PRESS RELEASE - In observance of October as Sight Month, the Lions of Castries, held an educational session with a Grade six class of the Gordon and Walcott Memorial School. The session was conducted by Ms Yasmin Housen a totally blind young lady.
Ms Housen was born blind and gave the students an insight into her life as a blind student. She started her early education at a school for the Blind in Trinidad and Tobago and at the age of ten returned to Saint Lucia where she continued at the Saint Lucia Blind Welfare Association.
She was later integrated into the regular school system and moved onto Senior Secondary, then Secondary School and was successful at the Caribbean Examination Council Examinations, which she wrote in Braille.
She has been employed as a Receptionist/Telephone Operator at the now CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, for the past seventeen years.
Ms Housen highlighted the need for the students to appreciate their sight and to be kind to persons with disabilities. She noted that despite her challenge she has a social life.
The students were fascinated with the game of dominoes, Braille machine, and ruler which she shared with them. They were given an opportunity to see and feel the Braille sheets and a talking calculator.
They questioned her on a variety of areas including her eating, her dressing and application of make-up, her ability to detect and reason with money and her work as a receptionist.
The session was an informative and interesting one for the students who not only learnt to appreciate their sight, also understood the need to appreciate blind persons.