to meet the expenses.
Q: Tell me about your education?
A: I attended the school at my neighborhood up to eight class. Then I faced the problem of my eyesight and I enrolled in a special education school situated at Kareem Park, Lahore. From there I learned the computer and braille language. After that I did intermediate form Government College, Lahore. After doing intermediate I took admission in B.S Islamiat but on the advice of some friends I got admission in B.S special education. Now this is my fifth semester and I am doing specialization in visually impaired.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: After BS, I want to do my MPhil and after that I want to complete my PhD in special education. Then I want to adopt teaching profession as my career.
Q: Have you ever been idealize someone? And what do you do in your free time?
A: Yes, I have idealized many people. I am also working with three or four foundations. One of our website is called blind help project (BHP). The chairman of the project is from Karachi. He is also a 17 year old boy. We started this project together with friends and Masha Allah has made a lot of progress. The number one website in the world is Jaws Freedom of Scientist. Next one is BHP. The website is popular and it is banned in India. This site is for the assistance of visually impaired understudies. It is related to technology and contains all kinds of software.
Q: Provide the link of this website so that others can get help?
A: Its www.bhp.net and one can search it very easily.
Q: What message do you want to give to the blinds and other people? Because such people are stigmatize and demoralized. What message do you want to give to the society?
A: Approximately, five percent Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) go to school and 95% of parents of PWDs do not know what to do with such children. If a baby born with a disability, he or she has been locked in a room and is not allowed to come infront of any outsider. In other words the newborn becomes a burden to the family. When such a child is not educated, his or her skills will not be polished; he will not be able to stand at his own. The solution is like census and polio campaign, there should be campaign about disability and its awareness. As government has record of disabled children therefore, all the disabled children be compelled to register themselves in special or non-special schools. Beside normal education they should be imparted with skills and vocational trainings.
Q: What message do you want to give to the special persons?
A: The message I want to give to our PWDs friends is this to polish their abilities. If they do a an educational or vocational course from any institute (private or government), please never stay at their homes irrespective of all odds. There are many organizations working for their rights and awareness. They should continue their studies and should enhance their professional skills.
Q: How was your experience at Hasna Welfare?
A: My stay and experience at Hasna Welfare was very good and I would not forget it in the times to come. I have seen many organizations, but not as many as they do. The class discipline here was well organized and was very professional. I would request to the people to come here and do a course according to their disability criteria.