It was at the tender age of six that I lost my vision. And it took four years, until I was ten, for my body and brain to work together and truly understand the changes in my life. These were significant changes to the way I lived and the way I learned.

An early blessing was that I never lost my childhood optimism and was not depressed by my blindness. But those were challenging years. I felt fragile – I lacked a network of experienced blind or visually impaired people who could share their experiences with me.

Finding a community through sports

It was only in 2006 that I heard of an adaptive sport for the blind – blind cricket. I got involved in it and met many inspirational people – other youth who, like me, were visually impaired. Their resilience and bravery served as my motivation.

I was not going to allow my disability to become a setback in my life’s journey. Through blind cricket, I created a network, which helped me grow personally and professionally. And I finally got access to a secondary education and a university career.

Difficulties in school to continue learning

Reflecting on my education, I believe that the education system in my country lacked energy. There were not enough actors in positions of power to create a change for disabled persons. In other words, no one wanted to change the system to accommodate the needs of the disabled.

Blind children, including myself, were regarded as slow learners or intellectually impaired. We were treated differently in school. Our education and the work that we produced were not taken seriously. Curriculum materials were converted into audio files, but no further explanation was provided or attention given to us.

Some of us were left to our own devices. In mainstream schools, teachers were not trained in braille and did not know how to teach with braille. All around support, and often even support from family, was lacking.

Finding my voice to advocate for education for children with disabilities

My engagement with blind cricket and finding people whose experiences I could relate to allowed me to overcome these challenges. This also motivated me to become an advocate for the right to education of disabled persons.

In the beginning, I didn’t even know how I was to deal with my disability. I did not know the right terms to use. I allowed myself to be mistreated. One of the most unexpected places I faced discrimination was in my own home.

But I believe such discrimination comes from being misinformed. So now I advocate to provide better information about the experiences of children and persons with disabilities and to ensure that children with disabilities have access to quality education like all other children.

I participated in round table discussions with the Ministry of Education in Guyana on reforming school curricula to serve all children, including children with disabilities. I also volunteered with the National Commission on Disability to spread awareness about the rights of persons with disabilities in the Guyana Disability Act 2010. 

I was the President of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Young Voices Georgetown chapter. We focused on delivering projects to make our city and country a more inclusive place. We met with government officials to discuss issues affecting children and persons with disabilities and followed up until changes in policy were affected.

More advocacy through radio

Since 2011, I work as a presenter and producer of a radio show that airs on Sundays and is called ‘Reach Out and Touch’. It provides information about ongoing national, regional and global affairs to persons with disability through interviews and information sharing. This is an effective advocacy platform to spread awareness among the disability community.

And as a youth advocate for GPE, I participate in social media and other online campaigns to raise my voice for inclusive education so that global policies around education take account of and properly deliver the right to education of all children with disabilities.

My advocacy is spurred by one question: when millions of children with disabilities are being marginalized and are not able to access quality education, can we afford to stand by and watch?

We need to act now so that no children with disabilities are denied education, and therefore, denied the right to explore and fulfill their potential.