Pleasant viewers, welcome to Good People, Good Works.
According to World Health Organization statistics, cataracts are the leading
cause of blindness in the world, and every five seconds someone loses his or her
vision due to this illness or other reasons.
Globally approximately
285-million people are visually impaired, including 39.8 million who are totally
blind.
http://www.emro.who.int/cpb/facts.htmOn today's program we'll
visit the Alalayiha School for the Blind in Beit Jala, Palestine, which provides
special education enabling the visually impaired and blind to smoothly integrate
into the public education system and develop their talents.
Alalayiha is
the first and the oldest school of its kind in the Arab world. Let us now hear
more about the school's background from its director, Mr. Mesbah Hijazi.
http://www.emro.who.int/cpb/facts.htm Mr. Mesbah Hijazi(m): This organization is a
social-humanitarian institution providing academic and rehabilitative services
for blind students or children from the age of six and up to 16 years. It was
founded in 1938 in the city of Hebron. And later moved to Ramallah, to
Bethlehem, then to Beit Jala where we are now.
The students start here
from six years old, from the first grade. They graduate after the ninth grade,
so we rehabilitate these students in this period from six years (of age) to 16
to integrate them into their usual school, in the regular school. So they
continue in their secondary school in the usual school, with the other usual
students, and their university studies also continue as the others.